Robe For Live

For Live is a focused, proactive and talented production design and rental company covering technical and scenic aspects for a diversity of live events – sound, lighting, video, rigging, décor and scenic – based in Amersfoort in the province of Utrecht, The Netherlands, with over 200 Robe moving lights in rental stock.

The company was founded in 2014 by Ruud Van Den Berg, who has been passionate about the industry since he started DJ’ing seriously aged 12. Spinning the dex still remains his hobby while For Live has become renowned for delivering dynamic multi‐site sporting events and broadcasts and servicing a range of corporate and B2B clients and brand activations plus live televised and streamed events. Starting with building up a ‘dream team’, For Live first invested in the human capital needed to work creatively and constantly, then started purchasing specialist technical equipment, a process that accompanied quick and steady growth and ensured that the best and most appropriate brands and kit were applied to the job.

This investment process started in 2016 with Pointes, and to date includes MegaPointes, BMFL WashBeams, LEDBeam 150s and, most recently, 60 x LEDBeam 350s and 25 x FORTES, currently – respectively – the most popular and most powerful Robe LED light sources, and 25 x ESPRITES. “From the start it was important to stick witha single moving light brand,” explained Ruud, elaborating that as they originally required a beam light, the Pointe was easily the best option, so that’s the direction it took! “We soon realised we’d made the right decision,” commented Ruud.

As For Live expanded, they needed more lights, so more Robe luminaires joined the inventory. “LDs in the Netherlands were just constantly asking for Robe,” he explained, “the brand is very well liked and respected.” Next came the BMFL WashBeams as a lot of their work involves large sporting events which need the power and lumens.

For Live supplied a full technical package – lighting, audio, LED screens, rigging and décor – to the Invictus Games last year staged at South Park in Den Haag.

“FORTE is a great fixture, especially for providing key lighting in stadiums during ceremonies and other shows, and as well as for audience key light during sporting matches. They work perfectly together with our touring version of the Philips Stadium LED Arena, a unique product of which

we have large quantities in our rental fleet,” says Ruud. Furthermore, For Live has invested in 25 x Robe ESPRITES, as a really “great all‐rounder of a fixture” for a variety of sports and corporate events.

Robe offers an “excellent ROI” stated Ruud, adding that the products work well across their range of events, technicians like working with the brand and “the kit is well engineered with practicality and maintenance in mind.” As a rental company, committing to Robe has been “a great move” he confirmed. They need products with decent lifespans and, naturally, going forward, they want to invest in only LED, where Robe is a clear market leader.

The distribution setup is another instrumental factor in choosing a brand, and For Live enjoys a great relationship with Benelux distributor Controllux and are very happy with the levels of support.

www.robe.cz