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Ayrton doubles up its imagination to create unique effects fixtures: CosmoPix-R, a moving-yoke globe with 12 punchy beams, MagicDot-R, a small, mono-source fixture, the motorized video panel DreamPanel Shift, its counterpart DreamPanel Twin, with a video face and a lighting face, and the NandoSpot-SC, which marks the entry of the French manufacturer into the next generation of LED spot fixtures.

Laurent Chapot is the lighting designer who was approached to create the design of the Prolight + Sound show.
We met with him on the Ayrton stand. As the first user, he gives us his opinion on these new fixtures and some ideas for making the most of them.

Here is his show. It was programmed by Arnaud Pierrel.

More than 300 fixtures

SLU : Laurent, had you ever created a demo show before ?

Laurent Chapot : Not really. I’ve done a lot of events over the years, but had never created a stand for product presentations. On the other hand, I have long wanted to participate more closely in the development of fixtures and I’m happy create the demo of the new Ayrton products for the exhibition where they are making their debut.

SLU : What was your creative approach here ?

Laurent Chapot : I’ve made sure to show off the unique features that make the fixtures interesting and make people want to use them. This is a very different approach from that used to design the lighting for a show, though in both cases the purpose of the lighting is to make people dream.
Whereas, in a show, one tries to dispense with the technical aspect, here it becomes important.
I placed the fixtures so as to generate alluring effects, while taking into account the particular features of each luminaire. The idea was to create stunning overall effects based on conventional sets, so it would therefore be the individuality of each fixture that makes the difference.

The MagicDot-R, small mono-source fixture

SLU : there is a quite a number of this little fixture in this show !

Laurent Chapot : Yes, more than 130. When the products were presented to me, I thought about their positions, and especially that of the MagicDots. I thought about creating this giant MagicRing R9 that you see hanging over head, where each of the 61 sources is replaced by a MagicDot and is therefore able to move 360° in pan and tilt.

Laurent Chapot : Then, I also wanted to use them to create a curtain of light and, for this, I have hung 37 of them in a 10 meter line. The idea was to create wave effects, “spirographic” beam crossings, helical rotations, etc.
To produce a spectacular third group effect, we placed 36 in a circle on this flat bracket, slightly inclined in front the big letters “Ayrton”. Nothing very original in these two implementations, but the advantage with MagicDot is that you can really place the fixtures right up against each other.

SLU : It is indeed spectacular when you get to play with large quantities, but do you imagine it also playing solo ?

Laurent Chapot : Yes, of course, because it is a tiny fixture that can fit anywhere on a small stage, around a drum kit, for example, or in a television studio to “fill holes”. It fits in more easily than a PAR, its shape is very discreet and photogenic at the same time: it is impeccable.

The CosmoPix, a rotating globe with 12 punchy beams

SLU : What do you think of CosmoPix ?

Laurent Chapot : The CosmoPix is an amazing fixture with a devastating look – somewhere between Sputnik and a deep-sea-diving helmet. It is a successful remake of a nightclub classic, which needs space around it to express itself well. The units were therefore distributed in the structure and on the floor.

The way in which the LEDs are arranged is unique and this alone causes the beams to dance by simply rotating the head on one of its axes. It is not easy to get a handle on, however, if you want to use it for illumination, which would be quite interesting, but, for its intended role, it offers a sufficient variety of presets to keep the user happy.

You turn it on, you make it rotate, and it’s beautiful! I would wager that it will find its home in the big clubs, but I can also see it used in festivals and, of course, concerts. It should appeal to directors of photography in television, who will understand that one of these fixtures alone provides 12 sources on 12 different axes.

NandoSpot-SC, white LEDs with 20,000 lm of flux

Ayrton presents their first spotlight, a 100% Ayrton projector. The light-engine module, which integrates sources and optics, is patented. Ayrton uses white LEDs in this fixture and declares a luminous flux of 20,000 lm.

Its beam is very uniform with no hot spot, and its zoom, with a range from 10° to 50°, is a record in the category of LED spotlights. With a 14-element optical system and an output lens 180 mm in diameter, Ayrton has achieved a 5:1 zoom ratio !

NandoSpot SC has two wheels with six rotating glass gobos each – selected according to the preferences of a panel of surveyed lighting designers – an animation wheel, an iris, a 4-facet prism. Ayrton has also developed a new heat pipe cooling system to ensure consistent luminous flux from the sources. The color is obtained by a subtractive CMY mixing system, a CTO filter and a color wheel.

SLU : Laurent, what do you think of starting out with white LEDs and working in subtractive color synthesis ?

Laurent Chapot : Yes, Color behaves differently, especially during the transition from one to another. A simple and well known example: Congo Blue (Lee 181) is sometimes difficult to obtain with additive synthesis, and is necessarily brighter than the dark blue provided by subtractive mixing. To transition to red in additive mixing, you simply have to lower your blue and bring up your red tone. In subtractive mixing you must employ an additional filter and, thus, potentially pass through completely different colors, if only you delay certain parameters.

On the other hand, if you can take advantage of real power in white, I do not think that you are left wanting for primary and secondary colors because – contrary to what one might think – when you are emitting blue in additive mixing, it is certainly native and unfiltered, but with only one LED, the blue, so that you have 1/3 or 1/4 of the power of the fixture (depending on whether the source is RGB or RGBW). I would be curious to compare the difference between the two systems using LEDs equal in power.

Ayrton submitted a collection of gobos to various lighting designers to find out which they liked the most and which seemed most effective. When you consider that, for reasons of budget and logistics, fixtures almost invariably go out with their original gobos, this is important and, unfortunately, all too rare. It should be noted that there is a real glass cone! But on a rotating wheel… It is a pity that it is not off-center, as I had suggested.

DreamPanel Shift, single sided video, and DreamPanel Twin, dual-face video/luminaire

Osram has developed a black diode in a black package with a black reflector for video applications. Ayrton have adopted it with a pixel-pitch of 6 mm into square panels 384 mm on each side. They then mounted this panel on a motorized yoke with continuous rotation in pan and tilt.

The result is amazing contrast and definition. They have called it DreamPanel Shift. It is cascaded in HDMI and the movements of the yokes are controlled in ArtNet or sACN.

The DreamPanel Twin has kept the same video panel on one side and, on the other side, a new version of MagicPanel with 64 LED sources. In order to accommodate as many pixels as possible on a small surface, Ayrton has developed a new collimating lens capable of firing a 6° beam with high on-axis intensity, 73 cd/lm.

Associated with these two products, DreamPanel Box is specially designed to simply drive a universe of full-HD in HDMI on a screen that will be matrixed and mobile. It manages the image, resizes and positions it in real time in the matrix of video panels, whatever their orientation. It also manages the movement of the panels in ArtNet.

SLU : And for the video/lighting panels, what effects did you plan ?

Laurent Chapot : We have, on the one hand, to present the DreamPanel Shift, a video panel with a 6 mm pixel-pitch with the peculiarity that the RGB LEDs are matte black with a black reflector, thus completely non-reflective – a fabulous look and very good contrast. On the other hand, we have the DreamPanel Twin, also motorized with continuous rotation, but one side features 64 powerful LEDs and the other side the same video panel as the DreamPanel Shift.
The main wall of the stand consists of a matrix of 7 rows by 11 columns. The Shifts form a “circular” core of 37 elements, surrounded by empty space, and then framed by 26 Twins. The moving heads are spaced as closely as possible, measured to the millimeter, so as not to touch during rotations. When they line up with their corners touching, they form a perfect checkerboard, with alternating DreamPanel Shifts and spaces.

SLU : Tell us what you think of the whole point in using moving-yoke video panels.

Laurent Chapot : If you reproduce with the movement of these panels the same effects you would get by manipulating the images by computer, they are useless. Once again, you have to create applications that demonstrate the usefulness of these products.
For example, a matrix of Shifts will transform simple media content into infinite combinations. Splitting up the image moving its components in three dimensions provides amazing effects. You can also play with the form of the matrix itself. You can do this by simply turning away the panels you want to hide.

The DreamPanel Twin really is the big brother of the MP 602 on every level.
While the type of panel with large LEDs used on the Twin has proven its worth, we can easily imagine the effectiveness of a surface with 64 LEDs, and the advantage of the video side, replacing the optional mirror in the 602 is obvious: it’s the perfect complement.
The Shift is itself much lighter in weight and in terms of required resources. It is perfect, where the use of single video panel is sufficient and, as here, to supplement and integrate into a system of Twins. You can create large virtual-image surfaces even with the elements fairly spaced, provided they are numerous.

The rotation of all these elements helps bring to life the image physically, and to switch quickly from content to powerful, highly directional beams. Undulations, disappearances, dislocations, image orientation on all axes – the applications are numerous; it is a new product that will generate new effects that have never been seen before.
These are the HD and high-level versions of all the LED panels with which we’ve had to make do up until now.”

The MagicDot-R and CosmoPix-R are currently available.
La NandoSpot-SC et les DreamPanel will be available in Q3 of 2015.

More information :

MagicDot-R : http://www.soundlightup.com/flash-and-news/laurent-chapot-mene-la-danse-des-magicdot-r-ayrton.html
CosmoPix-R : http://www.soundlightup.com/flash-and-news/ayrton-cosmopix-r-retour-vers-le-futur-dune-planete-rayonnante.html
Ayrton new product catalogue : http://www.ayrton.eu/