ISE 2025

Let There Be Lighting Hall Six

February saw Fira Barcelona host the 20th annual Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade show, being the largest gathering of technology brands and AV nerds that this lighting guy has ever witnessed. With 85,351 unique visitors through the doors, (15% up on 2024’s record year), 1,605 exhibitors spread out over 92,000 square metres (that’s nearly five MCGs) of exhibition space over eight halls. Even the most seasoned trade show attendee couldn’t possibly hope to see everything at a show of this size. With this in mind, this article will cover the lighting tech on show in Hall Six.

Lighting brands have had a presence at ISE in previous years, and in 2025, the Lighting and Staging dedicated hall had tripled in size from 2024. Unlike many of the other halls at ISE, Hall Six had a similar feel to an LDI or Prolight + Sound show, with plenty of haze, colour and movement, not to mention beers and swag flowing. All of the major lighting brands had a presence on the floor, with one notable omission in VariLite, which was a surprise given they had just released the impressive and super innovative VL Hive 151 at LDI in December.

Entering Hall Six, MA Lighting had the primo position with a great stand design using MA Encoders as a motif for the look of the stand. Rental and sales giants the AED Group were also an imposing presence at the hall entry, with a booth built entirely of LED screen on four sides.

Elation Lighting and their subsidiaries (Obsidian Consoles, Acclaim architectural, ADJ) had strong offerings with the new Elation Paragon movers as their centrepiece. The Paragon comes in small, medium and large with the refreshingly simple naming protocol (I’m looking at you Ayrton). The small being the Paragon S (550 Watt), medium Paragon M (900 Watt), and large, the Paragon LT. Each boasts an IP54 rating, selectable high CRI or high output modes, and interchangeable lens to turn your profile into a wash without having to having to buy separate units.

The Paragon units don’t have the marine grade weatherproofing of their cousins like the Maximus or Brutus in the Prometheus range, and they also don’t have anywhere near the same weight or price tag. Elation also displayed pieces from their Teatro theatrical range and expanding KL range of static fixtures, all of which are worth a look.

To the other side of the Hall Six entry sat the Italian PROLiGHTS brand, whose range keeps growing in size. The hero of the stand was definitely the HaluPix Duo, which looks like the unholy union of an LED screen and a Jarrag/Elidy. The HaluPix gave the graphical colour and movement of a super bright low-res LED screen combined with a set of tungsten-esq LED chips that punched out warm beams that dance in the air as the content moves.

German Lighting Products (GLP) had a strong presence at ISE, from their well-stocked bar, their friendly and accommodating staff, and their latest release in the Mad Maxx, which is a fat beam (750mm) sky tracker; a physically domineering fitting and a sight to behold, clocking in at 1,248mm high and 1,043mm wide, and a whopping 208kg. While other manufacturers have opted for laser sources in their sky trackers with the likes of the ClayPaky Skylos, Robe iBolt and Ayrton Mamba, the mad genius at the helm of GLP, Udo Künzler, has instead gone with 19x90W LEDs each with its own colour wheel. All of this produces an output that rivals a traditional 7kW Zenon searchlight with a chunkier beam that can be shaped and have multiple colours at once and only requires a 2,400W power supply. GLP also showed the awesome JDC2 and JDC1 Burst, which is an IP65 version of perennial JDC1 produced at a price point to beat out the JDC clones in the market.

The most notable lighting fixture release at the show had to go to Martin, with the release of the long-awaited MAC Aura Raven. The Raven caps off the new Aura range growing from the XIP and PXL. The Raven is a large format IP54 moving head wash with a massive 353mm front lens with 37 x 40W RGBL (Red, Green, Blue, Lime) main emitters and 234 x 0.25W backlight ‘Aura’ LEDs. It looks a bit like an Aura PXL on steroids. There’s a LOT of LEDs, and in ‘Ludicrous Mode’ requires a mind melting 851 channels of control per fixture, but does incorporate some more manageable control modes. The Martin stand also featured the Viper XIP and many of the super successful MAC Ones, which continue to be the darling of the lighting industry.

The Robe juggernaut was in full effect in Hall Six with their flotilla of brands including Avolites consoles, the legendary Aussie dimmer and distro maker LSC, Anolis architectural lighting and Artistic License. Robe always produce a good exhibition stand and manage to keep focus on live performance by constructing a stage with regular performances from an acrobat on a vertical pole.

Avolites had a great showing with their full range of consoles on display, which led all the way up to their flagship D9, with loads of friendly experts on-hand demo-ing the product and showing why Avolites is still the king of the busking desks. Robe used ISE to release two new products, in the iStrobe and the SVB1. The iStrobe is an IP65 panning and tilting LED strobe utlising 16 x 60W RGBW LEDs and 72 x 20W white strobe LEDs, all of which produce an absolutely blinding 164,000 lux. When will the Strobe Wars end? The SVB1 continues on from last year’s release of the Robe SVO Patt (a take on the legendary theatrical Svoboda fitting). The SVB1 is a small form factor moving head wash beam featuring 7 x 40W RGBW multichips and 20 x 10W white strobe.

ClayPaky have kept growing their Arolla IP65 mover range, and Aytron dropped the big brother to Cobra in the laser source, called Mamba.

ISE 2025 cemented Hall Six as a must-visit for lighting professionals, proving that lighting brands are taking ISE seriously as a key global showcase. With the growth of dedicated exhibition space and major product launches, ISE is now firmly on the map alongside LDI and Prolight + Sound for major lighting industry events.

As the industry moves forward, I see a trend toward IP56 being the accepted outdoor rating, away from a full IP65 rating. Laser source fittings have become another segment of the mover market and the Strobe War continues to rage with more offerings on the floor. Punters eyeballs are the victims.

What will 2026 bring? If this year is anything to go by, expect even bigger, brighter, and bolder innovations.