Precision mechanics
Structure and mechanism drawn, dimensioned, fitted. What is set once is set for the whole series.
Manufacture de grandes illusions
Do the impossible.
No. 001 · MMXXVI · Lyon
Air360 · in performance
ScrollMade in France
- Designed and drawn in Lyon
- Machined and assembled in France
- Final inspection in the workshop
- Shipped from Lyon worldwide
01 / The stage
What the audience sees.
A guest steps up, lies down, and leaves the ground. Not on a distant stage: among the crowd, within arm’s reach, beneath their phones.
A grand illusion is made for that moment, when the audience stops searching and starts watching.
The film
“What if one of your guests took flight?”
Just over a minute, filmed in real conditions, among the guests.
Previous version · new film in preparation
You see the workshop.
Behind the curtain
The audience sees the impossible.
In front of the curtain
02 / The workshop
Three crafts in a single machine.
Apparatum designs and builds its illusions the way one builds an instrument: so that they work on the two-hundredth night as they did on the first.
We manufacture with industrial tools, on a fleet of machine tools worth several tens of millions of euros. Our idea is simple: to give every illusionist, including those just starting out, access to equipment that only the great shows could once afford. Robust illusions, built to last.
Embedded electronics
The machine counts its cycles. It knows how many times it has performed, and when it needs servicing.
Proprietary drive system
A system of our own design, which you will not find anywhere else. That is also why we do not show it.
“You read an A, then you see the mechanism: three parts turning around a void.”
Our mark states our method. Every part is drawn, dimensioned, then produced through an industrial process, and every machine passes a final inspection before leaving the workshop.
An illusion has no room for approximation: on stage, the slightest hesitation shows.
03 / The first piece
Air360N° 001
The levitation of an audience member, fully programmable.
A member of the audience lies down and rises, in the middle of the spectators. Air360 is performed completely surrounded, at 360°, a few steps from the audience: from close-up to the main stage, it adapts to every format.
Launch price · first series
€4,000 excl. VAT
In production now. The price will rise after the first series.
- AvailabilityIn production, first deliveries
- ControlQLab, MIDI inputs, remote control
- SeriesNumbered, engraved serial plate
- UpdatesEvery machine delivered is kept up to date
- DeliveryFrance and worldwide
- ManufacturingLyon, France
We do not show the mechanism or the plans online. The magicians who perform it will learn more.
04 / What changes
A levitation that no longer feels like an elevator.
Air360 keeps the effect and rethinks everything else: the mechanics, the drive, the way it is controlled.
An organic rise
New timings and a much smoother lift. No more elevator effect: the body leaves the ground as if it were floating.
A completely redesigned motor
Quieter, so that nothing gives the rise away, even from the front row.
Controlled by QLab
The levitation and the music start together, from the same cue list. MIDI inputs for other control systems.
A remote control
Trigger the levitation remotely, at the exact moment, without going near the machine.
Wear parts preserved
They wear far less, and each one is tracked: maintenance happens at regular intervals, before a failure.
Always up to date
When Air360 improves, machines already delivered benefit. Keeping every unit up to date matters a great deal to us.
05 / The lineage
Born of the Spontus 360.
Air360 descends from a French invention: the Spontus 360, created by Olivier Guernion, known as Spontus, a magician and inventor based in the Oise. It was the first levitation of a spectator visible from all around the subject, and he sold it to magicians all over the world.
Hugo Marceau was one of its last buyers. The illusion was remarkable, but some technical limits could not be solved at the scale of a lone craftsman. We took it up with industrial means, under a new name, to make it our own illusion.
Thérèse, Olivier’s wife, gave us her blessing to continue this work. We remain in touch with her.
Read the full storyN° 001 · MMXXVI
Lyon · France
06 / The register
One machine, one history.
Each unit receives a brass serial plate and the workshop’s seal. Its number follows it throughout its life.
- A birth certificate. Number, version, date of commissioning, owner.
- A service log. Cycle counter, servicing, parts replaced.
- A transfer. If resold, the machine changes hands in the register and keeps its history.
07 / In performance
Among the guests, not behind a curtain.
Air360 is performed at 360°: the spectators are all around, a few steps away, and watch a member of the audience leave the ground. That is what makes it so versatile.
For close-up magicians
You perform close-up? Finish with a grand illusion.
After the cards and the coins, a guest rises in the middle of the room. It is the “wow” people are still talking about the next day.
It is also one more service to offer your clients: the levitation of a person. The ideal step up, and a real way to stand out in your market.
Close-up
The finale nobody expects, and one more option in your quotes.
Stage shows
The highlight of a show, performed among the audience or on stage.
Young audiences
Family and all-ages shows: a moment children talk about on the way home.
Corporate
Galas, seminars, evening events: the effect among the guests.
08 / The training
Two days in the workshop to perfect the illusion of your dreams.
Come to our workshops. Over two days, we set up the machine with you and build the staging, the cue list and the music, until the act feels like your own.
Dates and funding arrangements being finalised
Be notified of the first dates09 / The heritage
Modern magic was born in France, in workshops.
Clockmakers, mechanics, men of the stage: those who invented the grand illusion worked in workshops. Apparatum picks up their work where they left it.
Robert-Houdin
Clockmaker from Blois. Automata, Soirées fantastiques, the stage as precision mechanics.
Buatier de Kolta
Born in Caluire, at the gates of Lyon. The vanishing lady, the growing cube: the inventor of the modern grand illusion.
Lumière, then Méliès
In Lyon, the first machine for manufacturing illusions. Auguste Lumière, a conjuror himself, went on to found the Amicale Robert-Houdin in Lyon, still alive today. At the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, Méliès turned cinema into magic.
Christian Fechner
Film producer and magician, first prize for grand illusion and invention at FISM. His collection and his books gave Robert-Houdin back his place in history.
Yogano
An inventor from northern France, winner of the Magicus grand prize for his vertical bar stool levitation. His book of grand illusions became a reference.
Spontus 360
By combining two illusions from Yogano's book, Olivier Guernion created the first levitation of a spectator visible from every side. Yogano congratulated him, saying he had never thought of it himself.
Apparatum
Grand illusions conceived and built in Lyon, for the stages of the world.
10 / How we work
From the first conversation to the serial plate.
- 01
The conversation
Your act, your venues, your touring constraints.
- 02
Confidentiality
An agreement signed before any technical information.
- 03
The quote
Options, lead time and delivery, in euros or dollars.
- 04
Manufacturing
Structure, mechanism, electronics, then final inspection.
- 05
Delivery
Serial plate, seal and handover.
11 / Reserve or request a quote
Let’s talk about your next act.
Every request is read and receives a personal reply. Tell us where you perform and what you have in mind.