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MagicPanel™602 was a smashing success at the ProLight & Sound 2013 trade show in Frankfurt as evidenced by the impressive number of orders taken: 1,200 sold worldwide since July 1, with over 500 in the US alone.
Prominently featured at the Electric Zoo 2013 Festival in New York City, on Wiz Khalifa’s Under the Influence of Music world tour and on Nine Inch Nails’ Tension 2013 Tour, MagicPanel is also the choice of lighting star Dimitri Vassiliu working in association with Dushow for French pop artist Mylène Farmer.
This unique 36-LED matrix is capable of projecting volumes of visuals from its tight and powerful color beams. With continuous pan and tilt movement and unlimited possibilities for dynamic eye-catching effects, MagicPanel™602 will inspire creative lighting designers to explore new visual dimensions.
For the Electric Zoo 2013 Festival in New York City, Visual Designer Jonathan Goldstein specified a matrix of 80 new MagicPanel™ luminaires – supplied by Morpheus Lights of Las Vegas, Nevada – – along with a large compliment of other gear: Sharpy, Mac Viper, VL 3000 and 3500 units, provided by Festival lighting contractor PRG of Secaucus, New Jersey. At the center of over 8000 square feet (≈750 square meters) of PRG Nocturne V-28 video screens, the beams of the MagicPanel array rotated and gyrated with millions of effects. Magnificent visuals.
Présentation
Ayrton has been developing original and highly innovative LED luminaires since 2001 – exploring new concepts, rather than mimicking existing ones. MagicPanel™602 is mainly intended for special effects, though its beam can have a wider application.
As this article will show, Ayrton has gone all out on this new fixture, pulling no punches when it comes to quality in esthetics and engineering, not to mention hardware. The manufacturer has continued to improve the quality of both its mechanical and electronic design to allow for more precise adjustment as well as easier access for maintenance. The quality workmanship is clearly evident. Even the smallest curve has been thought out to give MagicPanel a uniformity of design. While the squared face might appear cumbersome at first, this wash light’s rounded corners soften the whole aspect.
MagicPanel™ is a dual-axis automated beam projector, with 36 RGBW 15W Osram LED emitters (6 columns of 6). Depending on the operating mode, the emitters can be controlled as a block unit or individually mapped. A major feature of MagicPanel™ is its continuous pan and tilt movement. Ayrton told us that continuous pan/tilt rotation was the brainchild of Morpheus Lights, the US company that utilized it in 2004, on its PanaBeam™XR2 wash light. Going even further back, Morpheus’ PCSpotTM offered continuous rotation (on the pan axis only) in 1990! (Coincidentally, Morpheus is now the exclusive distributor for Ayrton products in the USA.)
This fixture is relatively light weight (@ 19 Kg) and its compact size makes it easy to rig multiple units in close proximity. Controlling multiple MagicPanel fixtures collectively permits previously unimagined effects and images to be created. With individual LED control, Kling-Net protocol compatibility, and multiple inputs, you can quickly pixel-map and flesh out simple visuals.
