BMFL Blades for Korean Music TV Shows

Music Bank is one of the most popular TV shows in South Korea. It airs every Friday night at 6.30 p.m. prime-time KST and is broadcast across a further 72 countries worldwide. Yoo Hee-Yeol’s Sketchbook is a K-Pop music programme combining a chat show with live performance. Its celebrity host Yoo Hee-Yeol, also known as Toy, is a one-man band!

Both shows are recorded at the TS15 studios in Seoul, Korea with a live audience of around 300. Kim Jung Hyun used 24 x BMFL Blades for Music Bank and 16 fixtures to light a recent episode of Sketchbook. In each case, the BMFL Blades were hired-in allowing him to thoroughly test and assess their impact on the lighting scheme.

Kim Jung Hyun is one of KBS’s top LDs and was extremely keen to try the BMFL Blades in situ, after hearing so much about them, and having used Robe products regularly in his work for some time, including MMX Spots, LEDWash 1200s and the ColorSpot / Wash 700 series.

He used most of the BMFL Blade’s features and functionality during the shows, including gobos, dimming, colour mixing, the CT whites and the zoom, and came to the conclusion that the lights were a huge enhancement to the rig for all styles and tempos of music.

The challenges of lighting Music Bank include switching at a moment’s notice to light a different genre of music. For Sketchbook, a variety of different sources and approaches are needed to light the ‘magazine’ elements of the programme as well as the live performances. Both shows need flexible and adaptable lighting in the roof!

Kim Jung Hyun particularly likes the powerful “Clean” output, the “Smooth” colour mixing, excellent range of colours and the quick and accurate movement. “Overall they are fantastic high quality products,” he commented, adding that he believes ‘quality’ has become synonymous with the Robe brand, and particularly with the powerful and flexible BMFL range.