Chromlech Goes Under

[MNicolai]

From L&SA:

Chromlech, the French manufacturer behind innovative LED lighting products such as Jarag and Elidy, has gone out of business with the loss of 14 jobs. Known as an innovator of lighting products, Chromlech enjoyed great success with its Jarag line of LED modules, which sold well for years, and still selling right up to the company's demise. Gleamer, a dimmer dedicated to low-voltage lighting, won a PLASA Award for Innovation in 2011. Then came Elidy, a striking 5 x 5 LED matrix tile producing warm white beams of light, launched at the PLASA Show in 2012.

However, copies of the Elidy concept, made in China, began to appear on the market with months of the product's release, and Chromlech found itself unable to take legal action to protect its intellectual property. Two patents covered Elidy -- one for the technology and one for the design, or form factor. Unfortunately for Chromlech, its technology patent application was still pending and the differences introduced by the Chinese manufacturer to the form factor of its product -- which was a 7 x 7 matrix instead of a 5 x 5, and also incorporated other minor design changes -- meaning that the design protection was also likely to be side-stepped.

Eventually, as the cheaper product took hold in the marketplace, at around 50% of the cost of Elidy, Chromlech's project and sales leads evaporated. In June, Chromlech announced to its sales partners that the company had finally been forced to cease operations.

Cromlech's products are distributed in the US by A.C.T Lighting.

http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/news/story.asp?ID=EHS7Q0

While there's something to be said for having a business model that cannot be easily made irrelevant, this is a sobering reminder that knock-offs (Chinese or otherwise) can have very real effects upon our industry, and that payment for purchasing knock-offs might as well be considered blood money.

 

[MikeJ]

Yes, Blood Money, or Capitalism. It is Ironic low large a roll a Communist country plays in World capitalism.

Some companies fail, some succeed; don't get too dramatic. Chromlech only ha ONE product line! Big surprise they went under. Plus there are lots of similar products that offer more features.

Don't cry over failing to innovate after their initial release; lighting is a fast changing industry, companies need to stay ahead of the curve.

And face it, They made a Really low res video wall that did not change colors, or display video. BOO HOO

Blood Money? NO. Chinese kids need to eat too.

 

[Chris15]

Consider this the first and last warning that if this morphs into a political debate, it will be locked.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but nothing helpful comes out of the debates.

 

[MikeJ]

Sorry, If this came off a political. I meant it more as a business statement. Companies need to be nimble, be able to change, and diversify based on our quickly changing industry and popular trends.

The Jarag got popular for a while, then the competition undercut the original. This happens all the time. Some products succeed, some fail, and sometimes you just cannot compete in certain segments of the market. When things don't go well it is time to change, time to innovate, time to do something, anything but just sit there an cross your fingers.

 

[Wood4321]

Sorry, If this came off a political. I meant it more as a business statement. Companies need to be nimble, be able to change, and diversify based on our quickly changing industry and popular trends.

The Jarag got popular for a while, then the competition undercut the original. This happens all the time. Some products succeed, some fail, and sometimes you just cannot compete in certain segments of the market. When things don't go well it is time to change, time to innovate, time to do something, anything but just sit there an cross your fingers.

Right, I agree, to a point.
BUT, blatant copies don't qualify as competition.
A few years ago it was Mac2k clones, now its sharpy, tomorrow probably the B-eyes or mac quantum's.
A quick google search for "Elidy China" leads to dozens of products that look identical to the elidy. (including the 5x5 array, contrary to the article posted above)

Take a look at a Studio Color 575, and a Mac 600. I would consider them competing fixtures.
But, this Chinese Sharpy is obviously a knockoff of this Clay Paky Sharpy. They even describe it as an identical clone of the Sharpy in their product description.
Can we all agree that this is bad for our industry?

Chris, Hopefully this isn't over the line...

 

[MNicolai]

I agree with @MikeJ actually that Chromlech didn't have a robust business model. They had a couple good ideas at first and without new ideas, had to rely solely on their first couple ideas to sustain them for a number of years.

I'm thinking more about things like the Avolites or GMA copies that exist out there, where one company has invested heavily into developing their intellectual property only to have a foreign entity duplicate their product.

It's pretty rare that a manufacturer in our industry would go under from IP theft, but even the ones that don't go under may have to downsize or pivot their workforce around onto other products while they wait for R&D to kick out the next big idea.

 

[MikeJ]

All of what has been said above is true, but Clay Paky and Martin are still in business, in spite of the Chinese clones, probably because of their more robust business models.

Also a lot of Chinese copy are significantly inferior. It may not be obvious at first, but the quality and reliability shows after just a little time. Small companies with little startup capital will risk buying the Knock-offs, and with limited use, they man work fine in the low end of the market. Large companies who's gear works constantly doing major events and tours, will spend the money to get the real thing, because they need the reliability and support from the manufactures and distributors. They also have clients and riders to fill that demand the real thing.

You cannot stop clones of equipment from being available(easily), it is a fact of the market today, and companies need to deal with it.


Also, I have never actually seen of even known anyone personally to be using a GrandMA clone. Real professionals will buy or rent a real MA. Its probably the little guys, who would never buy a grandma in the first place that are using the clones. This does not make it right, but I doubt that MA is actually loosing many sales to the knockoffs.

It would be interesting to find some real numbers, but I doubt there is much hard data available. Out of curiosity, have you ever seen or used a knock-off console in person?

On the other hand when Chauvet makes an almost identical fixture to the Sharpy, Clay Paky likely does lose sales to it, but at least Chauvet has offices, customer support, sales reps, and actual employees, unlike ordering bulk fixtures on a direct from china website.

 

[JD]

Sometimes the threat of China blowing us out of a market can spur some amazing innovation in this country! I am thinking of the CREE domestic LED lamps. Who thought we would be able to produce an excellent LED lamp and market it below $10? The fantastic part is disassemble one and see the build. G10 circuit board with high temp caps. There is nothing cheap about the construction. Many of the aspects of the construction BOTH strengthened the product AND lowered production costs. I am sure CREE is not alone in working to increase cost efficiency while maintaining product quality. I am not sure this effort would be occurring if the pressure was not coming from abroad. For those who want a close up look, without having to bust one apart, check out this link and review on the CREE http://www.designingwithleds.com/cree-60w-led-replacement-bulb-review-and-tear-down/

 

[StradivariusBone]

I recall reading an article about this, hell it might have been a thread on here, regarding the cultural differences between the Chinese and Western markets. Basically, it was something along the lines that the Chinese tend to imitate as a form of respect and flattery and by imitating they begin to understand how the product functions and how to improve upon it. Whereas in the Western side of the rock, we tend to make something and then sue anyone who has a similar idea.


There's a wonderful book by the late Douglas Adams and Mark Carwadine called "Last Chance to See". Nothing to do with lighting, but he has an interaction with a Chinese conservation group that established this enormous operation to save the Baiji/Yangtze River Dolphin and they had generated a ridiculous amount of traction in a short amount of time. The work ethic and amount of money raised and work accomplished in a short amount of time was astonishing to the authors. They copied a lot of what they had seen other conservation groups do and therefore were able to do a better job. Imitation can be a healthy adversary in competition.