The TPi Awards was staged at the Evolution London venue in Battersea and was hosted – for the second consecutive year – by Emmanuel Sonubi who raised the roof with smiles and laughter from over 1,850 industry professionals representing all disciplines.

The annual event honours some of the best creative and technical achievements from the world of entertainment production, and following last year’s changes to the voting process we once again saw a broadening of the diversity among those winning individuals and companies.

A total of 32 awards covered numerous production aspects from set design to catering and sustainability.

Latest Robe Tech

The very latest Robe technology was showcased by Robe’s creative tour-de-force, led by lighting director Nathan Wan, associate LD Andy Webb, lead programmer Jordan Tinniswood, programmer Kyle Evans and Robe International’s exhibition and production manager, Tomas Kohout who co-ordinated all the logistics needed to amass this large amount of kit at Evolution.

They collaborated closely with TPi’s production team including Mondiale Technology Media’s Commercial Director Fran Begaj and their event production manager Ryan Esson from GoTo Live, to ensure guests were impressed by the extravaganza of colour and visuality that supported the bespoke jungle style theming, video content and infographics produced by Lewis Kyle White and his team at Pixels & Noise.

Robe’s team also compiled the special Awards show intro soundtrack under the direction of TPi, and on site worked closely with PRG’s crew who supplied and rigged the LED screens.

New NRG

Nathan & Andy were supported by a crew of seven NRG (Next Robe Generation) students from five different colleges around the UK.

Ant Ioannou who is studying Event Production at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham was assistant lighting designer in the main room, with Abigail Skelton, also studying the same course, overseeing lighting for the main bar area.

James Levy, a Theatre Technology student from Guildhall, tech’d an exterior iBOLT installation, which was inaugurated last year and proved hugely popular.

There were then four RoboSpot operators, Mason Dilworth and Sebastian Ollivierre, both studying Creative Lighting Control at Rose Bruford; Andrew Whewell from Leeds City College studying Theatre Design & Production Technology and Harry Mooring from Derby University who is studying Sound, Light & Live Event Engineering.

All four of these NRG RoboSpot operators were also involved with helping design lighting in the Robe VIP Bar upstairs at Evolution, creating a buzzing ambiance for their annual afterparty.

Jane Monk, Robe UK’s NRG Initiative Manager, commented, “The TPi Awards provides a platform for selected NRG UK students to shine and a unique opportunity to join Robe’s creative team and experience first-hand how to deliver a prestigious event in a room full of industry professionals. While definitely not for the faint-hearted, the many big smiles after the show make us proud to be able to help these hugely talented students on their lighting journey!”

Main Room

The high-impact 90-second opening sequence comprised of video content and lightshow kicked off the Awards presentations, followed by a series of intricate and near-static lighting looks – illustrating that all these Robe products can also be used to produce subtleties and nuance for the dinner, as guests enjoyed catching up with industry colleagues and friends.

The looks for the Awards presentation were all based around this year’s tropical jungle theme. Set against a waterfall back drop that transitioned from day to night through the evening, the show looks incorporated a series of foliage and tiki styled facades with colourful combinations and multi-layered texturing.

Robe technology in the main room included the recently launched LedPOINTE luminaire, which Nathan put through its paces creating exciting effects and multiple bold mesmeric eye-popping looks.

However, the real art of the evening was in creating those big wide-stage high-impact scenes that enveloped the whole room in light and atmosphere, drawing everyone irrevocably into the action, which followed on from a series of elegant and balanced scenes that were comfortable for eating and drinking. These assisted everyone in morphing seamlessly into the all-important awards presentations complete with perfect key lighting … and lighting matching the jungle-style video content.

Also on the rig were Robe’s new SVB1s and SvoPATT luminaires, the flagship FORTE LTX, SpiiderX LED wash beams, the ever popular LEDBeam 350s, TetraXs, iBOLTS and six RoboSpot systems each running with FORTE LTXs.

All the lights were rigged on a series of trusses flown above the audience and the long shallow stage area, and on vertical ladders filling in gaps between the onstage screens, all adding to the cool organic nature of video imagery and motion graphics, with some lights even blended in to the set design, hidden amongst the digital foliage.

The RoboSpot count was increased from four to six this year to cover the room very comprehensively and crucially, to enable super-quick winner pickups from tables wherever they happened to be seated around the room.

As always, the expectations were high and the pressure was on for Nathan and the team to produce something memorable for a large room full of industry peers, all of whom are involved with creative and spectacular shows every day!

The main room show was programmed and controlled via two Avolites D9 consoles. Beforehand, the creative team had spent time pre-programming in Capture, allowing Nathan to arrive on site well prepped, and spend the one night of on-site programming refining a complex show in a very short timeframe after bumping in on the Sunday ahead of the Monday night.

Bar, iBOLTS & Afterparty

In the bar area, Abigail used an Avolites Diamond 7-215 for control with lights including LedPOINTES and LEDBeam 350s, a room also important to light correctly as it is the gathering point for guests amassing for boisterous ebullient pre-dinner drinks and conversations.

James used an Avo Tiger Touch II console for the iBOLT installation which comprised a circle of 8 x iBOLTS surrounding one fixture in the middle, a geometric pattern that was cool, precise, and illustrated the fixture’s powerful beam-work. It was set up so the lights could spin round and colour / texture the front of the building, catching arriving guests up in the glamour, and thrill of the occasion!

New this year, Robe brought a truly ‘Rock ‘n’ Robe’ vibe to their mezzanine level VIP area, complete with a green wall, bar area and one of Robe’s famous neon-look Rock ‘n’ Robe signs, which was ideal for photos, Insta-moments and as a general chilling zone.

This was lit by the Robe team using LEDBeam 350s and Robe MolyPATT scenic lights – with another Avo D7 for control – to bring a loungey atmos, with Robe’s brand new iESPRITE LTL and iSTROBE products on show for everyone to see close up while they enjoyed the space and the afterparty action!

Winners

The 2025 TPi Award for ‘Lighting Designer of the Year’ was again sponsored by Robe and this year presented by Robe UK sales director Ian W Brown to Sam Tozer of Vision Factory. Known as a multidisciplinary creative designer, his recent work includes Parkway Drive’s 20th anniversary tour, Sam Fender’s “People Watching” tours and the 2024 MDLBEAST ‘Soundstorm’ Festival in Riyadh.

Favourite Lighting Rental Company of the Year was Colour Sound Experiment, and other notables included Olly Martin (Lighting Operator of the Year) and FRAY Studio, who won the content Creator of the Year, while Carol Scott received the TPi Industry Recognition Award.

Event Evolution for Robe

While the TPi Awards has always been a great showcase to get Robe’s newest products in front of the industry, over time it has grown into an incredible opportunity for those within the Robe UK NRG programme to get high intensity, real-world hands-on experience where they can understand the demands and stresses of the workplace together with the importance of working as a team to deliver outstanding results that address multiple objectives.

Some students who have worked on previous TPi Awards have gone on to work for Robe UK full time – Jordan Tinniswood and Kyle Evans are great examples – so it is also a chance for future professionals to network and make themselves visible to the industry.

Robe UK’s managing director Mick Hannaford concludes, “Robe was proud to support the TPi Awards 2025, celebrating the massive talents and achievements of our industry. It is always a pleasure to see our fixtures light up Battersea Evolution for the evening, facilitated by our excellent in-house creative team who diligently design and programme the show from start to finish.”

Photo Credit: Marco Polasek