Robe for Offer Nissim at Pride Tel Aviv

Elad Cohen is a lighting designer based in Tel Aviv, Israel who has a huge zest for music, lights, and creative activities. Since the early days of his career as a club lighting operator, he has always been a big user and fan of Robe moving lights, and when one of his regular clients – renowned DJ Offer Nissim – recently headlined the Tel Aviv Pride Festival, he specified a large Robe rig including MegaPointes, Spiiders and ESPRITES.

The festival, which celebrated all aspects of LGBTQ culture and life, was staged in Ganei Yehoshua Park in north Tel Aviv, and was the culmination of two days of one of the biggest events of the year in Israel in one of the most popular Gay Capitals of the world.

“We wanted to make a massive impact with the show and the whole performance,” explained Elad.

The 72-metre-wide stage and set which featured substantial LED surfaces was designed by a creative team comprising the Rubi & Gal Studio and art director Shimon Shirazi for producers Vivo, and built by Stage Design, while the technical production – lighting and sound – was supplied by Argaman System and video by Clean LED, and 470 metres of neon flex from LED Art.

Elad explained that the art of lighting electronic music well and properly is to have multiple layers of visuality that can be revealed / concealed and that will all work harmoniously together to produce spectacular results and all the energy needed to support the artists and music. Critical to the exercise is getting the excitement and mood reaching all the way from the front-of-stage mosh pit to the periphery of the arena and to those enjoying from further away.

“MegaPointes are a go-to building block for me,” he enthused, saying that the multi-functional fixture’s versatility and brightness make it ideal for this task. Like any genre of electronic music, speed is a lightshow must, so MegaPointes have always been spec’d as lightning quick movers!

Fourteen of the 56 x MegaPointes were located behind the set LED screens for blow-through effects, with the rest dotted around the stage floor and used for the spectacular bursting gobo and laser-like beam looks that defined Nissim’s set and helped make it a show-stopping night for all.

The 24 x ESPRITES were rigged along the top at the back of the set structure, a great position for shooting down onto the stage and sweeping out across the audience area.

Elad also loves the power, gobos, optics and speed of these and their ability to combine “seamlessly” with the MegaPointes.

“These two fixtures have the same movement, style and feel,” he says with a massive smile bestowing the lights with almost human-like characteristics, “and the colours match beautifully.”

When creating the layers of the visual design, he elucidates the criticality of being able to see and differentiate between the different waves of moving light effects, but they also need to combine in a certain way to avoid an indistinct mush of light.

“Each layer and each look needs to be clean, well defined and stand out in its own right, only then can the differentiated layers have maximum impact. These Robe moving lights are among the best for achieving these specific looks,” he commented.

Elad also used 30 x Robe Spiiders which were deployed on the stage floor where their zoom feature was perfect for lighting all the scenic elements and props.

Challenges of lighting the 2023 Pride Festival included “meeting everyone’s expectations,” highlights Elad, and hitting the right vibes as it was the biggest Pride event in Israel, and everyone was up for an amazing party!

Offer Nissim also plays a completely distinct set for each show, so there are always some elements of surprise for Elad who has worked for the artist for some time. The key, he says, is to take the music and transform it into lighting that combines with visuals and audio, producing a brand new and unique experience every time.

“Each track has its own story and relating that narrative live involves me, FOH engineerNimrod “Crovi” Dobuvicz and the video / visuals created by Rubi Saati and Or Nadav, and all of us collaborate very closely with the artist,” stated Elad.

The other challenge for this event was to get a balance between the lighting and the massive LED screens, and that’s one of the reasons he was so keen to get those MegaPointes behind the screen, for animated waves of lighting firing through the mesh, and also why he wanted the brightness and functionality of the ESPRITES to combine with them.

Elad operated the show, which included other lights, using a grandMA2 console. Lasers were supplied by Omri Silver and pyro by Mega Night.

Photos: NEO Media