Brand Familiarity

[Sylak]

So, working in an auditorium from teh school district down the road, I've encountered some pretty messed up things, ie. various sound equipment issues, an unusable two channel clear-com system thats missing all the 6-pin XLR but has the headsets, unchangeable houselights,
But the weirdest thing to me was the dimmer and light board brand. So, I'm goign to ask you other lighting techs how familiar you are with some more and less prominent lighting brands, just to see what the general concensus is.
Rank them with 1-11 with 1 being the most familiar name, and 11 being the least. (forgive me for bad spellings)

ETC
Hub Electric
Leprecan
Levation/NSI
American DJ/Elation
Altman
Flying Pig Systems
Horizon
Electronics Diversified
Other

[avkid]

Originally Posted by Sylak

ETC
Hub Electric
Leprecon
Leviton/NSI
American DJ/Elation
Altman
Flying Pig Systems
Horizon
Electronics Diversified
Other

Corrected for spelling,
does Hub electric still exist?

[Sylak]

No, but it's still the idea that some of us still use their equipment, and I'm sure some of the older people here remember when they still existed.

[BillESC]

Altman - Dealer 34 years
Leviton/NSI - Dealer 30+ years
ETC - Dealer 20+ years
American DJ/Elation - Dealer 7 years
Hub Electric - Worked on and replaced this equipment
Electronics Diversified - Worked on and replaced this equipment
Leprecon - Have operated several of their touring boards
Flying Pig Systems - No experience
Horizon - No experience

[avkid]

Leviton/NSI
Altman
Horizon
ETC
American DJ/Elation
Flying Pig Systems
Leprecon
Electronics Diversified
Hub Electric

[Grog12]

ETC-1
Hub Electric-11
Leprecan-2
Levation/NSI-4
American DJ/Elation-5
Altman-1
Flying Pig Systems-1
Horizon-5
Electronics Diversified-11
Other

For the record... I hate Leprechaun!

[Logos]

From another continent

I know and have used ETC and like it.
I know and have used American DJ it's OK.
I know Altman and have seen a couple of Lanterns
I've never heard of any of the rest.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by Sylak

ETC
Hub Electric
Leprecan
Levation/NSI
American DJ/Elation
Altman
Flying Pig Systems
Horizon
Electronics Diversified
Other

That's kind of a weird list as you are mixing apples and oranges quite a bit.
We've been around this topic a few times in a variety of ways. You'll never find two people who agree 100% on this topic but I think I can summarize. You also have some brands missing so I'm going to add a few things.

Light Control Consoles...
If your purpose is controlling moving lights for a concert tour... the top choices are probably a Hog, a GrandMA, and a Martin Maxxyz

If your purpose is generally theatrical control consoles... the top choices are ETC and Strand.

If you are looking for a computer based lighting system there are options from all of the above brands plus Horizon... which is owned by the same company that owns, Vari-lite, and Strand by the way. The horizon software is now the core software for all of Strand's new consoles.

Moving lights...
If you are looking for the actual moving lights the best are Martin, Vari-lite, and High End. Robe is big in Europe... and might also belong on this list, I'm not sure about that.

ADJ, Elation, Chauvet are all essentially DJ gear... Elation is one that has a lot of people talking because they recently hired a top designer in the industry. There is a lot of talk about them trying to move up in the world from the DJ level to being a top player competing with Martin and Varilight... the jury is still out on that. Their newly released Powerspot 700 has gotten a lot of positive talk. I wouldn't buy ADJ or Chauvet... unless all I wanted was a cheap DJ effect.

Dimmers...
ETC is generally considered the best in the dimming world followed by Strand.

Control and Dimmers in the bargain basement:
Leprachaun, Lightronics, Dove, EDI, NSI... You'll find a HUGE argument about which of these are good and which suck. As far as ranking... I'm not going to go there. Do some searching and you'll find several arguments on the best of the cheap stuff. Personally I wouldn't buy Leprachaun or Lighttronics, the other brands I'm comfortable with if I can't afford the good ones listed above... but they aren't as good.

Conventional Lights
Altman: Want a Fresnel, Strip light, or Wash light, Altman makes some of the best. The 360Q was the most popular ERS for over a decade... and still isn't a bad option if you can't afford a Source Four. ETC Source Four and Selecon Pacific are the best in the ERS world... Selecon is from New Zealand so it's kind of expensive to get here in the states. Given a choice I would probably choose Selecon over ETC Source Four... but both are excellent.

I've Never heard of Hub Electric.

[Charc]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

ADJ, Elation, Chauvet are all essentially DJ gear... Elation is one that has a lot of people talking because they recently hired a top designer in the industry. There is a lot of talk about them trying to move up in the world from the DJ level to being a top player competing with Martin and Varilight... the jury is still out on that. Their newly released Powerspot 700 has gotten a lot of positive talk. I wouldn't buy ADJ or Chauvet... unless all I wanted was a cheap DJ effect.

It's late, but for some reason I thought it'd be funny if there was a lurker here that worked for ADJ or Chauvet, and their products just kept getting trashed time and time again. I'd hazard a guess it doesn't feel to well to be regarded as the "cheap-o manufacturer".

[jonhirsh]

1 ETC, Leprecon, Leviton/NSI, Altman
2 Horizon
3 Flying Pig Systems, American DJ/Elation
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 Hub Electric, Electronics Diversified