The Robe Lighting iFORTE® luminaire – currently its most powerful LED innovation – has won a coveted Parnelli Award for Indispensable Lighting Technology.

The 2024 Parnelli Awards – organized by Timeless Communications Corp., publishers of PLSN and FOH magazines – were presented at a gala event staged during the 2024 NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) expo at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California. 

The ceremony honored the talent, technologies, and ingenuity behind the most creative, ambitious, exciting, and dramatic concert, show and touring productions from the last 12 months across 25 Awards.

Robe’s 2024 Parnelli Award was collected by North America’s chief sales officer Craig Burros and product manager Peter Moore.

 “We were extremely honored to receive a 2024 Parnelli Award for the iFORTE luminaire," stated Craig. "We have seen many talented designers and programmers incorporate them brilliantly into their designs, and it's always exciting to receive industry recognition for bringing such innovative technology to the market."

While Peter noted, “The iFORTE is quickly becoming an industry standard much like the BMFL WashBeam has been for years. With its RAINS and Transferable Engine (TE) technology, it offers features that designers want plus the reliability and longevity that our dealers covet when investing in Robe products.”

Robe’s iFORTE has already won several awards including a 2023 PLASA Innovation Award and is a flagship product in the Czech Republic manufacturers’ iSeries range, offering truly innovative IP rated lighting solutions for all environments. 

Combining a massive output and multiple effects in a package which is just 1.5kg heavier than the standard FORTE®, iFORTE offers all the quality, features, and identical performance of the original luminaire, enabling seamless integration of the two types of fixtures if desired.

The iFORTE® LTX WB is currently the brightest fixture on the market and is an ultimate long throw LED wash beam designed for stadium shows, concerts and all events and spectaculars where serious intensity is needed across massive distances. 

Robe’s internally designed, developed, patented, and manufactured iSE-TE™ 1000W XP (Xtra Performance) IP65-rated White LED TRANSFERABLE ENGINE produces an incredible, industry-leading 355.000 Lux at 5 metres, and it has enjoyed enormous success worldwide, and especially in North America.

The 2024 Parnelli Awards embraced and acknowledged a diverse array of technical and creative feats, including three for ‘lifetime achievements’. 

Potential winners are initially nominated on the Parnelli Award website, with entries tailored and reviewed by the Parnelli Board of Advisors, an ad hoc body of 20 experts representing a wide cross section of production industry disciplines. 

Up to six nominees / products are confirmed for each category and announced via the website and both publications, after which individual subscribers – including readers, a potential voting pool of 40,000 – cast their choices via a secure voting page. 

The nominated people or products receiving the most votes are declared the winners. 

For a product, winning a Parnelli is one of the most sought-after recognitions of technical excellence and popularity.

Robe Lighting s.r.o.’s CEO Josef Valchar noted, “We are delighted to win this Parnelli – a big shout-out to our brilliant R&D crew, the sales teams getting the product out there, and of course, all the creative designers, programmers, and rental companies who have spec’d and invested in iFORTES, ensuring that it earned the ‘Indispensable’ title!”

Other winners on the night included Silent House’s Baz Halpin who picked up the Production Design of the Year for his stunning P!nk “Summer Carnival” tour aesthetic; and Solotech who won Lighting Company of the Year for servicing Taylor Swift’s phenomenal “The Eras Tour”.

Awarded for the first time was the Nook Schoenfeld Lighting Designer of the Year Award, which went to the legendary Rob Koenig for his work with Metallica. The award is named after the late Nook Schoenfield, long-term editor of PLSN magazine, as well as a prolific lighting designer, technology lover, and all-round passionate industry maverick who sadly passed away last year and is much missed. 

Lighting Director of the Year went to Carter Fulghum for his work on Shinedown and completing the ‘Visual’ section of 2024 Parnelli’s was Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year which went to Music Matters Productions. Lighting Company of the Year was awarded to Solotech, and the Pyro / Special Effects Company of the Year won by ImageSFX / Disturbed.