Ayrton has released its latest luminaire, the Eurus — the newest member of their Classical 5 Series. The new fixture is also hailed as their first multi-function profile under the new Slim-21 program that is dedicated to miniaturizing fixtures and reducing weight. That doesn’t mean this fixture is short on features by any means, they’ve just compacted them into a medium-sized fixture instead of the large scale 100-plus-pound heavyweights in the lighting industry.
Like its predecessor in the 5 Series, the Ghibli, this fixture offers all the attributes a designer could ask for, but they have increased the zoom ratio, color wheel slots, and intensity along the way. They offer this unit in the Eurus S-series or the TC version. The S-Series offers up 32,000 lumens of output with a 650W ultra-compact monochromatic LED emitter light engine delivering a 6700K color temperature beam and a CRI greater than 70. The Eurus TC, on the other hand, offers a high CRI — greater than 90 — but fewer lumens of output at 22,000 with a 6K color temp. For this road test we are looking at the S-Series.
Power and Beam Size
Eurus-S is specially designed for stage applications. It comes equipped with a new 650W ultra-compact monochromatic LED emitter. To lighten the weight of the engine, Ayrton has developed a new high-efficiency power supply in a new die-cast aluminum base that takes up 33 percent less volume than other lights in the same category. Eurus has a highly efficient phase-change liquid cooling system that includes a particularly effective ultra-silent ventilation mode, designed for stage and studio applications. And it’s one powerful white light beam. I notice a completely flat field with zero loss of light around the edges from the framing blades, even at its widest zoom.
The fixture features a zoom range with an 11:1 ratio, made possible through the use of 13 different lenses in the optical path. The linear beam size can cover a range of 4.5° to 50°, which is pretty incredible for a unit this compact and light in weight, and it can emit the narrowest beam angle in its class.
It is also perhaps the fastest motorized zoom I have ever seen, taking under 1/3 of a second to execute the range. Maintaining a hard edge across the entire zoom range was easy going from cue to cue. The fixture also offers the ability to take the zoom past its smallest point to create a beam with an intense hot spot — perfect for very long throws and rock ‘n’ roll lighting. Executing a zoom sine wave effect is easy, but I do notice this feature is noisy. It’s the only attribute of this fixture that is not very silent. I should also note that the fixture offers a silent mode, but while I did not test this feature in this mode, it’s very quiet normally.
The iris mechanism is smooth and can certainly snap in an instant if needed. A range of pulse effects are included as well. Its beam range of 15° to 100° enables me to create a pencil beam with the zoom at its smallest and still deliver a bright shaft of light, similar to a dedicated beam fixture. The large 170mm front lens allows the light to emit a nice soft wash beam, cementing the Eurus as a high class hybrid fixture.
The framing system is similar to others, with four frames that swivel on eight channels. The framing module can rotate ±60°. The framing shutters themselves are quite fast, and writing chases using these is a nifty feature. The rotating motor itself is not continuous. Each blade can perform a 100% curtain wipe/light reveal. The fixture does not offer macros for framing effects.
The dimmer is not mechanical and runs perfectly linear to my eye. It still dims smoothly in the last ten percent with no stepping whatsoever, and I notice zero color differential with the change in intensity. The strobe effect works well, offering up to 25 flashes per second in sync mode speed. The random strobe rates perform well in the normal way. Despite testing this fixture in extended mode, it does not appear to have the “Synced Random” mode that can make all of your fixtures strobe at an identical random rate simultaneously.
Movement-wise the head rotates as fast as any profile on the market, taking two seconds to execute 540° of pan. It handles movement effects effortlessly and quickly from command.
Breaking Up the Beam
The Eurus offers up 18 HD glass replaceable gobos, and one wheel boasts seven indexable/rotating gobos. This wheel has some good graphics including the six colored psychedelic gobo many users may recognize from Ayrton’s Huracan-X animation cassette. All 18 gobos can shake. The static wheel offers a variety of textures and aerial gobos LDs will recognize with no dichroic colors in any of them, making it optimum for the continuous gobo roll effect. I was able to focus the gobos sharply in all zoom ranges.
The bi-directional and variable speed animation wheel includes curved lines that enable programmers to create water effects easily. I notice it is also quite easy to morph the beam from one gobo on one wheel to different pattern on the other wheel. Overlaying the animation effect on any gobo on either also functions flawlessly. The optics allowing me to achieve this are well engineered.
Prism-wise, the fixture offers two separate wheels — a five-hole circular as well as a four facet linear model. They can both be indexed or rotated as well as used simultaneously.
Eurus offers up two frosts. The first is a variable light frost that can soften a texture without sacrificing a lot of light output. The heavy frost snaps in place and nearly eliminates any trace of a texture underneath it. Both frosts can be used simultaneously to block any effect the fixture offers. I found a bit of the light frost backed with a medium out of focus zoom gave me a perfect wash on stage.
I note that unlike other manufacturers who have space issues that limit using certain attributes from occupying the beam path at the same time, the Eurus does not suffer from this problem.
Coloring It Up
This is one of the more profound attributes of this light. The saturated colors for mixing CMY make this color system among the best I have ever seen. I can mix a blue as deep as Dark Navy with full intensity. The Cyan and Magenta flags are very saturated. Mixing a luscious purple or medium amber is incredible easy, and there are no noticeable color shifts around the edges. The field is flat and perfect when shined on a wall 50 feet away. Canary Yellow is the default at full, which makes the green mix a very rich shade of forest green, one that cuts too much light to be very useful, but the medium green is shiny as an emerald.
But that dark green doesn’t really matter, as the complementary color wheel is stacked with saturated colors such as Forest green, Blood red, and UV that provides a lot of light output. This wheel also contains a CTB filter, and the fixture allows me to manually mix my own half colors. Mixing a red/NC half color looks awesome when you add some cyan or CTO mixed in with it.
The variable CTO channel is smooth and linear, working as one might expect. I estimate it takes the light down to a 3200K color temperature. Another channel provides me with two additional Minus Green filters for optimizing the Color Rendering Index.
The fixture itself is medium sized, with a locking yoke. The aluminum frame and ABS outer shell help keep the weight down to a reasonable 72.5 lbs. (32.9 Kg). Two handles on the base are the only ones on the fixture. Standard omega brackets for hanging and rubber feet for floor placement are included. Operation is controlled by DMX with 5-pin XLR’s and a set of RJ45 connectors for Art-Net or sACN commands. Users have a choice of three modes ranging from 39-62 channels.
At a Glance:
Compact and Feature-Packed
Ayrton’s Eurus fixture may not be as big and heavy as the 100-plus-pound heavyweights out there, but it packs a punch with nice, bright output — perfect for any application. This fixture also contains every attribute any LD would want in a compact moving light, with a smaller, lighter frame.
PROS: Smaller size and lighter weight than other fixtures in its class. Not missing any effects. Bright, good gobo selection, wide zoom ratio and terrific optics.
CONS: Could use a syncing-random strobe effect.
FEATURES
- Fast motorized linear zoom
- LED life (L70) up to 40,000 hours
- Flicker-free output
- 540° Pan, 270° Tilt
- Stand-alone and Master/Slave modes
- Local LCD display control panel
- 3 DMX mode options (39 to 62 channels)
- Advanced liquid cooling system
- Ventilation modes, new Silent Mode
SPECS
- Light Source: 650W ultra-compact monochromatic LED emitter
- Output Lumens: 32,000
- Color Temp Output: 6700K
- Maximum Wattage: 1000W
- Strobe Speed: 25 fps
- Zoom: 4.5°-50°
- Frost: Variable light frost and heavy frost
- Iris: 15%-100%
- Gobos: 18 interchangeable on two wheels, one that rotates
- Animation Wheel: Included
- Color: CMY with 7-slot color wheel
- CTO: Variable
- Framing System: 4-blade w/± 60° rotation
- IP Rating: IP20
- Size: 17.5” x 29.3” x 10.7”
- Weight: 72.5 lbs.
- MSRP: $12,940
Manufacturer/Distributor: Ayrton/ACT Lighting
More Info: www.ayrton.eu, www.actlighting.com
