Ayrton Shines on SztárbanSztár Leszek in Hungary

	From left to right: lighting designer Balint Marafkó, CEO and chief lighting designer of Two Men's Show Balázs Varga, and Lisys-Project executive director Gábor Kele.

A plethora of Ayrton lighting fixtures provided striking visual impact on the popular televised music contest, SztárbanSztár Leszek ('In the Star, I'll be the Star'), on Hungary's Tv2 television channel last month.

Lighting designer Balázs Varga chose Ayrton Khamsin-TC, MagicBlade-R, and MagicDot-XT to delineate the complex outlines of the stage for this visual extravaganza. Varga was assisted by Bálint Marafkó, CEO and chief lighting designer at television and film lighting specialists Two Men's Show, which provided the fixtures, which were supplied by Gábor Kele, executive director of Lisys-Project, Ayrton's exclusive distributor for Hungary.

24 MagicBlade-R fixtures were rigged on upstage trusses to outline the stylized shape of the performance area and provide a "top shutter" for the cameras, with MagicBlade-R's svelte linear shape proving a great, ever-changing frame for the core stage design.

Overhead and onstage, 50 MagicDot-XT were used to populate a circular truss above the main stage, and sited at stage level around the curved upper band deck. "The MagicDot fits very well into the scenery because of its small body size," says Varga. "Because of this, many MagicDots can be stacked next to each other -- the luminaires in the upper circle were almost touching each other -- so running an effect is very impressive. The goal here was to give an overhead lock to the low-level cameras, but because the MagicDots were also visible on the ground and on the columns, we were able to use them as a supplement to the overall lighting."

Twelve of Ayrton's new Khamsin-TC fixtures were used to create water effects, back lighting, frame scenery using the shutters, and other effects, with four units each lining the two upper edges of the diamond-shaped stage and another four on the overhead bridge. "Khamsin is a true multifunction lamp which performed several tasks in this show," says Varga. "We used them for effects of course, but we really liked the way they illuminated the stage for the dance performance, and how they interacted with the dry ice effect on stage. All static positions were lit with Khamsin-TC, and we were able to use those on the ground-level front ledge for close-ups on the performers -- not just for animation in the background, but as a beautiful source of illumination. We were delighted in how well-executed the result was.

"Khamsin-TC is my personal favorite lamp, with a huge advantage in its LED source. With its metal halide counterparts, when the bulb is exhausted after many hours of operation, they begin to turn green or yellow, and we struggle to set the key light and back light at the requested level. It also becomes very difficult to achieve the same color across all our fixtures. With Khamsin-TC, however, this is not a problem; these tasks can be done almost without corrections, the camera didn't turn green, and everything went smoothly. All the Ayrton luminaires are aesthetically pleasing and absolutely complement the scenery and TV studio visuals. I would definitely use them again."

Varga and Marafkó were already familiar with Ayrton products having used them for many years. "We first became aware of Ayrton for its superb effects fixtures, with MagicPanel and MagicBlade especially making a big bang and truly establishing the effect lamp market. This success was followed by many others in their effects products, but we were surprised and delighted to see Ayrton's very powerful development in LED spot and profile lights. When Khamsin came along, it filled the gap for a really powerful LED profile lamp that can be used on TV and shows."

For more information on Ayrton's full range of LED lighting fixtures, visit the link below.