Delicate Productions of Camarillo, California - award-winning providers of professional audio, lighting and video services for the concert, festival, touring, live and corporate event industries - has taken delivery of a large stock of Ayrton Khamsin LED profile luminaires. 

“The Khamsins are our first Ayrton fixtures,” says Joe DiCarlo, director of operations at Delicate Productions.  The investment came after an enquiry by the lighting director of rock band, Tool. “Lighting director, Mark ‘Junior’ Jacobson, a long-time client of ours for concert tours, was looking for an LED source profile fixture for the anticipated Tool tour.  That started us on the path of exploring these types of fixtures.  

“Multiple manufacturers sent us demo units and we staged a shoot-out, with Brad Nelms at ACT Lighting supplying the Khamsin fixtures.”

Khamsin stood out from the other fixtures for a number of reasons according to DiCarlo and Angelo Viacava, lighting operations at Delicate Productions.  “Khamsin promised the most lumens on paper and didn’t disappoint, as it was the brightest of all of the fixtures we had for the shootout,” says Viacava. “It was able to cut through the brightness of a video wall with ease.  A Tool show is normally very video heavy, and the Khamsins’ output was sure to rival the video wall’s intensity.”

He also liked Khamsin’s zoom range.  “It goes from a very large wide beam to a narrow beam very rapidly,” he reports, “and its speed really got my attention.  Khamsin is good for quick snaps amongst the colour wheels and gobo wheels. The gobo morphing in this fixture is exceptional.”

Viacava had praise for Khamsin’s colour saturation as well.  “It looked better than any of the LED-sourced fixtures we have been looking at recently,” he notes. “Colours are very vibrant, the pastels are beautiful, and it possesses hard-to-get colours such as reds and greens from the CMY colour mixing engine,” adds DiCarlo.

DiCarlo views Khamsin as a ‘very versatile fixture’ that will be an important addition to Delicate Productions’ inventory.  “Our growing company needs a real workhorse light,” he says. “The fact that Khamsin is an LED framing fixture is a big plus, the possibilities are endless.”

“Ayrton fixtures are globally supported from Ayrton’s offices around the world, and that’s a bonus for touring clients, too,” adds Viacava.

As soon as Delicate Productions took delivery of their new Khamsin units, the fixtures went out on Jacobson’s US tour dates for Tool.  “They’ve worked great,” Jacobson reports.  “We used them as a top back light in four clusters of six lined up behind each band member.  They were attached to the grid above the moving trusses, about 45-50 feet in the air – the highest fixtures in the rig.  We could rain a barrage of gobos on the band members and use them as back key lights, too.”

He was pleased that Neg Earth, the tour’s European lighting vendor, stocked Ayrton Khamsin as well so he could maintain a continuity of looks during the European leg.  Jacobson notes that he encountered bad weather for every US festival date, but that didn’t stop the Khamsin fixtures. “Everything got soaked at one show but we didn’t lose any Khamsins.  They all fired up the next day, which I can’t say for the other lights on the tour.”

Jacobson plans to use the fixtures again for the full US run of the tour, which continues next fall.  “I might use them differently for the next part of the tour,” he says. “They’ve been hidden in the rig so you don’t see the lens and some gobo looks got lost.”

According to Delicate, the Khamsin units were earmarked for a stadium show by the Original Misfits in Los Angeles at the end of June.  “We introduced the lights to LD Jon Eddy who works with us a lot and likes Ayrton products,” says Viacava. “He reached out to us to reserve Khamsins for the show.”

Following the Original Misfits was a date with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Santa Barbara Bowl in mid-July.  “We had spec’ed another LED fixture for the performance before we purchased the Khamsins but changed the spec when they arrived,” notes Viacava.  “Khamsin is very quiet, which is crucial for lighting the orchestra.”

DiCarlo gives kudos to ACT Lighting and Brad Nelms for “their support and how wonderful they’ve been through the whole process.  We often work with ACT Lighting to supply grandMA consoles, but this was our first fixture purchase. We hope to build on our relationship with ACT as we buy more Ayrton fixtures in the future."