Ayrton Continues to Inspire and Innovate at Prolight + Sound 2015
True to form, French LED lighting manufacturer, Ayrton, surprised visitors and clients with the launch of no less than seven new products at Prolight + Sound 2015. The newest developments from these master innovators added three fixtures to Ayrton’s Creative Solutions line, two unique specimens to its Imaging Displays portfolio and a further two additions to its Automated Luminaires range.
Heralded as the A61 Project prior to the show, Ayrton revealed a totally new technology that combines the first 94mm diameter narrow beam angle collimator with the latest generation high-power (40W or 60W) Osram multichip LED. Together these two elements create tighter beams with an unrivalled centre beam intensity that Ayrton has incorporated into three new Creative Solutions fixtures: MagicDot™-R, CosmoPix™-R and VersaPix™-RS.
MagicDot™-R
The latest member of the RADICAL™ series, MagicDot™-R is the first professional moving head LED luminaire with a single optical collimator. The new high-efficiency 94mm diameter optical system required more than two years of development and perfection. The result uses a brand new 60W RGBW multichip LED with a light-emitting surface of 8mm2 that delivers an intense 4.5° beam with a central beam intensity of 180,000 candelas.
Lightning fast and exhibiting the Creative Solutions’ continuous pan and tilt rotation, MagicDot-R’s totally round head fits within the diameter of its cylindrical base in all positions to allow bold new configurations with barely a centimeter of space between two luminaires. The entire unit weighs in at only 5.3kg.
Lighting Designer, Laurent Chapot, comments: ‘MagicDot-R is a very small projector that can fit in anywhere on a small stage, around a drumset, for example, or in a TV studio to fill in the holes”
CosmoPix™-R
CosmoPix™-R is an entirely new luminaire based on the concept of the famous PAR36 double-rotation spheres that date back to the early ‘80s. Using the latest technology, Ayrton has revamped this legendary product design, and endowed it with a continuous combination of potential effects. This little powerhouse takes 12 of the highly efficient new 94mm optics and generates 12 shafts of coloured light that can be separately controlled in all directions and driven in continuous pan and tilt rotation to create exhilarating, original effects.
CosmoPix-R has extended series connectivity and can be controlled by DMX-RDM, Art-Net or with a wireless DMX-RDM link via a new generation TiMo module by Ayrton partner, LumenRadio.
Chapot: ‘The CosmoPix-R is a projector that needs air because its beams shoot off in all directions…This was a well thought-out effect! The LEDs are arranged in an unusual way…with enough presets to satisfy the user. You turn it on, you just use it, and it’s great. I’ll bet that it’ll be perfect for big clubs, but I also can see it being used at festivals, in TV studios, and at concerts, of course.’
VersaPix™-RS
VersaPix™-RS puts Ayrton’s new 94mm diameter optics in combination with a 4mm2 40W RGBW multichip to produce five 3.5° beams (the narrowest in Ayrton’s portfolio) with a record-breaking central beam intensity of 200 candela per lumen. This makes the new VersaPix-RS three times more powerful than the original VersaPix, with a central beam intensity six times greater than before. Truly spectacular 3D volumetric effects can be achieved with this Ultra Radical development.
The cooling system for the three new products is also a wonder of technology: a new copper circuit board on the heat pipe along with a one-piece aluminium heat sink allows better, more efficient thermal conduction.
The inspiration behind Ayrton’s original innovative DreamPanel Series has been developed and extended to two exciting new moving head fixtures: DreamPanel™-Shift and DreamPanel™-Twin.
DreamPanel™-Shift
DreamPanel™-Shift is a 384 x 384mm video panel which uses 4,096 RGB LEDs on a pitch black background to provide prodigious contrast and definition. Mounted on a moving head, DreamPanel-Shift defines the magic blend of two technologies: the continuous pan-tilt rotation of Ayrton’s MagicPanel™ with the new control system from the HDMI DreamPanel™HD-Box. An innovative 48-circuit rotating connector enables the smooth, undisturbed transmission of video signals through pan and tilt rotation.
Chapot: ‘DreamPanel-Shift can be used to create large virtual image areas with elements sufficiently spaced regardless of how many there are. Rotating all these elements will make the image physically come to life. Images rippling, vanishing, jumping around, and turning in all orientations – this is a new product with unique effects.’
DreamPanel™- Twin
DreamPanel™-Twin is a unique hybrid luminaire displaying an optimised MagicPanel™ on one side and the DreamPanel™Shift on the other. Incorporated into a motorised head capable of continuous double rotation on the pan and tilt axes, the DreamPanel™-Twin can alternate between displaying high-definition video images and 3D volumetric lighting effects. The DreamPanel-Shift side has 4,096 RGB LEDs on a pitch black background that provides extreme contrast for video rendering while the MagicPanel-R side has an improved resolution of 64 emitters (arranged in an 8×8 matrix) to produce finer detailed volumetric mapping effects. The 6mm pitch of the video side offers the perfect balance between the definition required to display video media on stage, the optimum screen size to enable full HD, and the greatest overall system brightness.
DreamPanel™-Twin’s two sides are controlled completely separately – the video side through Ayrton’s new HDMI DreamPanel™HD-Box control system, and the MagicPanel by Art-Net or sACN through an Ethernet link.
Chapot: ‘The two sides alternating in continuous rotation excites the imagination.’
DreamPanel™HD-Box
Ayrton’s DreamPanel™HD-Box control system has been specially developed to drive the video panels in HDMI. The controller manages the image, the positioning of the panels, and the rotation between the media server layer, which generates the signal, and the display layer. It also resizes and positions the media in real-time in a matrix of video panels regardless of their orientation. DreamPanel™HD-Box ensures each DreamPanel-Shift tile receives the entire HDMI 1080P image but displays only its allotted portion of the image. It is used with the DreamPanel™Manager, a PC-compatible software that lets the user configure a matrix, orientate the tiles individually with 1° accuracy, and adjust brightness.
Finally, Ayrton’s Automated Luminaires range has been expanded to encompass the NandoSpot™-SC and WildSun™-K25.
NandoSpot™-SC
NandoSpot™-SC is Ayrton’s first, much-anticipated, LED spot luminaire which, built around an Ayrton LED module, required over three years of development and fine-tuning. Equipped with white monochrome emitters, this module has a new-generation aplanetic lens that provides NandoSpot-SC with an output in excess of 20,000 lumen, a uniform beam with no hot spots, and a 5:1 ratio, 10°-50° zoom.
NandoSpot-SC incorporates a subtractive CMY mixing system to maintain high light output, a CTO, and a complementary-colour wheel. Effects consist of two wheels with six rotary glass gobos (selected in collaboration with known lighting designers to ensure maximum usability and effectiveness); a continuous dynamic effects wheel which can be defocused on a large adjustment range; an iris diaphragm; a contour erasure filter for smoothing sharp edges; and a four-facet rotating prism.
WildSun™-K25
Designed as a replacement for conventional 4000W HMI Fresnel projectors, WildSun™-K25 is a new-generation moving head luminaire with no equal on the market. Working in collaboration with cinematographers and operators specialized in video production for major sporting events, Ayrton dedicated over two years to the development and perfection of this marvel of technology, innovation, and light. WildSun-K25 is the only LED luminaire capable of measuring up to the classic 4000W HMI Fresnel in terms of pure output, yet consumes only 2600W of power. With an output in excess of 100,000 lumens, a 10°-50° zoom and individually controlled rings to modulate the emission surface according to ceiling height, WildSun-K25 is perfectly created for sporting events in stadiums and large arenas.
Many of Ayrton’s new products were presented on its Prolight + Sound stand in a spectacular Light Show designed by top French lighting designer, Laurent Chapot. “The Light Show this year was a big success,” states Ayrton’s Valère Huart. “We were required to play it almost continuously in order to satisfy the crowd waiting for it in front of the booth.”
The popularity of Ayrton’s stand was, once again, very evident. “We had an extremely busy show and enjoyed four fantastic days in Frankfurt,” continues Huart. “Innovation is our DNA and the essence of our business at Ayrton. We continue to grow step by step and, without doubt, people in the lighting industry are very interested in all the innovations from Ayrton. However, even though the success of Ayrton is now worldwide, we are proud that we continue to have the same close relationship with our clients and partners, all of whom enjoy using and promoting our products as much as we enjoy designing and creating them.”
Full details of these latest creations from Ayrton can be found in the new Ayrton brochure and on the website at www.ayrton.eu
Official footage of the Prolight + Sound Light Show, designed by Laurent Chapot, can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/125038684
An interview with Laurent Chapot discussing his design for the stand and thoughts on Ayrton’s new products can be found in the latest issue of Ayrton’s own magazine, AyrtonLIVE7, which can be downloaded here: http://www.ayrton.eu/live/ayrtonlive-7/
About Ayrton:
AYRTON is specialized in developing intelligent LED light products for Entertainment and Architectural applications.
Based south of Paris, France, the AYRTON Headquarters and Research & Development centre combine and organize the highest competence in engineering, software, electronics and optics, with the aim to create highly innovative fixtures.
AYRTON fixtures are created to answer any demanding installation and criteria, and are distributed through devoted and exclusive worldwide teams. AYRTON uses reliable, flexible and avant-garde technologies linked to innovative design, to provide AYRTON customers with a wide range of pioneer lighting solutions for installation in Stages, TV Studios, Show-venues and Architectural schemes.
