The 154m-high Berlin Radio Tower in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany, was illuminated in a spectacular lightshow featuring 32 Robe iBOLT high-powered moving lights and 36 Robe iESPRITE LTL luminaires on March 20th to mark its 100th anniversary year.
The event planning and implementation were carried out by TSE AG, Berlin, on behalf of their client, Messe Berlin, which organises international trade fairs and world-class congresses. As a service provider for the congress and conference business, as well as corresponding accompanying events like opening ceremonies, TSE AG is Messe’s full-service provider.
Constructed between 1924 and 1926 to a design by architect Heinrich Straumer, the Tower was inaugurated in September 1926 in the grounds of the Messe for the opening of the third Great German Radio Exhibition. It is one of the best-known and most loved landmarks of the city, and while no longer used for broadcasting, it remains a popular protected monument and tourist attraction.
Among the invited guests for the centennial event were Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner and his deputy, Franziska Giffey, who enjoyed the Tower in a completely different light. The 32 Robe iBOLTS were a central element of the lighting installation designed by Björn Höschler and programmed by Tom Herfurth from the TSE AG team.
Sixteen iBOLTS were installed on the ground with 16 on the roof of the Tower restaurant, which is also on the first support platform of the Tower – their potent parallel beams looked fantastic and were clearly visible from distances of up to 1 kilometre away.
In the timecoded light show, the iBOLT beams were utilised for much more than lighting the sky; they also highlighted the tower’s delicate steel structure and its intricate symmetry through targeted and alternating illumination of the platforms.
The upper structural segments of the Radio Tower were additionally accentuated with 32 of the Robe iESPRITE LTLs positioned on the stair steps, with the other four fixtures rigged at the top of the tower. Initial discussions about the Radio Tower lighting design started during the second half of 2025, complete with a highly detailed visualisation of the monument created in Depence which is also when the fixtures were selected.
The project required THE most powerful moving lights to effectively shoot up the full height and illuminate the internal structure, so Robe iESPRITE LTLs were chosen for a combination of their brightness, excellent zoom range of 3° to 57° as well as the long-throw mode of 0.7–2°, plus the fixture’s outstanding compactness-for-performance-class.
The iBOLTS were deployed at the customer’s request after a demo of Robe’s highest-powered fixture’s outstanding beam effects and capabilities. Setting up for the event, the Robe fixtures had to be manually carried up a narrow staircase with every effort made not to impact the protected structure, so weight and size played a crucial role.
For applications where fixtures are carried upright, Robe offers highly practical removable handles that click into mounts on the yoke, designed precisely for this type of installation scenario. These UpLift Handles are available in various sizes to fit the respective fixture yokes.
Many ideas were developed and discussed during the early phases of this project. The chosen design was then finalised and pre-programmed within a tight timeframe of two weeks, with only four days available for the complex site installation and fine-tuning of the show.
The show’s visual and lighting design was set to the song Your Idol from the soundtrack of Netflix series KPop Demon Hunters, as selected by the client. Marcel Fery, CEO of TSE AG, is very proud of his team and their performance: “We delivered an impressive result under great time pressure and are delighted that this spectacular production had such a positive impact on our distinguished guests and the public. The smooth execution was assisted by utilising lighting fixtures that worked perfectly as well as the Robe network with Robe Germany, who co-ordinated the iBOLT dry hires and once again proved to be a reliable partner. We look forward to the other planned events as part of the anniversary and their implementation in the coming months.”
