A Deep Dive on Claypaky's Arolla Aqua S-LT and Arolla Aqua M-LT
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
Claypaky is expanding its Arolla Aqua family with two new IP66-rated long-throw profile fixtures: the Arolla Aqua S-LT and Arolla Aqua M-LT. Designed for lighting designers, rental houses, touring productions, outdoor festivals, and permanent installs, both moving lights bring Claypaky’s precision optics, calibrated white LED engines, CMY color mixing, framing, gobos, prisms, and weather-ready durability into compact, road-ready profiles.
Meet the Duo: Arolla Aqua S-LT and M-LT
With the arrival of the Claypaky Arolla Aqua S-LT (small) and M-LT (medium), joining the existing Arolla Aqua LT and Arolla Aqua HP, Claypaky has four long-throw profiles in the Arolla Aqua lineup, giving LDs a tiered choice of size, output, and power draw without ever changing the creative language between fixtures. Same DNA. Same toolkit. Different footprints.
The "LT" in the name is the key. These are long-throw profiles, engineered around precision optics that hold a clean, crisp beam over distance. Think a tight gobo landing on a specific scenic piece from the back of a theatre, or a needle-sharp aerial cutting through haze in a venue where a shorter-throw fixture would turn to mush before it ever reached the audience. Two sizes. One creative vocabulary. Fully rated for outdoor use.
"The quality of Claypaky optics, glass, and color are vital to what we offer over the competition." - George Masek, Claypaky Product Specialist
Optics, Output, and Glass: The Claypaky Advantage
Ask any Claypaky engineer what they build and they'll remind you that what they are constantly developing is the light that hits the artist, not just a moving light. The distinction matters. Anyone can bolt a bright LED into a housing and sell it as a moving head. Building a fixture that delivers consistent, controlled, color-true light to a specific point on a stage at a specific distance is a very different problem, and the engineering that goes into solving it shows up in the parts that nobody sees: the glass, the coatings, the color components, the assembly tolerances. The payoff is a beam a trained eye picks out of a rig instantly. Both the S-LT and M-LT put that philosophy front and center with a high efficiency optical system.
Arolla Aqua S-LT Optical Specs
Custom 350W calibrated white LED engine (6500K)
21,000 lumen output
3.8° to 47.2° linear zoom
140 mm (5.5 in) tempered glass front lens
Arolla Aqua M-LT Optical Specs
Custom 550W calibrated white LED engine (6500K)
31,000 lumen output
3.5° to 53.5° linear zoom
160 mm (6.3 in) tempered glass front lens
Color and Effects: The Full Creative Toolbox
At the heart of both fixtures is a calibrated white LED source, engineered for full-spectrum output rather than tuned-down efficiency. That matters because every color you generate downstream starts with the quality of that white. Claypaky's CMY color mixing system has been reworked specifically for this engine, with the color curves adjusted to give LDs the best combination of saturation depth and maintained output. That is a direct response to market feedback from designers.
Combine that ability with a linear CTO ranging from 3000K to 6500K, and a six-position color wheel that includes a high-CRI filter that pushes your CRI from 70 into the upper 80s, and you have a versatile palette that behaves predictably under any camera or to any eye.
The Effects Package
Both fixtures carry the same effects toolkit, and it is a serious one:
7 HD interchangeable rotating gobos
9 HD interchangeable fixed gobos
Animation Wheel
4-facet radial prism and 4-facet linear prism
15-blade motorized iris
Full framing system: 4 focal-plane blades, +/- 60° rotation, with macro channel control
"Total Curtain" effect: full blackout with any single blade
1° and 5° frosts
What this whole toolbox adds up to is a creative canvas where every flag, every gobo, every prism, and every frost does exactly what you asked it to, every time. The four-plane framing system cuts clean whether you are pulling a tight hard edge on a scenic piece or softening the same blade through a frost for a romantic key.
And here is the detail that matters for anyone programming across multi-fixture rigs: both fixtures are able to share the same DMX footprint. A cue stack programmed for one will drive the other. Rental shops mixing S-LT and M-LT inventory across a project, or programmers swapping a fixture mid-tour, do not have to rebuild, re-patch, or reprogram a thing.
Infinite Motion With Advanced Engineering
Both the Claypaky Arolla Aqua S-LT and M-LT run endless pan and tilt. Claypaky went further than just the rotation spec. The motion system on both fixtures is incredibly advanced:
Absolute Position: a sensor inside the pan and tilt motors tracks the head's position in real time.
Automatic Repositioning: because Absolute Position already knows where the head was, the fixture can recover seamlessly from a drop in power, a drop in data, or any event that would otherwise kick off a fixture reset. The motors stay silent, the head reorients to its last-known state without the tell-tale audience-visible swirl, and the show goes on.
Electronic Brake: a physical brake that locks the head in place when power drops, keeping the fixture from flopping on its tilt axis during a power event or a service call.
Durability: Built for the Road, the Rain, and the Sun
Both fixtures carry a full IP66 rating as part of Claypaky's SHIELD Family, which means they are sealed against dust and strong water jets. Outdoor festivals, open-air stadiums, architectural installs, and any rig exposed to the elements can treat these units the same way indoor rigs treat standard fixtures. No domes. No trash bags. No rain calls. And despite all of that protection, the fixtures stay compact. The S-LT is genuinely small for its output class, and the M-LT follows right behind.
Fixture | Weight | Dimensions (L x W x H) | Max Power |
Arolla Aqua S-LT | 25.9 kg (57 lbs) | 342 x 260 x 637 mm (13.46 x 10.23 x 25.07 in) | 700 VA |
Arolla Aqua M-LT | 31.2 kg (68.8 lbs) | 385 x 280 x 680 mm (15.2 x 11 x 26.77 in) | 950 VA |
Here is where the nerd stuff gets fun. Beyond the IP66 seal itself, both fixtures carry a stack of protection features that separate a "weatherproof" fixture from one that actually survives a season:
Sun Safe Protection: when the fixture is idle in direct sunlight, the head automatically tilts to get the lens out of the sun's path. Solar damage to optical coatings and internal components is a real problem on outdoor rigs sitting through long setup days and off hours, and this is the kind of quiet engineering choice that saves fixtures across a full summer of festivals.
Thermally protected power supply with safeguards for overheating and cooling failure.
Forced ventilation with axial fans for consistent thermal performance even inside a sealed IP66 housing.
Wireless DMX, web-based UI, and full CloudIO compatibility for remote diagnostics, monitoring, and firmware updates. No ladders, no lift calls, no climbing onto a soaking wet roof to figure out why channel 47 is sulking.
This is the stuff that does not make the marketing headline but makes the difference in year three of the fixture's life.
The Complete Long-Throw Package
The Arolla Aqua S-LT and M-LT are genuinely complete fixtures. Every creative tool a designer wants is in the box, the output engine has the power to drive all of them at once, and the whole thing is wrapped in an IP66 body that does not flinch at rain, dust, or direct sun. That is the combination that gives you the confidence to throw these units into anything. Pack them, fly them, hang them, and the show runs.
Two compact, complete profile fixtures. Flagship performance. If you want to spec the Arolla Aqua S-LT or M-LT into a project, head over to Claypaky's website for more information.
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