Ayrton on the road with The Rubens
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Lighting designer Tim Beeston of Melbourne-based Flash Bang Productions was “delighted” to have Ayrton’s new Mistral-S spot luminaires on the tour, which were supplied by South West Solutions (SWS) of Yarraville, Victoria.
“I designed a ladder system incorporating mirror balls and small spot beams,” explains Beeston. “The Mistral-S with its small, light profile was the ideal fixture for my ladder system. We also compared it against a very well-known profile fixture and, with its flat field, the Mistral-S was definitely the better instrument.”
Beeston used eight Mistral-S fixtures, hung on four ladders along with eight mirror balls beneath each one, and used them either for beam looks, projecting onto the mirror balls to create big mirror ball bounces, or as the back spot for the show. However, for the first half of the show these were all hidden by a large Rubens silk backdrop to be revealed by a spectacular kabuki drop in song 10.
“Everything about the Mistral-S impressed me,” says Beeston. “They are so bright, but it’s the colour mixing that is most impressive. The deep colours you can pull out of them, without taking away too much brightness, is incredible. In fact, I was just dumbfounded on how a feature-rich and punchy light could be contained in such a small lightweight package.”
When the tour reached The Forum in Melbourne, Beeston got to use SWS’ new Ayrton Bora-S wash luminaire with three located on the downstage truss to be used for backdrop framing during the second set and backdrop wash for the first set.
(Jim Evans)
