Live Tracking in Riga: LD Rinalds Popovs uses zactrack mini

Lighting can be made easier: Lighting designer Rinalds Popovs chooses the wireless zactrack mini system for Raimonds Pauls’ Theatre and Film Music Concert, held at Xiaomi Arena in Riga on January 3, 2026.

On January 3, a special concert honouring composer Raimonds Pauls before his 90th birthday took place at Xiaomi Arena in Riga, featuring the use of zactrack mini. Photo © Lauris Viksne

Raimonds Pauls, the renowned Latvian composer and pianist celebrated both at home and internationally, was honoured ahead of his 90th birthday with a special concert at Xiaomi Arena in Riga — Latvia’s largest multifunctional venue.

The event focused on Pauls’ music for theatre and film, performed by popular Latvian singers, actors, dancers, and musicians, and featured selections from works such as Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Queen of England, Black Cancer, and The Long Walk in the Dunes.

Too enable continuous, efficient follow spotting and create more engaging visuals for TV broadcasting, lighting designer Rinalds Popovs implemented zactrack mini, distributed by Stage Door Baltic with with support by Jānis Puķītis.

Live Tracking and tight timelines in Riga

Rinalds explains that the creative goal was to do something out of the ordinary – rather than a standard rectangle on the TV screen: “Scenographer Edgars Ķuzis opted for a rhombus-shaped stage. The main design goal was to build a stage that could be set up quickly while still looking full and complete. As usual, the load-in time was short: the arena doors opened for us at 4:00 AM, and a full rehearsal was at 2:00 PM. Every minute counted. RJK did an amazing job at making that work!”

Regarding technical challenges at the lighting console, Rinalds shares the sentiment of many lighting designers: “Time is always the tricky part! When you’re working on a production with a tight schedule, it can be hard to plan everything out. You have to decide what to pre-program before you even have all the tracks ready. For example, during rehearsals, I had to create light cues for 35 songs – doing that in just a couple of hours is a real challenge!“

Using zactrack PRO, Lorenzo precisely tracked the artist’s movements, allowing visuals to react in real time across the stage. Photo © Lauris Viksne

Dynamic Followspotting made easy with zactrack mini

The stage measured 17 × 17 m, and after careful consultation with Stage Door Baltic, Rinalds chose to deploy a zactrack mini system, maximizing its potential. Through their repeated experience, Stage Door Baltic has demonstrated that even the smallest unit can cover larger areas and handle bigger stages.

For Rinalds, zactrack mini was the perfect choice: "What I really enjoy about zactrack is that followspot positions aren’t set in stone. This allows you to create dynamic shadows on the artist’s face. I don’t know of any other solution that can be programmed so easily while handling a show with more than 25 artists moving on and off the stage. For me, the biggest freedom is not having to shout instructions in someone’s ear about who to follow and what to do."

Integrating zactrack mini with the MA3 console was seamless, adding dynamic followspot capabilities with ease.

The fixture lineup included:

·       24× Clay Paky Arolla Profiles

·       6× Clay Paky Arolla Spots (as followspots)

·       18× FOS Technologies F‑7

·       29× FOS Technologies Triton

·       8× Light Sky Mini Lunar

·       48× Prolights Lumipix 9 UHE

CREDITS

Stage Design: Edgars Ķuzis

Lighting Design: Rinalds Popovs

Technical company: RJK (Kristaps Bunga, Ritvars Ozoliņš, Lukass Dimitrijevs)

zactrack mini distributed by Stage Door Baltic with support by Jānis Puķītis

Photos: Lauris Viksne