UK-based production design company, Okulus, chose a bank of 40 Ayrton
MagicBlade™-R fixtures to back the up-and-coming American rock band, PVRIS, on
their first-ever televised appearance. The band appeared in January on the Jimmy
Kimmel Live! show, the longest-running late night chat show on America’s ABC
television network, where they were watched by over 2 million viewers.

PVRIS may still be in its infancy, but the band recognized the significance of this
prime exposure, and were keen to invest time in ensuring their appearance was
memorable. They turned to Okulus’ lighting designers and programmers, James
Scott and Louis Oliver, to bring their ideas to life.

Scott and Oliver decided the unique appearance and reliability of Ayrton’s
MagicBlade™-R fixtures were a sure-fire way to achieve this and used them as a
dynamic backdrop to the band’s equally dynamic performance.

“We wanted to give the band a look that would have an impact on this, their first
televised appearance, and that in front of an audience of 1-2 million viewers on this
prime time American TV show,’ says Oliver. “Knowing the size of the audience, and
the social media and online coverage that would follow, we wanted to be sure to
present the band in a strong, signature way, and provide them with a solid piece of
footage that emphasized the look and brand of the band.’

Scott and Oliver used the MagicBlade-R units to create a matrix of light around the
band, and programmed them to create some strong looks and dramatic sweeps that
looked great on camera.

The MagicBlade-R units were rigged vertically on ten 8ft poles behind the band in a
4-high x 10-wide configuration to fit within the restricted space of the Kimmel
studios. “The “Lobby’ performance area has a low trim and an angled upstage wall
which meant we had to keep things simple,’ says Scott. “We needed a fixture that
was compact and full of features. We aren’t using any colour in the campaign, so
we are really only playing with intensity and movement. The MagicBlade™-R was
perfect as it’s one fixture with many light sources.’

Oliver and Scott chose to programme each MagicBlade-R manually without using
any of the onboard features. “We wanted to make a truly bespoke look for the band
and take advantage of the versatility of the units to achieve this. We knew what we
wanted to achieve and the fixtures are easy to programme, so the whole operation
went very smoothly.’

The programming took place at the offices of Ayrton’s exclusive UK distributor,
Ambersphere, in London. “The team at Ambersphere were helpful as always,
supplying us with space, and a console to work on,’ says Oliver. The show was then
set up and operated by Sooner Routhier during the broadcast, triggered by timecode
and driven from a GrandMA2 Light console.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance came ahead of a US tour in which PVRIS will
support Fall Out Boy, before embarking on a UK headline tour in the spring which
will return to the US later this year. Okulus, with the aid of Ayrton, will be
supporting them all the way.

More information on Ayrton’s full portfolio of LED lighting products can be found at
www.ayrton.eu.