GLP has announced a record month for sales in its native Germany as an increasing number of event production and rental staging companies invest and reinvest in the evolving LED family of X4 fixtures.
The 66th edition of IAA Cars, the world’s largest motor show, saw one of the biggest collections of GLP impression LED moving heads ever assembled under one roof.
Taking place over 225,000 sq. meters of stand space at the Messe Frankfurt, leading manufacturers and their creative teams chose GLP impressions from right across the X4 range to deliver mission critical solutions.
Leading the charge was Volkswagen, where the team from lighting design and technical conception company, rgb gmbh specified a massive 430 of GLP’s new X4 L heads and 300 X4 Bar 20, (part of an overall complement of more than 2,000 fixtures) with the inventory provided by PRG Germany, who had been nominated by Volkswagen themselves.
As for rgb gmbh, the motor show lighting specialists have been working for various exhibitors at IAA since almost as long as the company has existed, and this was their fourth consecutive year with Volkswagen. “The automotive industry is a big part of our business,” states director, Dirk Feuerstein, whose own long history of using GLP fixtures dates right back to the pioneering Patend light.
This year on a stand measuring 9,000sqm (6,500sqm public area) the task of rgb was to highlight the brand’s Think New concept, with a design characterized by large media surfaces, combined with white façade elements that were lit dynamically in conjunction with the media content.
Feuerstein himself, who had been introduced to the X4 L by GLP MD, Udo Künzler last Autumn, led the project team of around half a dozen personnel and took responsibility for the creative part of the light planning and supervision of the planning process. “What was interesting was the increased brightness of the X4 L compared to other fixtures of that size — and also the possibility of using a motorized beam-shaping module,” noted Feuerstein. He became an early adopter before putting them to use on a grand scale for Volkswagen.
At the Frankfurt Messe they were used both for dynamically lighting the architectural elements, which made the stand appear vibrant, and to build increased lighting levels which made the exhibits stand out of their surroundings.
The X4 Bar 20’s were tasked with lighting several hundred running meters of façade elements. “The edges underneath and on top of the media surfaces were only 10cm high, so instead of grazing along a wall as you would normally do, we used the fixtures to directly light a small horizontal structure with the ability to create dynamic effects.”
rgb gmbh’s operators consisted of the experienced Wolfgang Krämer and Boris Kayser with some pre-programming carried out by Tilmann Schumacher from Prefocus GbR, who was also the associated lighting designer on site.
As a result, Volkswagen received much positive feedback for the visual appearance of the booth. “People felt good in this colorful and light atmosphere,” confirms Feuerstein.
Commenting on the stand, GLP MD Udo Künzler said, “It is a pleasure to be working with accomplished lighting designers such as rgb. It is leaders like them that we rely on for feedback during the product development stage, thereby enabling us to deliver an end product exactly tailored to their needs.
“Without their help, the X4 L would not be the tour de force that it is, and I am proud that so many fixtures were used to light the presentation of the world’s largest car manufacturer.”
rgb gmbh, Fotograf/Photographer: Andreas Keller
