Zignia Live invests in a RoboSpot solution
- juliana6232
- Sep 8
- 1 min read
Zignia Live – a proactive Mexican promoter of numerous large-scale national and international events and operator of three key arena venues in Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalajara – has invested in 12 x Robe RoboSpot systems and 12 x FORTES Follow Spot moving lights, with four supplied to each arena.
Arena Monterrey’s production manager Abraham Barrios oversees all things technical and production-related in the busy venue, which has a 14-17,000 capacity depending on the configuration, and he is delighted with the RoboSpots which were delivered by Robe’s Mexican distributor, Showco.
They stage around 10 large shows and concerts a month, which can double to 20 or more during the main seasons, plus indoor sports like arena football and basketball. Most of the music shows will be in and out in a day, around 50% will have production supplied locally, with the others bringing in their own kit, and the vast majority using the house follow spots.
The decision to purchase the RoboSpots was made by senior technical manager and production director Francisco Paz Botello in conjunction with Abraham and his crew, who also solicited opinions from their regular freelance lighting techs. Several options of modern follow systems were considered before deciding on Robe, which was chosen for its speed, zero latency, and user-friendliness. The traditional old
2.5K follow spots that Arena Monterrey owned have been replaced, while the 22,300-capacity Arena CDMX in Mexico now has its own in-house system for the first time, so they can also save budget by not having to rent in follow spots. The RoboSpots have proved hugely more flexible. The follow spots can be easily moved to suit each production’s specific needs, but in Arena Monterrey, their most popular position is rigged between the FOH and the scoreboard at around 10 metres high, with a throw distance to the stage of around 20 metres.
The operators can work much more comfortably and safely either stationed at FOH or deployed backstage, again according to different show needs.
“It’s a massive improvement,” comments Abraham. Apart from being able to move them around very quickly and easily, he also noted that incoming productions “are always happy” to see the RoboSpot / FORTE combination on the technical rider.
Their local follow spotting team were also very excited to get the upgrade. Showco provided training sessions where they learned the operating philosophy very quickly, with some also having a bit of prior RoboSpotting experience, either through incoming productions or touring with artists bringing in their own.
Photo © Louise Stickland
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