Philips Buys Selecon Lighting

[David Ashton]

AMSTERDAM (DOW JONES)--Royal Philips NV (PHG) announced Wednesday that it has acquired New Zealand-based Selecon, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of professional theatrical and architectural lighting fixtures.
Under the agreement, Philips will acquire the business assets of Selecon New Zealand Limited, Selecon UK Limited, Selecon North America LLC and Aureol Lighting Limited.
No financial details on the transaction were disclosed.
Selecon has become part of the Entertainment Group within the Philips Professional Luminaires business, which also encompasses the Vari-Lite and Strand Lighting business operations.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...01-701775.html

[Footer]

Now this is going to get interesting. I see the SL line dying, quickly. I also know that many of the big strand shops, Grandstage in Chicago and Vincent Lighting in Ohio have both been selling the Selecon line for sometime now. I am wondering how long the branding will last with all of these and it is simply replaced with Philips.

[gafftaper]

WOW I thought this was an April Fools Day joke but it's not!!!
Check out the Selecon... uh Strand-Selecon Home page.
Here it is from the Strand side.

So Phillips now owns:
Vari-lite
Color Kinetics
Strand
Selecon
Entertainment Technology
Horizon

[gafftapegreenia]

And the new website sucks too.

[Footer]

I think this is going to be a good thing for us though. Strand finally has "the complete package". The SL never caught on light the Leko did, and now they have killed the line. Now.... when they buy out GrandMA, then we will see. They have the money to do it.

[Pie4Weebl]

Originally Posted by Footer

I think this is going to be a good thing for us though. Strand finally has "the complete package". The SL never caught on light the Leko did, and now they have killed the line. Now.... when they buy out GrandMA, then we will see. They have the money to do it.

I think they are more likely to snap up jands before Grandma....

[MNicolai]

Maybe Pacifics will become more available now to the rest of us without such a higher price tag.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by MNicolai

Maybe Pacifics will become more available now to the rest of us without such a higher price tag.

Yeah if they start up some production in the US that could help a lot. I just hope they don't screw up the quality of the product.

My theory the pricing situation is because the rest of the world (including NZ) uses Zooms not fixed beam fixtures. If they are doing business out of the US then they might be forced to up their production on fixed beam fixtures and lower their price. Their zooms are actually priced only about $30 more than an S4 zoom and are far superior products. For $30 you move from the fixture with some of the worst gel burn to the fixture with the least gel burn. SWEET.

[theatre4jc]

I love the Pacific line. When they first came out I was in college and we were able to get a free demo of 20 units for a show. Amazing fixtures. I'm currently in an ETC S4 house but hope to be able to add some Pacifics if the line doesn't get cut or the quality doesn't drop. Just have to remember not to touch the heat sink on the back...talk about a serious burn!!!!

[jneveaux]

does anyone have experience with the newer 90 degree pacific fixed beam units? i just bought one at an auction and wonder about lamp choice, pattern materials, etc.