Photo: Rocketchris
[Germany] At Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, tracking expert Christian Glatthor of Rocketchris, working for the design team at Light Art Studios, deployed the Follow-Me DELT∆ system for an About You fashion show. Spanning an 80m catwalk in a historic 1930s airport hall, the production required precision, flexibility, and real-time control across a challenging environment with strict weight limits and no overhead rigging points
From the outset, the brief was clear: preserve Tempelhof’s raw airport aesthetic while ensuring flawless key lighting across every inch of the runway. Keylight operator Ole Güllich and lighting designer Raphael Grebenstein, who served as co-lead designers for Light Art Studios, set the creative tone early. “The overall goal was to keep most of the airport aesthetics; that was the main theme of the show,” Güllich explains. “We wanted to go rather minimalistic – no big rigs over the catwalk. But we also had to ensure good key light across the whole runway.”
The venue’s strict floor load limits and the absence of any roof rigging points made the challenge even greater. With nowhere to hang conventional infrastructure overhead, every fixture had to be positioned on the floor, balconies, or existing truss structures, often at angles as steep as 60 degrees. With up to 60 models, and four potentially on the catwalk simultaneously, manual coordination alone was never going to be sufficient
“We would not have been able to handle this with a normal follow spot system,” says Güllich. “You have four models at the same time on the runway, all in different positions, and you have to watch four positions simultaneously to hand off to the next fixture group. That wouldn’t be possible with any other system.”
Rocketchris, who was commissioned by Light Art Studios, deployed four DELT∆ systems paired with four Operator Boxes. 52 spots and 48 wash lights were connected to the system, with cameras mounted along the full 80m truss span
At the heart of the setup was DELT∆’s new Operator Box, an upgrade that fundamentally makes work easier for the lighting team. Previously, operators juggled multiple camera feeds across multiple monitors. In this case with the Operator Box, each operator saw only their target, with the system automatically switching between camera feeds as performers moved along the runway. The result: four camera views on a single monitor per position, half the screens required, and far greater focus. “Normally on a runway this wide, you’re constantly compensating, switching views, second-guessing positions,” says Glatthor. “With the Follow-Me DELT∆ Operator Box, that just disappeared. It gets so much easier,”
Four long-throw Robe iForte LTX units were calibrated using DELT∆’s Beam Map feature, maintaining a constant 600 lux and consistent beam size and sharpness across the full 80m. Setup, Glatthor notes, was far less daunting than it might sound. “Beam mapping sounds like a big thing, but in reality it was very manageable,” he explains. “We had our key points, did the checks, and within about half an hour it was done. After that, it just works without adding complexity for the operator.”
Zone and Action functionality handled the JB-Lighting P12 spots, Robe iForte LTX spots, and X5 wash lights, automatically adjusting intensity and fixture assignment as models moved between zones, with no manual button-pushing required
The Tempelhof fashion show marked the first full-scale, real-world deployment of Follow-Me DELT∆, and the first time Rocketchris had introduced the system in a live production context
Rocketchris credits a close working relationship with Follow-Me’s support team and technical director Erik Berends as key to the system’s readiness for the show
Categories and Tags:
- Lighting
- Project
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