Delivered by Robe's South African distributor DWR, the new Robe moving lights - have replaced all C&S's previous mid range units from another manufacturer!

The first major gig for the new kit was "Cool Britannia", a music & football festival staged at Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), celebrating the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The venue - a concept by Global Icons - provided a space for football fans and music lovers to enjoy the matches live on big screens, followed, with performances onstage throughout the day, culminating in a headline act after the last match of the evening. The dynamic line up included Fatboy Slim, Estelle, Flash Republic, Cuba Libre, Flat Stanley, Euphonik and many others, attracting crowds up to its 5000 capacity.

C&S's new Robe units were the main fixtures lighting the stage inside Cool Britannia's Global Arena. The whole idea started 10 years ago primarily as a party and entertainment space for UK supporters - but has grown to include an international following amongst the travelling football supporter community.

The lighting design by Alan Muller, appointed technical advisor to Global Icons, entailed the installation of over 300 metres of trussing in the roof of the CTICC to attain the correct lighting positions.

With a wide selection of live artists and DJs artists appearing represented all types of musical genre and the venue operating up to 18 hours a day, the rig needed to be highly flexible, a requirement made infinitely easier using the new Robe's.

The front truss featured 6 x ColorWash 700E ATs used for general stage washes, and there were 4 'finger' trusses, angled and slightly offstage, each of which had 4 ColorSpot 700E ATs. There were another 4 ColorSpots on top of the back truss and 6 more ColorWash 700E ATs onstage for low level side lighting.

Five Robe LEDForce 18s were also deployed on each finger truss section - used for strong medium level cross stage washing and effects, with another 7 used as key lights on the front truss, a task they performed extremely efficiently. Clark thinks the pastel colours - often a problem area for LED fixtures - are "Amazing".

The LEDForce 18 contains 18 x 3in1 RGB LEDs or 18 x 3IN1 RGBW LED multichips and offers homogenized color mixing and a very bright 25 degree beam.

In the foyer another 20 LEDForce 18s illuminated the concrete pillars. These were set on a slow chase each day to match the flag colours of the completing teams. A further 6 lit the trees and foliage.

Back in the Global Arena, AV Alliance's Robe ColorWash 575AT Zooms were used for house lighting and audience effects, along with other LED fixtures, PAR 64s and 56s.

Additional stage lighting included PAR 64s, strobes, blinders and MultiPARs.

So why did Clarke choose Robe? "It's all about relationships for me" he states, by which he means the relationship between himself, Duncan Riley from DWR, Robe's Sales director Harry von den Stemmen and MD Josef Valchar.

He visited the Robe booth at Prolight+Sound in March, and that's when the seeds of the deal started to germinate.

"Duncan really went the extra mile to ensure I had the lights guaranteed to arrive on time, even before I had the gig confirmed" he explains "and the overall support from DWR has been incredible - for them this is the most important factor", adding that the reliability and great value of Robe also helped make the decision.

The Cool Britannia stage lighting was controlled via an Avolites Tiger Touch console running ArtNet, with a Pearl Expert doing the house and audience lighting. Three lighting operators rotated between the shows - Henning de Villiers, Darion Garrison and Jonathan Green.

"My team love the gobo selection on the Robe's, the brightness and the easily navigable menu system. They are also light and easy to lift and handle, and overall have been absolutely fantastic" concludes Clark.