South African technical production supplier, Aurras Group, has expanded its inventory of Ayrton fixtures, adding Stradale Profiles and increasing its consignment of Nando 502 Wash fixtures to accompany its existing stock of Rivale Profiles. Aurras Group now has the largest rental inventory of Ayrton fixtures in South Africa.
Aurras Group was formed in 2023 by Justin Heyman and Gareth Aitken who merged their companies, TechX and OutputAV, so they could expand their service offerings and take on larger events. The company now specialises in the supply of lighting, sound, visual, structural and power requirements to events, theatre, festivals, concerts, conferences, corporate events and installations.
Aurras Group has a long-standing relationship with Planetworld, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for South Africa, and together they have become the front runners in advocating Ayrton across the country.
“When we formed Aurras we had to decide what brand to invest in,” says Heyman. “Mike (Summerfield, Planetworld’s Pro Live Business Development Manager) introduced us to Ayrton and we haven’t looked back since. We cater for a very wide range of projects and felt that Ayrton fixtures had the versatility to be able to handle this.”
“The nature of the South African market demands a lot of flexibility, so we knew Ayrton would be a perfect match for Aurras,” says Summerfield who first brought Rivale Profile to Heyman’s attention shortly after its launch, largely on the basis of its output, versatility, compact size and IP65-rating.
“If you can get everything in one little package, then you are doing well!” confirms Heyman. “Rivale was our first foray into professional lighting fixtures and a big step for us. But within six months we made a repeat order and doubled our stock! This was closely followed by 24 Nando 502 Wash fixtures, and 6 months later we ordered a further 24 Nando Washes, 24 Zonda 3 Washes and 24 Stradale Profiles – which we are also the first to own in South Africa. So within the space of twelve months we have gone from a standing start to 120 Ayrton units, all driven by our conviction in their performance and the increased demand we have for them.”
So, what was it that specifically makes the Ayrton fixtures so suited to the South African market? “Gobos were a big consideration for us, and Ayrton has really, really nice gobos for our theatre work – Artscape Theatre has got Ayrton fixtures for that same reason,” explains Heyman. “We wanted a fixture that could be finessed for theatre productions, with great – I mean really smooth and seamless – CMY colour mixing. But on the flipside, we needed a fixture that we could put into a festival and absolutely blow the socks off the crowd, with great beam effects, high output, different prisms, and again, a great gobo selection. And obviously IP rating was very important to us because of the climate here. Rivale ticked all of those boxes.”
The first consignment of 24 Nando 502 Washes was initially bought for Aurras’ indoor corporate projects, “But doubling up to forty-eight gives us the numbers to cover our outdoor shows too, which is why the IP-rating again comes in handy,” adds Heyman.
Having been impressed with the performance of their initial Ayrton investments, Heyman and Aitken needed something more compact, lighter and with a reduced footprint for smaller productions and waited with anticipation for Stradale Profile to arrive. “We were very excited and very impressed with what we saw: with Stradale we now have 24 smaller units that can basically deliver a similar output and features as Rivale,” says Heyman.
“It’s a great advantage be able to offer a standardised rig from a family of fixtures with the same gobos, colour temperatures, etc. It makes life a lot easier and the lighting designers love it.”
“We work with many big production companies and all of their engineers and designers have been very excited to work with the Ayrton fixtures, which are new to them. We’re exposing Ayrton to a lot of new lighting designers and clients, who’ve given us really positive feedback regarding the gobos, the outputs, the pixel control of the Nando Washes. We would like to believe that Aurras and Planetworld have assisted quite substantially in gaining market share in South Africa.”
“Ayrton was looking to establish a presence in the South African market when they appointed Planetworld as their distributor,” explains Summerfield, “and Aurras Group was looking to enhance its own capabilities and its clients’ productions with an improved portfolio. We believe Ayrton’s presence in South Africa has strengthened as a result of our partnership and we are very excited to be part of it.”
“We’ve had amazing support from Planetworld,” concludes Heyman. “We took a bit of a risk investing in a new brand from the get-go, but we’re very happy with our decision and we do believe it’s paid off. The fixtures have shown excellent performance with minimal issues, reinforcing our decision to invest in additional units. They’re total workhorses and we’re finding the build quality of the units excellent.”
“In 2025 we were awarded the contract to provide and execute the lighting for Rocking The Daisies Main Stage, which is probably one of Cape Town’s most iconic music festivals, for the first time. We deployed a full rig of Ayrton Fixtures including 24 Rivale Profiles, 10 Stradale Profiles & 34 Nando 502 LED Washes.”
