Lighting Designer, Gregg Maltby chose an array of Ayrton LED fixtures – Diablo, Eurus profiles and Zonda 9 FX washes made up half of the rig – for Peter Frampton’s Never Say Never Tour.
Frampton’s North American tour kicked off in June 2023 in Huber Heights, Ohio and wrapped in Sandy, Utah in August. Then recently extended the tour with a series of November dates. OSA International in Nashville, the lighting vendor for the tour, provided the Ayrton fixtures to longtime customer Maltby.
“I’ve used Ayrton lights for a long time, including for Huey Lewis, Boston, and the Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly Hologram Tour,” commented Maltby. “But these particular Ayrton fixtures were new to me. OSA Vice President/Lighting Mark Fetto set up a demo for me in their shop, and I designed the plot around those lights.”
Fetto and OSA International have invested heavily in Ayrton in recent years. “Ayrton makes some of the most durable equipment out there; we have very few problems with the fixtures, especially in a touring environment where they hold up very well on the road,” Fetto reported. “We have more Diablos than any other profile in our inventory; they’re great for corporate shows. The Eurus have become our workhorse profile, and we’ve ordered 36 more of them. The Zondas are new but as designers get their hands on them they’re finding more and more ways to use all the effects they offer.”
Maltby used six Diablos as his main front key lights. “I use them as lekos since I can shutter them,” he explained.
He mounted nine Eurus in upstage truss and rolls out six on the floor where they serve as the primary effects lights creating fans and aerials and projecting gobos in dark colours.
Six Zonda 9 FXs act as Maltby’s main upstage wash lights. “They backlight the band really well and are great for patterning eye candy,” he commented. “In three months on tour we’ve changed out only one light in the rig. They are bullet proof, really dependable.”
“We’re continuing to add more Ayrton lights to our inventory,” added Fetto. “ACT’s Eric Abad, in Western Regional Sales, is great and helps us get what we need.”
Eric Abad concluded: “Mark and the entire team at OSA know what they need from their gear and, even more importantly, what their clients will demand. This makes them incredibly easy to work with and a great match for the Ayrton lineup.”
