No sooner had LA-based RKDE taken delivery of Ayrton Ghibli fixtures from ACT Lighting than the LED spot luminaires were quickly dispatched to E3’s trade show floor and then to the American Idol Live nationwide tour.
For nearly 30 years, RKDE has provided production for festivals, tours, automotive events, corporate conventions, television productions, private events, and religious services. The boutique company maintains an extensive inventory of lighting, staging, audio and video equipment.
“We were looking for new technology – we wanted to get away from standard lamps, which are expensive to maintain and replace,” said RKDE’s Owner, Ray Woodbury, a longtime production professional. “We wanted a fixture with the output and capabilities that would surpass traditional lamp fixtures and that’s exactly what Ghibli gives us.”
Ghibli is Ayrton’s first LED spot luminaire with a factory-equipped framing system, that delivers a light output of 23,000 lumens in a highly compact format. Its proprietary optical system produces an extremely uniform fat beam with no hot spot. Ayrton Ghibli’s selection of gobos and colours was made in collaboration with lighting designers to meet the needs of the entertainment industry.
“I’ve always liked Ayrton’s extremely innovative fixtures, but we’ve never owned any,” said Woodbury. “ACT demo’d Ghibli in our shop, with one of my clients attending, and we were pretty astounded at what the fixture was able to do. We put Ghibli up against some other lights, and it beat them hands down.”
Woodbury was impressed by the Ayrton Ghibli’s output, framing capabilities, gobos and quality of colours. “I like the colour saturation, wide palette and the ease of getting the colours you want,” he reported: “We’ve been doing a lot of shows that require framing capabilities, too – the USC’s opera program, the Long Beach Opera, trade shows and corporate events.”
He noted that recently clients have been asking for the Ayrton Ghibli by name: “Matt Shimamoto of Volt Lites requested them for the E3 trade show floor. And lighting designer Butch Allen specified them for the American Idol tour. People already know and like these fixtures.”
Woodbury said RKDE plans to buy more Ayrton Ghibli units to meet the expected demand for additional fixtures. “Compared to other fixtures they are not price-prohibitive, especially when you consider the expenses associated with lamp fixtures.”
He concluded: “Aaron Hubbard is a really knowledgeable guy who demo’d Ghibli for us with full confidence in the product,” says Woodbury. “ACT also helped us develop financial terms that assisted in our purchase.”