Ayrton Launches Ghibli, Its First LED Spot, at PLASA London 2017

	Ayton's first LED spotlight, Ghibli, was launched at PLASA 2017

Ayrton exhibited at the 40th PLASA London 2017 with its exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions, where it successfully launched three new products to the great delight of visitors to PLASA, which welcomed an increased footfall and more international visitors than ever.

Ghibli, MiniPanel-FX, and WildSun K25 TC were introduced to the market and received an incredible response: "Ayrton is committed to providing the lighting designer with a complete range of lighting tools to suit every purpose and size of venue," says Ayrton CEO, Chris Ferrante. "Our new releases are indicative of the breadth of our product range which constantly evolves to meet the requirements of our creative client base."

Ghibli is Ayrton's first LED spot luminaire and marks an expansion of Ayrton's automated lighting range. Compact, elegant, and lightweight, Ghibli boasts high output, ultra-efficient optics, a 8:1 zoom from 7- to 56-degrees and a selectable high CRI mode among its wealth of features, all housed in a most compact, competitively-priced, package with a classy, sleek, industrial design.

"Ghibli is the smallest and lightest fixture in its class compared with both LED and metal halide products, and gives the best performance to size and weight ratio of any LED hard-edge fixture available -- and metal halide product -- in its class," confirms Ferrante.

Ghibli uses less than 900W of power in total, yet delivers an impressive output of 23,000 lumen, which renders it powerful enough for large scale arenas. In addition, its output is of an incredibly high quality, offering a crisp, clean, and uniform beam with no hotspot, and fantastic center-to-edge uniformity that delivers fat beams across its whole field, meaning Ghibli is at home as much in theatre as on the touring circuit.

This beam quality and output is due to Ghibli's superb 80-percent optical efficiency which ensures there is no compromise between the two. "The higher color temperature and spectral make-up of the Ghibli is great for concert touring applications, yet the flat beam and whisper-silent operation also makes Ghibli very suitable for theatrical users," says Ayrton's global sales director, Michael Althaus.

Very appealing to the lighting designers who came to try out the new fixture was Ghibli's fabulous zoom range: 13 high quality lenses including a 137mm frontal lens deliver an 8:1 zoom ratio with a beam aperture of 7- to 56-degrees. "The revelation was a real eye-opener to those who saw it and we were very happy with the approval and many compliments it received," says Ambersphere's sales director, Philip Norfolk.

Ghibli is fitted with a very special filter for optimizing the color rendering index. This "mode" increases the CRI and can be activated remotely in situations demanding even higher-quality light output. "Visitors were quick to see the advantage of using a CRI filter over versions which alter the LED engine to achieve higher CRI values," explains Norfolk. "The new filter system loses less light and means more versatility, compared to using a different light engine or even offering different versions of the same product to the market. Rental houses clearly prefer to have just one solution that does it all perfectly."

Despite its compact size, Ghibli does not hold back on its feature set and offers one of the fullest ranges of options on the market, including CMY color mixing, variable CTO and full field framing. The complete effect section includes two gobo wheels (one rotating, one static), a fixed color wheel, a prism, an animation wheel and two frost filters, in addition to focus, iris, electronic dimming, strobe, and engine animation control capabilities. The full field framing system is rotatable to 60-degrees and allows each frame to be positioned with precision on a 100-percent surface area in all positions, even capable of a full wipe, to give lighting designers countless creative possibilities.

Attractive new custom-designed gobo patterns have been created in collaboration with lighting designers to meet the needs of the entertainment industry: "We were very happy with the positive feedback to the news designs," says Ferrante. "Designers are always looking for something fresh, and with applications so varied across the markets, it was very gratifying to hear this level of response to our new designs."

Ghibli's ultra efficient thermal design means less maintenance and lower servicing costs. The main airflow is directed over the heatsink at the rear of the fixture and avoids passing over the optical train, and its sealed LED engine means less maintenance or chance of failure. This results in fewer cleaning interventions which is an obvious benefit to rental companies.

"Visitors were able to understand for themselves how the combination of the dissipation of heat through Ghibli's die-cast base, and the liquid cooling system for the engine in the head were innovative ways to manage heat," explains Norfolk. "These in turn allow Ghibli to have a smaller footprint while the liquid cooling system for the engine in the head reduces the number of cooling fans by half. The result is whisper silent operation which is an extremely desirable feature."

Ayrton pays as much attention to the appearance of its fixtures as their performance. Ghibli was designed to be sleek and industrial-looking with a low profile base housing that reduces its footprint. "We designed Ghibli with beautiful clean lines and no hard edges," says Ferrante. "That way we can guarantee it looks great on camera and when in view of the audience."

"We are hearing from our customers that they recognize that Ghibli is much smaller, lighter, and less expensive than any other product in its class," he concludes, "with a great lumen per wattage ratio and much, much more usable zoom range. That makes us very happy that we succeeded in what we set out to do."

MiniPanel-FX, a diminutive version of the MagicPanel-FX, indicated the flavor of things to come as the company continues its development of a range of miniaturized versions of its hugely successful FX range.

This new addition may be small in dimensions but it is mighty in output, with a zoom spread of 3.6- to 53-degrees. MiniPanel-FX houses four of Ayrton's unique square lenses in a neat two by two configuration to form an extremely powerful beam and wash light with immense creative possibilities. With characteristic endless double rotation, MiniPanel-FX is the perfect tiny complement to its hugely successful siblings, MagicPanel-FX and MagicBlade-FX.

Both Ghibli and MiniPanel-FX will be ready to ship in the autumn.

WildSun K25 TC (true color), an evolution of WildSun K25, sports a new LED chip that is calibrated to deliver a consistent color temperature of 5,700K and CRI in excess of 92, yet uses 40-percent less power. Its near perfect daylight output makes it idea for automotive, fashion, and broadcast applications.

Launched at Prolight + Sound 2017, Ayrton's Merak 250W RGBW LED wash light made its first appearance at Olympia. This little powerhouse of technology features a proprietary 10:1 optical zoom system, with a 7- to 70-degree zoom and a new Fresnel lens design to ensure perfectly homogenous color mixing regardless of beam angle. With its single-source transmitting lens, Merak casts wonderfully crisp light and just one shadow. It forms a perfect complement to the new Ghibli LED spot luminaire.

Ambersphere's famous "Gin O'Clock" gathering at the end of each day gave plenty of opportunity for visitors to mingle and discuss the new products demonstrated throughout the day. "The response to our new products and future roadmap were extremely positive," says Ferrante. "We are very excited at the prospect of bringing these new products to market over the coming months. What a way to celebrate Ayrton's 15th anniversary!"

More information on Ayrton's full portfolio of LED lighting products can be found at the URL below.