Ayrton MagicPanel™602 has it Nailed

Following a successful summer festival tour promoting their new album Hesitation Marks across the Far East and Europe, American industrial rock project, Nine Inch Nails, are currently bringing their show to North American arenas under a dramatic lighting rig that incorporates no less than 126 Ayrton MagicPanel™602 fixtures.

Legendary rock production/lighting designer Leroy Bennett, whose long line of collaborations includes  Prince, Tina Turner, Faith Hill, Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga, Rammstein, Madonna, Beyonce and Bruno Mars has installed 14 motorised pods on variable speed winches above the stage, each containing nine Ayrton MagicPanels in a 3 x 3 configuration.

Ayrton MagicPanel 602 is a moving head video panel composed of thirty-six 15W Osram RGBW LED light sources, each of which can be individually programmed. Each LED produces a powerful, tight 7.5° beam which together are born to map moving images in 3D space. MagicPanel 602 demonstrates infinite rotation in both tilt and pan axis and produces a sharp edge 15.000 lumen multidirectional beam of light, all of which can be managed by ArtNet, RDM or DMX.

The MagicPanels formed a major part of the NIN lighting rig where they not only run chases, graphic elements and overhead effects above the performers, and act as audience blinders, but also channel video content and pixel mapped images across a total of 4536 LEDs points.

Bennett employs the MagicPanel fixtures to create many effects throughout the course of the performance, using the capabilities of the individually programmable LEDs to delineate each song: “We tried to push the MagicPanels as far as time allowed us but still remain in keeping with the music,” he states. “I found the MagicPanels very interesting and diverse which is why I chose them, and they have proved to be as bright, versatile and reliable as I had hoped.”

Four months into NIN’s seven month tour, Ayrton MagicPanels have certainly proved their durability. And, in terms of performance and design potential Bennett claims MagicPanels are ‘great on all levels’. “The 360° pan and tilt, brightness and pixel mapping capabilities are all key to the success of these units. You’ll be seeing a very large amount being used in the next few months!”

The MagicPanels were supplied by Upstaging, Inc. who purchased them through Ayrton’s exclusive US distributor, Morpheus Lights. The MagicPanels are taking the rock world by storm with a further 64 Panels having been supplied by Upstaging, Inc to the Wiz Khalifa US tour, and 48 units supplied to Florida Georgia Line’s tour by Morris Light and Sound. Tours by Walk the Moon and Brand New have also used MagicPanels supplied by 44 Designs, while Leroy Bennett has included 20 Ayrton MagicPanels, this time arrayed in five pods each containing four MagicPanels, in his design for the recent Kelly Clarkson US tour.

NIN will continue to tour North America with Ayrton MagicPanels until the end of November before embarking on an Australian/New Zealand leg in March 2014.

AYRTON is specialized in developing intelligent LED light products for Entertainment and Architectural applications.

Based south of Paris, France, the AYRTON Headquarters and Research & Development centre combine and organize the highest competence in engineering, software, electronics and optics, with the aim to create highly innovative fixtures.

AYRTON fixtures are created to answer any demanding installation and criteria, and are distributed through devoted and exclusive worldwide teams. AYRTON uses reliable, flexible and avant-garde technologies linked to innovative design, to provide AYRTON customers with a wide range of pioneer lighting solutions for installation in Stages, TV Studios, Show-venues and Architectural schemes.