Would rather discussion to learn from than not so nice way stuff above was put.
I just want people to innovate and not sit around copying eachother. The
point of my post was not "oh, the Elation
fixture's so much better". My
point was, well, it's "Variations on a Theme". Of course, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say, but to be flattered you have to innovate first - the imitations are not the ones that are flattered. Copying the
Martin Stagebar is not innovation to me.
On the other
hand, the Elation Impression and Impression XL (as well as the wonderful new little Design
Wash LED Pro) are innovation. The Impressions have been out on a huge number of tours given that it's an Elation
fixture, and I haven't heard many problems about them over all. I really think that Elation's brick fixtures are an awesome form factor. But when Elation simply takes an idea from
Martin, I see no innovation. If I see a ripoff, I
call ripoff.
I'm not saying ripoffs don't have their place though. When ripoffs are what I can afford, I buy ripoffs. I'm sure that the Elation copy of the Stagebar 54 is going to be amazing, and it'll be in my price range before a Stagebar is. Also, the new Irradiant Vivid II
wash is a wonderful little
fixture from what I've seen, and is a copy of the CK Colorblast. However, the Vivid II doesn't need a central
power supply
unit, and is a
bit more cost accessible for many folks.
Also, the Elation TRI-LED series stuff is innovation. That was someone that said "hey, the colors you see when you look at
LED fixtures just suck. Let's fix that." So they did. And the product, from my understanding, is great. You get much cleaner color mixing, and you can fit more watts of
LED in to the same space. Take the Elation Opti 30
RGB and the Elation Opti TRI 30 - both in the same form factor, probably the same exact housing. The Opti 30
RGB has 12x one
watt LEDs, 4 red, 4 green, 4 blue. The Opti TRI 30 has 21 watts of LEDs in the form of 7 tricolor
LED diode modules, and also mixes much smoother. I am sure there is some output loss due to the lensing of the individual tricolor
LED modules, but overall, a better
fixture.
I also like the other
RGBAW LED fixture that Bill posted about a few days ago, that was more of a strip format than a
block format. The distribution of LEDs was nice, and it would probably be a great
backdrop fixture if used in multiples.
However, there are some times when a ripoff becomes so ubiquitous that it can no longer be considered a ripoff. For instance, I found it interesting when
Clay Paky came out with their Alpha Beam 300
fixture. I found it even more intriguing when
Coemar quickly followed suit with a very similar
fixture, then Elation. I'm sure there are other companies out there doing this, but when 3 large moving light manufacturers do the same thing at essentially the same time, it seems like it's gone a
bit beyond a ripoff and is now a product that can essentially be considered a standard, like the 250W moving head. Everyone has a 250W mover out with a pair of
gobo wheels, a fixed
beam angle that's fairly narrow, a color wheel, an MSD250 lamp, and a 3-facet
prism. It's just a standard.
It's when a product is imitated in such an exacting way that it looks essentially the same, including the mounting
yoke/floor bracket combo
system of the Stagebar, the individual sections of LEDs, the shape of the housing,
etc are copied that it certainly seems like a ripoff. But hey, I'm game, Elation's got some powerful stuff out there, and this new stuff that Bill's getting in looks decent.