Ayrton presents Eurus, a new generation of profile spotlight that benefits from the technological advances the manufacturer has implemented in its latest luminaires, as well as from a new LED engine and from further research aimed at making it more compact, lighter, brighter and quieter.
Eurus features 650 W of LEDs, which is claimed to be 30% higher than most fixtures in its class. Rather than being a replacement for the Ghibli, it is designed for users who want to benefit from the latest innovations in LED sharp-beam fixtures.
SLU conducted a thorough test of the S version. Let’s take a look…
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The Eurus boasts the stylish design of the brand, which is instantly recognizable. Its streamlined and sleek head is marked only by a few lateral air intakes and a few others towards the rear. It is terminated by a posterior heat sink and, at the front, features a large 170 mm lens.
Eurus uses a 650 W white LED engine. Its 170 mm front lens delivers a very crisp and moldable beam. Like Ayrton’s other profile/spot fixtures, the Eurus is available in a powerful “S” (Stage) version (6700 K) with a native CRI of 70, and a “TC” (True Colors) model (6000 K) with a native CRI of 90, at the expense of a small reduction in flux.
Photometric measurements
Derating curve
We bring the unit up to full power and measure the center illuminance every five minutes, in order to plot the derating curve.
The intensity stabilizes in five minutes, with an attenuation of 10%. Eurus is equipped with a new, efficient cooling system.
Tightest sharply-focused beam
20° beam
Widest sharply-focused beam
Our luminous flux measurements confirm what our eyes told us. This baby is powerful, and the light is beautiful! With a 20° beam, the 650 W of LEDs produce a flux of more than 29,500 lumens when cold (26,500 lm after derating), which corresponds to an efficiency of 45 lm/W (41 lumens/W after derating).
This is a very good performance, better than the Ghibli (27 lm/W cold and 25 lm/W after derating) and, to date, better than the competitors we’ve seen in this category. The luminous intensity plot shows us an extremely uniform beam. You might say: “like most high-end LED fixtures!”. And this is true.
Now that the days of lamps are over, which involved a lot of work trying to distribute the light from a very small arc while attenuating a hot spot that no one wanted (or didn’t want… Now some people are starting to miss it…), LED technology has allowed manufacturers to focus on other technical challenges, with beam uniformity being a very different issue. In any case, the evenness of the beam from Eurus is remarkable. Voilà!
Dimmer and strobe
The dimmer is remarkably linear, and the “Square Law” mode produces a very nice curve, very similar to that of a dimmer system on a classic tungsten lamp. The strobe is efficient, its highest speed is close to the flicker of an electric arc, and its control channel offers a nice variety of random and pulse effects. There’s not much to say, really… it works, and very well!
Zoom
At the tightest sharply-focused zoom setting, the beam divergence is around 4.7°, a little less when you “tweak” the absolute sharpness a little. Basically, it closes very tightly on the beam. On the other hand, at our distance of 5 m, projecting a crisp gobo is only possible at around 8°/9°. The beam at its widest divergence opens to more than 50°, and here, we can focus even at very short distances. Let’s take a look at it…
Colors
The color mixing or, more precisely, the optics (which have an impact on the color mixing) have been greatly improved in comparison with the Ghibli, because we no longer notice (or only slightly) the insertion of the dichroic flags into the beam for a certain distance beyond the output.
The positioning of certain optical elements relative to the position of the color system in the fixture probably has a lot to do with this. The mixtures, even complicated ones (pastels using several hues, like amber, salmon, etc.) are really very beautiful and clear.
The CMY system is effective, delivering deep, rich, saturated colors, subtle pastels, and smooth transitions. No hue is poorly rendered. Even the greens are bright and the red is red. At high velocity the transitions are instantaneous.
White, plus the primaries of the CMY + CTO system.
The CMY system is supplemented by a progressive CTO that produces a very soft amber color, the density of which can become quite substantial. It lowers the color temperature to 2960 K. A color wheel provides a series of six saturated colors that can be positioned either in full color or in half-color for very nice dual-color effects with some gobos. This color wheel can be focused.
Thus, in the dual-color effect, you can choose a sharp beam, with just a small metal bar (also in focus, in fact…) separating the two colors, or a smooth fade between the two colors in the beam. In the seventh position of this wheel, there is a ¼-CTB filter for use with gobos, which we will talk about later. Surpriiiise!
The color wheel with half-colors. Soft and sharp.
A dedicated channel allows you to apply two minus-green filters, each with a different density – thus tending towards pink – to eliminate the green dominance in a video image. These filters can also be used to raise the CRI. The most subtle one of them increases the CRI to 76 and the more intense one increases it to 84, while lowering the color temperature to 6100 K. These two filters, mounted on a sliding plate, can be operated independently of the color systems.
Gobos
Eurus has a wheel with seven indexable rotating gobos, a wheel with 11 fixed gobos, and an animation wheel, the effect of which can be summarized as that of a striped gobo with continuous scrolling.
The rotating gobos.
The static gobos.
The gobo kit includes most of the standards from the existing Ayrton range (Ghibli, Mistral, Diablo, Khamsin, etc.), including the yellow and white cone, the criss-crossing triangles, and the psychedelic multicolor mix reminiscent of the old moving oil effects, without forgetting the essentials: a really nice smooth cone, a dot bar, a starry sky type colander, etc.
The animation wheel.
The striated animation wheel moves vertically through the beam, which is unfortunately the least impressive effect in an aerial beam, whereas in the horizontal direction, you could see the chiseling of the beam of light go by continuously…
The focal planes of the gobos are far enough apart to offer nice “morphing” effects from one gobo to another. The same goes for the animation wheel. When superimposed, one of the two is really blurred, but this doesn’t detract from their interplay.
Let’s pause for a moment to consider an important point. LED spot fixtures all have more or less the same problem known as “yellow shift” when a gobo is inserted.
This is a slightly yellowish tinge that develops more or less noticeably in the beam when a gobo is inserted. This phenomenon is due to an internal reflection between the optical design of the LED engine and the glass surface of the gobo.
To remedy this, starting with the introduction of the Ghibli, Ayrton has chosen to automatically engage a ¼-CTB filter, located on the color wheel as soon as a gobo is introduced into the beam. And the slight blueness of the corrector neutralizes this pesky yellowish hue. Obviously, this soaks up a little light in the process (though, it’s not really that noticeable), but it guarantees the gobo’s original pretty white color. This feature can be disabled if you don’t want to use it, either via DMX using the “control” channel, or via RDM, or in the “options” menu of the fixture. And it works.
Some gobo effects.
Some gobo effects with prisms.
Prisms
The Eurus has two prisms that can be rotated and inserted simultaneously in the beam. The first is linear four-facet, the second is radial five-facet. When the two prisms are superimposed, we obtain roughly a “20-facet” prism in a big jumble of multiple images that is somewhat confusing. The insertion of the prisms isn’t possible over the entire zoom range (especially the combination of the two) but it can be done over a sufficiently wide range.
The prisms allow you to significantly expand the beam, thus avoiding that the images are heavily “crumpled” into one another, and their quality provides excellent projection on all the duplicated images. With a wide beam, it is possible to produce at least 70° of projections! This is a very impressive result and it is one of the areas where this fixture flirts with excellence.
The prisms.
Frosts
Both frosts are progressive. The first light one allows you to blur a gobo or a framing shutter rather heavily. The second, heavy frost is very intense. The linearity of the application of the filters is smooth but the “fade” of the frost is only really progressive on the first one. With the second frost, a halo gradually intensifies in front of the image, which maintains a distinct outline until about 90% of the range, then it disappears. Mixing it is delicate and very nice.
The frosts.
iris
The iris is quite satisfactory and, combined with the zoom, allows you to obtain an extremely tight beam at the narrowest in-focus position, and also provides some nice pulsing and opening/closing effects.
The iris, from closed to open.
Framing
This system of four blades – each of which is fully closing and therefore they are positioned on four different focal planes – does not allow for an absolute sharpness of the whole. Typical, you might say. And it is really in line with most of the high-end fixtures. The compromise that Ayrton has adopted allows the blades to be positioned with as few mechanical limits as possible.
Some framing effects.
The issue of absolute sharpness, sought like the Holy Grail, is actually a fairly insignificant factor when you know that, in most cases, we are going to try to soften the edges of a frame either by slightly defocusing or, more academically, by adding a little frost…
The orientation of the framing module is possible over a wide range of ± 60°.
Video presentation
Construction and mechanics
With Eurus, Ayrton introduces certain construction techniques that are intended to reduce the weight and external volume. Everything is optimized in order to avoid reducing the optical elements. In this sense it’s truly a success. Millimeter by millimeter, and gram by gram, the Eurus gains in compactness and lightness while maintaining the strength of its frame and its excellent optical qualities.
The connection panel. Note the battery compartment.
The yoke arms have pan and tilt locks. The base itself is quite slim, with its handles, display and connection panel: DMX input/output in XLR5, dual RJ45 network ports, a USB port for software updates, and PowerCon True 1 for the power supply.
A compartment for the display’s battery allows the machine to be configured off-line. As is the case with most of the Ayrton units, you navigate through the menu of Eurus by means of a jog wheel. Therefore, it confuses me every time, but it works well.
Underneath the base of Eurus.
On the bottom of the base, the tapped mounting holes offer two possibilities of spacing between the omega brackets over the width, to allow for different combinations of positioning and avoid problems with spacers or truss junctions that could interfere with the rigging. Even if it is not as flexible as offset omegas, this can be enough in many cases.
You can also fix the omega bracket perpendicularly, along the narrow axis of the base, but on a single plane. Two anchoring lugs for safety cables are provided between the omega attachments.
Eurus with the covers removed.
The cowls of the head can be removed by loosening two ¼-turn captive screws. They are retained by a small safety cable. The covers of the yoke arms are secured by four BTR screws, which are also captive.
To access the inner, central part of the moving head, you will have to remove two more covers (via eight screws), in order to completely expose the mechanics and the access to the cable conduit for the pan axis. In 20 minutes, you can strip it down and replace a pan drive belt.
One construction detail: on the yoke arm covers, there are small rubber dampers that prevent vibration or rattling noises when the yoke is in motion. Very clever.
The base plates are fixed with two sets of four BTR screws and provide access above the power supply section of the unit. As a rare, happy surprise, we find excellent visibility of the contents of the base. If any adjustments have to be made, it’s quite easy to access.
A rear view of the fixture showing the cooling vents and the heat sink.
Inside the head, there are no fewer than 17 fans! They are positioned to cover critical areas and their operation is optimized by an electronic system that analyzes data from sensors located in strategic positions throughout the unit.
The Eurus offers various ventilation options, even an ultra-silent mode (at the cost of reduced light output, of course!) with almost no ventilation.
In automatic mode, we measure 45 dB at 1 meter during the fixture’s noisiest operations (in motion, with all the internal mechanical functions moving, etc.), compared to the 30 dB of ambient noise in the Studio at Impact Evénement, where we are doing our tests. Well done.
So, let’s start taking it apart: Two modules can be removed. Everything inside that can be removed for routine maintenance requires just a simple Phillips-head screwdriver.
Framing module
The framing module is secured by four screws and a classic DB9 connector. It’s quite similar to the framing modules we know from the rest of the range, except that the rotation of the frame is increased from the usual ±45° to ±60° for more flexibility. This module also contains the iris.
The front of the framing module.
The effects/color module includes the CMY system, the CTO, the color wheel, the gobo wheels, and the animation wheel. It can be removed in the same manner as the framing module, except that loosening four screws unlocks small plates that hold the module in place. The construction is full of clever tricks.
One nice detail is that the fixed gobo wheel (which can be replaced by simply clipping it on) has a small indexing lug that allows the static gobos to always be positioned in the same orientation. So, these will always be indexed in the same way in the event of replacement. Although this may not be very important for a cone, but for a bar or a square grid it is very useful!
The module is very compact and – even if the module can be separated into two parts to access the heart of the CMY system – simply cleaning the color filters will obviously be a delicate operation. Between the color wheel and the three-color section, you can see the small sliding plate with the two minus-green/CRI filters that can be moved into the beam, with the full opening in the center.
The effects module: on the left in the center, you can see one side of the small sliding plate with the minus-green/CRI filters.
The effects module on the CMY side.
The advantage of these latest-generation LED fixtures is that cleaning operations are becoming less and less frequent. We rarely see units where the interior of the head is very dirty, as was the case with lamp-based fixtures whose powerful fans generated air currents in all directions throughout the head. The designs of these very compact units are therefore quite practical in their use.
Finally, the LED module
The removable LED module with its lens.
This one stands out from the systems that are usually found on rival models. First of all, the whole back of the Eurus is not occupied by a big “light box” made of huge heat sinks with heat pipes.
Here, six small fans remove the heat from the top and bottom of a plate on which the LED circuit is mounted. Obviously, there is still a heat sink, but here it is very small: just a few centimeters thick.
A nice thing is that, even though it should be considered a rare necessity, the LED module can be easily removed for replacement in less than ten minutes, including the optics. It can be removed from the front, on the effects side.
The source is in the center of the plate, and takes the form of a small square of less than 10 cm on each side, topped by its optical system for collimating the beams (these small “cells” that cover each LED), which is in turn covered by a large condenser lens. Everything is accessible and can be disassembled with a small “tom-thumb” type Phillips-head screwdriver… and presto!
The frosts and prisms are located between the zoom and focus lenses.
In the front section of the head, the two carriages holding the 13 lenses (focus and zoom) run on linear guide rails, such as those found in high-precision industrial electromechanical equipment.
Each of the two carriages also includes one of the prisms and one of the frosts, along with the servo systems that insert them into the beam and drive their rotation (in the case of the prisms).
Conclusion
Eurus strikes us as an outstanding fixture, and once again Ayrton has shown its mettle and ability to design very nice moving lights. This one pushes some technical details to the limit to offer an optically and mechanically remarkable luminaire.
Its design makes it perfectly compatible with the whole Ayrton range, which despite the evolutions has been able to guarantee to users and customers a certain consistency and continuity when it comes to contemplating an investment. There’s not much to say, really, we just offer our compliments.
You can find further information on the Axente website and on the Ayrton website
What we like:
- The quality of the light
- The price
- The compact, all-purpose aspect.
What we dislike:
- Not having it every day in my kit!
Technical specifications
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