A Revolutionary Approach with Astera

Christopher Robinson has spent 27 years building a reputation for lighting solutions that others say can’t be done. As head of lighting for Hamilton from 2015 to 2020, he learned to work at the highest level of Broadway production. When Covid shut that world down, he pivoted into streaming and broadcast video, and it was there, amid New York’s improvised, fast-moving creative scene, that his first Astera purchase — a set of Titan Tubes — became the best investment he ever made.

Since then, Robinson has built out his kit with Astera QuikSpots, QuikPunches, and AX2 LED battens, deploying them across a run of high-profile New York projects: from Hamilton’s Hudson Yards corporate shows to an Old Navy takeover in Times Square, a cascading yarn sculpture at a Lower East Side gallery, New York Fashion Week, and Diageo’s Champions Club at the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final.

Robinson bought his first set of Astera Titan Tubes in 2020, and they quickly became one of the best investments he’s made, versatile enough to light everything from improvised streaming sets to full productions. Since 2022, he has lit corporate shows for Miguel Cervantes — the longest-running lead in Hamilton’s history — in a Hudson Yards office tower penthouse, using Titan Tubes to bring warmth and scale to a room with no traditional rigging in sight.

As the look for those shows developed, Robinson began renting Astera QuikSpots and QuikPunches from Main Light before deciding he needed a set of his own, both for Miguel’s shows and for an upcoming Guitars Over Guns video shoot. "I could not think of any other fixtures that would have worked so well," he says.

"What convinced me to buy was a show at the Old Navy store in Times Square, where I had to light dancers on platforms with only a tiny decorative wooden slat available for a rigging point," Robinson says. Nothing but a lightweight, battery-powered fixture was going to work, and it was the moment QuikSpot and QuikPunch earned a permanent place in his kit. They’ve been on almost every job since.

QuikPunch found a natural fit on a job for Brooklyn-based production company Devlin’s, working with Armadillo Luxury Rugs at a Lower East Side industrial space. The brief called for rugs mounted on the walls and an enormous fabric sculpture in the yard, its suspension cables concealed. Robinson designed a cantilevered goal post over a scenic gallery wall, hanging seven QuikPunches — each weighing just under 7 kg — onto Unistrut ratchet-strapped to the building. The sculpture lighting started at the wall and followed the cascading yarn down to the floor, a substantial area lit with a single lightweight fixture.

Another neat application for the power and portability of Astera was a New York Fashion Week event staged at the Olney Gleason Gallery in Chelsea, where Astera fixtures again provided the perfect solution. With no hanging options for lights, Chris obtained a long-threaded rod for attaching his QuikSpots and QuikPunches to the Unistrut in the ceiling, lighting tables and other features around the room.

The QuikSpots and QuikPunches he bought for Miguel Cervantes’ shows did double duty on a Guitars Over Guns video shoot, the nonprofit’s music mentorship program for young people. "Handy for all sorts of effects, like blasting up at the ceiling to get extra fill on people’s faces," Robinson says of the fixtures, which have become his workhorses for nearly every kind of shoot.

During the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final, Robinson lit an entire room for Diageo with QuikSpots, QuikPunches, and Astera AX2 50 and 100 LED battens, plus a few moving lights to ramp up the party vibes, including a large football set piece behind the DJ highlighted with QuikSpots. He had never lit molo walls before, but grazing them with vertically mounted AX2s brought stunning results. "It’s the same principle as lighting a brick wall from the floor and letting the shadows cascade up the façade," he says. Mounted vertically, the fixtures sent light traveling horizontally across the texture — a perfect match for the flat molo walls, while the curved entranceway walls were lit with QuikSpots and QuikPunches.

📷 Diageo by Clark Studios

For Sugar Sugar, a free annual outdoor performing arts festival at Brooklyn’s Domino Park waterfront amphitheater, Robinson rigged QuikPunches on bespoke mobile towers — built from theatrical base plates with casters, a 4-foot stick of truss, one QuikSpot, and two QuikPunches — and wheeled them between stages as needed to provide primary side light. "They made sure I could get close to the action wherever that happened to be," he says. He credits the award-winning Titan LED engine and its zoom feature for delivering great flesh tones and versatility, adding that Astera fixtures "can be used virtually anywhere."