Cheap Knock offs

[Reqel]

Cheap Chinese knockoffs of stage lighting

Lighty Sky China

Looks interesting

Enjoy

[JD]

You never know! Anyway, I love those sites!

"It adopt the OSRAM 1500W discharge bulb to make the brightness achieve 2400 LUX in 20 meters."

Got to love the translations!

[soundlight]

More Avo Pearl and Mac2k knockoffs. Reverse engineering at its worst.

[express]

Just what the world needs........

[ship]

Don’t know in the lighting part how much this is accurate given tales of lesser circuitry, stops and other things used in the early or current cheaper clones, but on the other hand there is two points that does at some point become important to consider or at least keep in the back of your mind. This as long as you are not the first sucker to take a chance of course... Hmm, cheaper light boards and dimmers cannot be dependable, as a concept NSI should never have become what is considered a decent brand under such rules. Sure lesser technology for the price but they no matter where they were made were good boards and dimmers, just new upstart technology Leviton bought out once they became popular.

This also, years and years ago there was problems or concerns with Japanese products in a similar way - quality and products such as Ushio or Makita. Anyone else but me remember problems in waiting weeks for parts to one’s cordless drill to come in before one could use it again? This was a huge blocking point against import tools over domestic tools even if the Makita revolutionized screw guns for at least the theater early on I think. Ushio made bad lamps initially and it took a long time for them to overcome that bad name.

First, given the amount of name brand gear made in China now, this reverse engineering done is often highly skilled and only a matter of time that those companies that used to make the gear for the name brands start to make their own gear if not come up with their own innovations. This much less in an often less copywriter way compliance at the moment. A company for instance finishes a production order from one company and moves onto their own production of the same or cheaper made gear for someone else or their own house brand. Only a matter of time or by chance what’s better or worse in improvement verses cheaper parts with experience. Second in what I recently heard on NPR about specifically some furniture manufacturers but also in general, given the economy, it’s not uncommon now for Chinese manufacturers to require money up front or get insurance on what they are contracted to make for domestic companies given the amount of orders recently that are in production or even on a ship in transport that get cancelled as a contract. That company that made the gear still owns the product which was made up to someone else’s specifications and has to sell it somehow.

Doubt many lighting products fall under this contract but it is very possible. Just in a meeting today with a company that in the past made the product for someone else. The origional company having someone else make it for them got bought out by another and are under negotiations with the manufacturer for what extent of machine and name brand they can continue to make the gear under given the manufacturer will continue making the product to specification if not name brand. Chief question for us the end user was how to approach this. My answer was while Black & Decker owns DeWalt, no self respecting carpenter would consider buying a Black & Decker product. Very similar in answer to the company making the product. This amongst other topics covered.

Another example perhaps of China now might for instance be Kupo. Heard they split into two separate companies, yet Kupo as a brand is growing in respect for innovation, quality and cost effectiveness. Don’t know where they started out or who’s product they used to make, do know I took their exploded pictorial of a PAR can and started circling parts on it so as to ensure in ordering parts I got the parts from other manufacturers I needed to their brands of can. This much less there is a few of their products I buy and I and Reel Efx at the moment are really interested in their RE-1 similar fans. Kupo is often decent stuff dependant on what it is and which branch of gear is being bought.

This much less my Klien folding utility knife was made in China. Klien tool made in China??? Granted it’s blade lock mechanism leaves something to be desired between being too precision to at times fit a standard blade or ejecting the blade in use given the location of the blade latch but a decent enough small utility knife as opposed to the combo utility knife/wire stipper tool I saw at Menards today during a contractor lunch demo. Who ever is making the knife and no doubt other tools for Klien now has that Klien skill for making tools in the future for perhaps their own brand of tools in the future. Not just reverse engineering but tooling already paid for and trained staff so as to produce similar quality products.


Ah’ China... Going to be a few more years given the recession but in coming years I expect scary what’s’ in the future once that market becomes their own innovator as opposed to now copier or location for companies to exploit cheap labor from. Being a copier is similar to how most brands start out but even Elation these days is attempting to jump into the pro’ market. In the end, in the future I don’t much think it will matter if from Europe or the Orient, crap and innovations from both. Lamp made in Hungry verses Taiwan... won’t matter.