Element Labs Training

This week, I took part in LED Source’s Element Labs Sales training program conducted by Steve and Mark from Element.

First, let me tell you – these are a couple of great guys, and probably also two of the more skilled Sales guys in the LED Display market. We really enjoyed having the guys here, and had fun capping their trip off with a trip to our local haunt, Rocco’s Tacos as well. Showed a couple of guys who work for an Austin company that Florida really can make mexican food!

The training covered many of element’s benefits including brightness, resolution and even the fact that Element products are more Green due to their incredible power management technology. Stealth and Versa Tube remain staples of the concert and show industry – but to see how far Element have gone with their new Cobra 16 and soon Cobra 11 products, is quite exciting.

LED Source is looking forward to a very long distribution partnership with Element on the current lineup plus many more innovative products surely to come in the future.

Marcel

Can’t put up a for sale sign…

So – a friend of mine in the industry asked me to Broker his $5 million company for him – and of course I oblige, but it’s been a bit of a learning experience.

First and most importantly, in this little industry – it’s a real no no to announce you’re up for sale. Imagine the exodus of clients, vendors and staff if that were to happen. Instead, everything must be discrete. So, being as discrete as I could, I put the company up as a listing on GearSource.com and did a bit of fishing. We received MANY calls, most of which were from people in the industry also on fishing expeditions… “Who is it, why are they selling, just tell me the city, how many employees”. Basically any piece of info that would lead them to the whole truth.

Of course I gave little bits of info. Enough to keep people interested at least. For those “real” people who were genuinely interested in taking the next step, we drafted an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) for both parties to sign prior to open conversation.

I know many of you are in a similar situation. You’ve been slaving for your business for 10, 20, even 30 years – and would like to spend some time on yourself. I can assure you, based on the response and likely success we’ve seen with this company, there is definitely a market for mid-sized businesses.

So, when you’re ready – be sure to give me a ring. Maybe we can do the same for you.. and get some interest in your life’s work!

Marcel

Great Addition to the LED Source Team today!

LED Source is very pleased to welcome Jeff Washburn as Director of Sales / Entertainment Division. In this newly created role, Jeff will lead the company’s emergent Rental and Production business, plus Hospitality install markets. Jeff will manage existing sales personnel, plus add new people to fill current and future needs. Jeff comes to LED Source having spent the past 14 years with High End Systems / Barco where he established himself as a strong regional sales manager, and recently had placed great emphasis on Video systems.

LED Source President, Marcel Fairbairn comments “Jeff brings a huge number of key relationships, plus a vast knowledge of the converging Visual markets to the table. Our recent distribution agreement with Element Labs, plus our growing Color Kinetics sales base necessitates a greater level of product and application knowledge. Jeff will easily fill that need and position us for further growth. We’re happy to have him onboard!”
In just three years, LED Source has created one of the most extensive LED distribution networks that exists. Partnerships with Color Kinetics (Philips), Element Labs, Cree and others, make LED Source an obvious choice for LED lighting solutions in Entertainment, Commercial and Residential lighting.

My Lightfair Roundup

Back in the office following a pretty successful show. I heard people call this show “LED Fair” which I guess is a fair comment considering that almost every booth had some form of LED technology showing. One booth displaying cold cathode technology actually put up a sign saying “NOT LED” which drew some attention.

Anyway, this is in no way a complete coverage of LightFair. Only my take on the show and a few of the highlights for ME.

For me, the most impressive product I saw (and I am a little biased) was the Cree LRP-38.

It’s a PAR38 or AR111 lamp, primarily targeting retail display applications, but could be used anywhere. In typical cree fashion, this light looks awesome off AND on, and does not look LED. In fact, unless you know it’s an LED, you’d probably bet your last dollar otherwise. The LRP-38 is approximately 600 lumens and draws 12 watts. It’s supposed to be similar to a 90w par 38 lamp, but I don’t think so. It’s bright enough to do what it needs to though – and looks AWESOME doing it.

Expect to see a lot from this killer new fixture in the months to come.I already heard rumor that Cree is working to close a MAJOR national retailer with an order of several million units. LED Source will have stock in June!

The next thing I grabbed onto were a few “backroom showings” of a technology called Remote Phosphor. This technology is already used in many of the white LED’s we see today. If you know me, you’ll understand why I am not gonna try and go into technical detail on this topic – but in laymans terms, remote phosphor technology basically utilizes UV LED’s with a “Dome” or lens over that is coated with phosphor. When the UV LEDs are turned on – the phosphor lights up and increases the intensity coming from the UV LEDs. They’ve dialed in very good temp’s of White. I saw a couple of different variations. One was a piece of 12″ cove with a phosphor cover. The resulting product was a 12″ semi-round cove with perfectly even surface, great color temp – and a million possibilities.

ColorReach

Another fun product was the CK (okay, PHILIPS) ColorReach with RGB / White combination.

Until now, the reaches we’ve sold were all RGB but this makes HUGE sense. You could have the top in white with 10 degree optics and the bottom in RGB with 60 degree as an example. Sooooo many cool possibilities, and a great progression for a killer light.

Recently, LED Source did a project with ColorReach where replacing 1 to one, they were able to achieve the same light levels as white fixtures consuming 75% more electricity and lasting only 2000 hours!

Lastly, outside the show – there was a lighting display of great significance. The founder of CK, George Mueller, has started another LED brand called EcoSense. While they did not exhibit at Lightfair, they did take a hotel suite at a local hotel, plus had a cocktail reception one evening. The products from EcoSense look very promising, and a few are already available to purchase from LED Source. Judging by his past success, I’d say George is someone you might want to pay attention to in the LED world.

Unfortunately, that’s about all I’ve got to report for now. The show was great, but in general, the “New” product offerings were relatively lack luster, repetative, and boring.  I did get to see the new VariLite VLX wash light, which surprisingly WASN’T on display at the Philips booth, but instead on the chip manufacturer Luminus booth. Not sure why – but seemed sorta strange to me. The light looked “good”… but I am still on the fence on this one. I guess time will tell. I learned a lot about the cooling technology though by talking with an engineer from another manufacturer. My questions on this product basically surround the cooling, LED life, replacement cost of the light engine, etc. Rental companies LOVE led’s because they are low maintenance. Will the VLX be the same? Again – time will tell.

Out for now.

Marcel

Goin to LightFair – what to expect?

So, I’m making the annual trek to Lightfair in NY tomorrow, and quite looking forward to what I may or may not see. What I know for sure…

1) Cree have a new PAR38 fixture that looks GREAT on paper, but who knows until you see it. I am somewhat disappointed they’ve already backed the spec’s off considerably from what I was told it’d be. It was billed as producing 100 lumens per watt – but unless it’s a typo, the preliminary cutsheet says it’s 42 lumens / watt, which is entirely respectable – but not 100.

2) The founder of Cree and one of the founders of Color Kinetics have started a new company, and employed a friend of mine, Joe Zamore – in product development. The company called EcoSense have already shown promise. I’m told they’ll have a few tasty new prototypes being shows sorta “backroom” at this show.

3) CK / Philips are showing a few new things including a white – and white / RGB Reach. Both welcome additions. I think we’re gonna hit up CK for a few free cocktails at their wednesday night cocktail reception as well.

4) As always, looking forward to what I call Chinese Alley – which is a hoard of Chinese manufacturers who are very generic, and appear to be producing very similar products. I always spend time looking through this stuff – but for some reason, NEVER find anything interesting.

Has anyone else heard that Neo-Neon have officially changed their name here in the US to Irradiant? Just heard that a couple of days ago.

Full report during or after the show’s done. Standby for more.

Marcel