The company was started in 2012 – as legend has it, “after a few beers” – by three individuals all passionate about letting and delivering the best and most exciting shows and live experiences – Fulkas Camacho, Osvaldo Giuliano “Chicho” and Juan Carlos Zamudio “Charly” who are all talented lighting designers in their own right.

They brought new energy, innovation, vision and enthusiasm and ideas to the Mexican production scene and have enjoyed considerable success working with a series of music and corporate clients. The company is still growing, and the ideas never stop flowing, with everyone bringing different personalities, concepts and originality to the PRO3 party!

Fulkas explained how Robe products have helped fuel the company’s expansion as an equipment supplier for their own creative projects.

There are now almost 300 Robe lights in the inventory, an investment plan that started with Pointes, was followed up with MegaPointes and Spiiders, then most recently, FORTES and RoboSpot systems. These – plus other lights – are constantly in use.

PRO3 was one the first to commit to FORTES in Mexico, elucidated Fulkas. They were all impressed by the power of the fixtures and by their excellent colour changing characteristics. He admits that they did look at a few ‘alternatives’ … but all concluded that “Robe was SO much better!”

The FORTES – they now have a substantial quantity of these flagship fixtures – were delivered in 2024 in two batches via Robe’s Mexican distributor, Showco.

The first FORTE project was for a large TV show in Mexico City for which PRO3 is the lighting supplier, and since then, they have been out on numerous shows and tours.

PRO 3 lights a lot of music concerts, TV shows and sometimes buildings and other spaces and objects like artwork for events, and they are “delighted” with the FORTES.

“This has been an outstanding purchase,” stated Fulkas, adding that FORTES are “truly a brilliant choice for key lighting with the refined colour temperature and shuttering – it is just a perfect light source for this application.”

Moving on to RoboSpots, Fulkas feels it’s super-important to bring the control of such important fixtures on any lighting scheme to the console and direct to the LD or operator.

PRO3’s FORTES are used regularly on their RoboSpot systems and also MegaPointes. They have received some “excellent” training from Showco, and remote follow spotting which is another transferable and valuable skill set they can pass on to their technicians and crew.

The RoboSpots have been so successful that PRO3 has ditched its conventional follow spots altogether, “Remote follow spotting is safer, more flexible and has many other advantages,” noted Fulkas – “It is the way of the future.”

Spiiders are one of his favourite Robe fixtures as a designer, especially when run in full ‘pixel mode’ for all the wonderful whizzy and liquid effects that can be created. When he used these effects on a show, it is sparingly and for maximum impact.

Fulkas loves the industry generally. He enjoys listening to music, interpreting narratives and stories and expressing these in terms of lighting in colours and textures, then taking the lighting ideas from his head, through the visualiser then playing out for real onstage via the lighting fixtures.

“Lighting – when used properly – is a very powerful art for the transmission of emotions,” he commented.

His first live show as a kid 35 years ago was a Billy Joel concert, and after this he wanted to become a lighting designer, even though he was not sure exactly what an ‘LD’ was back then! He particularly noticed the 8 follow spots and the effect that they had on how people were interpreting the show.

Originally intending to study nutrition and cheffing at college, his career aspirations were transformed when his older brother took him to a Bob Dylan concert – they jumped the barriers to get in and asked the stage crew if they could help in the set up! This was their first proper backstage industry experience, and subsequently his brother landed a job with the renal company on that same Bob Dylan tour and a few years later … Fulkas ‘accidentally’ started PRO3 with Charly and Chicho.

This turned out to be a happy accident!

PRO3 is now a medium-sized company with around 20 full-time employees and 60 or so regular freelancers – with a big reputation and a lot of respect in Mexico and the primary Latin markets, with considerable ambitions still ahead.

Fulkas visited the Robe factory a few years ago and appreciated the set-up, the excellent engineering and the diligence that goes into hand-producing every Robe product as well as the investment in people. “It’s a similar work ethic to what we practice here,” he stated, “We concentrate on being innovative and at the forefront of new ideas and always being prepared to listen learn and move forward”.

Photo Credit: Louise Stickland