Learnin’ with LED’s

Recently, our sister company LED Source provided 24″ LED drop in tiles for a Test classroom. The goal was to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption while improving the overall look of the room. The following image below left is a before shot…

Old Fluorescent Lighting

Using a 58 Watt LED drop in tile, and only 4 hours with 2 electricians, we were able to convert the classroom to state of the art LED technology as seen below right…

Ahhhh - LED's! Beautiful AND efficient!

The result was not only much more aesthetically pleasing, but 50% more efficient, totally green, much longer lasting, and more. The school will save more than just energy costs. They’re excited by the savings in bulb disposal including both environmental impact and labor costs.

For more information on this project, please contact LED Source at (866)900-4LED.

Marcel

Vari*Lite VLX Wash

Unless you’ve been sleeping for the past year, you’ve probably heard rumors of a new Varilite wash fixture powered by 7 very bright LED’s. The VLX Wash is said to be ready to ship beginning in April at a dealer cost close to that of the VL2500. That would place it well below the MAC2000 wash, VL3000 Wash – and the other BIG wash lights. With a total of 630 watts of LED power, I am expecting this thing to be BIG bright…

How well the LED’s are cooled is going to make a massive difference on the life of the LED’s, so I am anxious to learn more. Its definitely a step in the right direction though, regardless of the little flaws it may or may not have. Even just the fact that they’ve used homogeneous LED’s (each LED package being full color) is a step. This means no shadows, Usable whites, etc.

Please – once you see it – reply to this post. I am definitely wanting to hear what people think.

Marcel

NEED vs WANT

I have a funny thing happen this morning.

We need a conference phone to be connected to our VOIP system in the conference room. I contacted our VOIP guy – and said “I need a price on a phone” and meanwhile, went in search of on the internet. I found the one we need, a 7936 by CISCO, then went searching for prices. I found the prices pretty steady around $750 – but then located a Refurb (perfect for what we need!) at $380.

I asked the VOIP guy “will this work”. He tells me there’s a new Cisco 7938 available now. I looked at it – and quickly realized it didn’t make much difference to us – since we use this thing about 3 or 4 times per week – and really don’t need much more than what we selected.

I asked “Is it worth paying twice as much”? This was a more loaded question than he might have realized, but I asked it anyway. His response was “You drive a very nice sports car – that you don’t NEED… but you have it anyway. This is the same thing”. A pretty good answer, but… he didn’t realize this.

We humans are very complex creatures. The fact is – for something we NEED – a Conference phone, food, supplies, even a “regular” car – we will pay as little as possible. However, if we want something – we’ll spend more and get the one we REALLY want.

Understanding the difference has been something that Business people have worked towards for years. That’s why you’ve seen million $ bra’s at Victoria’s Secret, and Bling iphone cases costing 10s of thousands.

It also falls in line with what I’ve said recently about gear costing too much.

Companies now are buying what they NEED but manufacturers are still trying to appeal to what those buyers may WANT… bad timing on that!

Marcel

Moving Lights are too damn expensive!

Today I had a conversation with a couple of rental company folks who shared the same opinion I have concerning most of the new gear coming out.

Manufacturers have stopped making what people need, what companies require in order for their companies to be profitable. Instead, manufacturers are making gear they want to make. Ego gear I call it. Lights with bigger lamps, more gadgets or LED rings around the bezel. While this is all cool, the problem is this. The math no longer works.

10 years ago, practically an eternity in the lighting biz, you had the studio color, mac600, cyberlight, etc. These lights were generally bringing a company somewhere in the area of 5-7% rental rates. This means, each time it was rented, the company would see 5-7% of their purchase price as a rental rate – weekly. Cybers were costing $4500 and renting for $275-300 per week. Macs or Studio Colors, $3000 with a rental rate of $200. You get it.

Now, VL and Martin both have lights they’re asking over $10,000 for. And the rental rates have dropped to maybe $175-250 on these lights.

Rental companies are being asked to spend more for much less. A $10k moving light with a $200 weekly rate and 75% utilization is going to take a year and a half just to break even not including labor, overhead, etc.

It’s not a shock that we are seeing companies changing hands. I really respect these rental companies for trying but I think it’s coming to a point where the manufacturers need to smarten up and start building more fiscally responsible products.

If US buyers could only buy $100,000 automobiles where would we be right now? Same goes for gear. We are coming to a break point in my opinion and manufacturers are going to feel it.

Marcel

Touring biz is GREAT!

Yesterday, a friend of mine – who happens to be a GM for one of the leading touring lighting companies – was at my house with his family who are all in Florida on vacation.

I asked him “How’s biz” to which he responded, “To be honest with you, our biggest challenge is in deciding what to turn down. We’re so busy, we can’t do probably 25% of the stuff that comes at us”.

That doesn’t sound so horrible to me. So what does this mean?

What it means to me is the same thing I’ve been saying all along (but a fellow blogger said better recently).

A Recession is simply a reallocation of resources. Taking from the scared and giving to the bold. All I can suggest is that SOON, you need to decide which one you are.. and then no matter what, don’t let anyone tell you differently.

I definitely think of myself as one of the Bold, if not a little nutty. In fact, I’ve increased advertising, stepped up other marketing efforts, and we’re launching new products, features, etc – rapidly at the moment.

Being shy never got me any dates in school either!

Marcel

Do we REALLY need more help from the Feds?

Recently, Senator Kerry introduced legislation that would bad all 421 TARP recipients from hosting, sponsoring or paying for conferences, holiday parties and entertainment events. Thing is – on the cover, this might make sense. We all saw images of AIG lounging at some swanky resort on our dollars.

However, for our industry – production Sound, Lighting, Video, etc – this is food being taken from our mouths. If passed, this serves to shut down many business’s who thrive on this convention and meeting business in our industry, not to mention Travel, etc.

I am not sure what you can do outside of writing your senators and congress men or women – and let them know that the people you employ, and the tax dollars generated by your company are all in jeopardy should this bill be passed. Click this link to read the entire article. It’s also got a pre-filled letter than you can pass on to your local gov.

I’m not a political nut – but this is an example of gov’t taking things too far in an effort to stand watch over their stupidly spent dollars.

Marcel