JChenault
Well-Known Member
The question is - do you want to buy a product which the manufacturer properly understands, and has designed from scratch with a thorough knowledge of the technology being used... or do you want to buy a product where the manufacturer has hacked open somebody else's well-formed product, copied the technology and parts, and released it under their own brand - with no R&D expenses - for a lower price?
Yes Chauvet products can look good. But they look good because they brazenly rip off existing products with no regard for the R&D costs or the expertise that went into the original product. And then, later on; because they have not built the products based on their own understanding of the technology, they are not able to offer the same level of support that you would get from the manufacturer who actually designed it to begin with.
I am fundamentally against this practice. For anyone who is not convinced, look at the truss industry. James Thomas Engineering - no doubt one of the pioneers of the industry and who manufactured some of the finest truss you could buy, went under and were bought up by Milos - a company who's business practice is to buy truss from Prolyte and James Thomas; and reverse engineer it in order to produce their own equivalents, with eastern european welders, at lower costs... without a true understanding for the product they are selling you, since their role in it's development was copying it, not developing and producing it. This, in the context of lifting equipment, is worrying. Especially where they are cost cutting in order to maximise sales.
Don't assume that the big brands are invincible. If you want to see lighting products continue to be developed, invest in the companies who develop them, not in the companies who copy them.
I feel like I should point out that (IMHO) Chauvet is starting to create some innovative products. Their line of white LED fixtures which can run off of mains dimming or DMX is innovative. The dimmer curves seem to be outstanding ( from seeing them at trade shows ) if their cyc units ( with the ability to shoot top and bottom, and with a built in "color picker" ) is certainly innovative.