Timo Graf and q-bus Mediatektur design inspired concept based on kinetic petals and Hoberman sphere

Lighting design specialist Timo Graf again brought typical creative flair to the Deutsche Telekom stand at this year’s massive CeBIT exhibition in Hannover.

For the past ten years he has been creating the lighting design and direction for the company on behalf of media production company q-bus Mediatektur GmbH  — both at this global digital communications convention and the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. And as a long-term advocate of GLP’s evolving impression LED series of moving heads, he turned to the latest generation X4 LED fixtures for much of his inspiration at the giant 6500 sq.m booth.

The conceptual framework devised by q-bus was based around a space that served as both an eye-catcher for visitors as well as the adaptable ‘TRANS FORUM’, a transformable digital stage, which was used for both keynote speakers and digital lifestyle and fashion shows.

Timo Graf also brought all his experience in large scale exhibition work to the booth’s central scenic element — a giant ‘flower’ with 18 kinetic wing elements (petals) that was able to form open or closed ‘rooms’. In the centre of the flower, was an isokinetic ‘Hoberman Sphere’ — another kinetic element that was able to change its appeareance from a small ball to huge sphere, supported by other smaller, non-kinetic flowers.

“The main feature was dramatic, especially when lit — and I was fortunate to  be able to use the whole GLP X4 family — from the X4 S right up to the X4 L,” stated the designer. The idea on the one hand was to to support the discrete ambient and mood changes of the flower elements by using slow movement and colour changes during the scenarios. This would then become more dynamic during the fashion and lifestyle show parts. “Because of the enormous scale of the installation over the heads of the audience I tried to keep the effects as still as possible, and the GLP impressions did a wonderful job in supporting both the slow ambient changes and powerful dynamic elements.”

To achieve the desired effect Timo Graf deployed over 100 GLP X4 S — mainly to illuminate the smaller flowers — and around 140 X4 and 100 X4 L,  mostly for the main flower and Hoberman Sphere. The X4 L provided long throw and illumination for the larger parts of the petals while the standard X4 punctuated this with highlights.

Explaining his reason for specifying GLP, he said, “I needed a family of luminaires that was capable of giving me exactly the same feel, accuracy and — most importantly — uniformity of colour on all of the fixtures. Besides that, we were extremely limited in weight and size, and to have a ‘baseless’ fixture was a big plus as no other system would have fitted into the limited space. On top of that,  we needed a large zoom range, as the distance between the luminaires and moving petals varied, due to the kinetic movement of the petals, from less than 1 metre to more than five metres.”

Timo was supported by lighting programmer Mathias Allgeier, using two grandMA 2 full-size consoles with around 500-plus cues and cue stacks on the console. All lighting inventory was supplied by Gahrens+Battermann GmbH.

The familiar colour combination of Telekom graded tone magentas and white left a lasting impression on all who visited the stand. Summing up the event Timo Graf said, “I think both Deutsche Telekom and q-bus Mediatektur GmbH, were very pleased with the results. “The stand received very positive media coverage and even more visitors than last year — and I think the lighting had a major part to play in that.”