Lighting controller lead times...

Lyle Williams

Well-Known Member
What are typical lead times for lighting controllers?

I ordered my first real controller, and it was meant to be available in two weeks. Still waiting. If they keep their fourth promise, it'll be three and a half months from order to supply. I pretty well got told off by the manufacturer for complaining.

Is this normal in lighting?
 
What are typical lead times for lighting controllers?

I ordered my first real controller, and it was meant to be available in two weeks. Still waiting. If they keep their fourth promise, it'll be three and a half months from order to supply. I pretty well got told off by the manufacturer for complaining.

Is this normal in lighting?
@Lyle Williams I suspect if you were ordering a current product from ETC, Strand, Chamsys, MA or any of their contemporaries and ordering it through a reputable stocking and servicing dealer, delivery could be a short as a few hours. If you're ordering on line from someone with zero stock you have less than my sympathy. Please return to suffering in silence and please don't expect stocking suppliers to jump through hoops for you or folks to call in favors when you won't even share the name of the dealer who's hanging you out to dry.
Posting from north of Donald's walls.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Is this a recently released console? If so the manufacturer is probably allocating shipments with priority to the larger dealers. If it is a unit that has been out for a while it may be because of the component shortage that was going on most of last year and is still probably going on.
https://epsnews.com/2018/08/30/component-shortages-worsen/
 
Experiencing the same problem. Three consoles delayed from November order and scheduled to arrive in April. We are a local distributor in this region. Price point and features make it hard to walk away from, but damage to the manufacturer's reputation is developing.
To be "told off" by the manufacturer for complaining and wondering if and when your console will ship is unacceptable.
 
Jands?
 
Price point and features make it hard to walk away from, but damage to the manufacturer's reputation is developing.

Sounds like someone is having manufacturing issues then.
If the cost is appealing, it offers a lot of features, and it's being massively delayed, sounds like something went wrong budget wise in the manufacturing supply chain
That's just what my mind thinks of though :p
 
Lyle you live in Au man. I would think it takes everything an extra month to get to you if it’s not made there no? ( genuine question not bashing your country)

While CSR shouldn’t be giving you a hassle. If they do you should definitely say you want to talk to their supervisor.

Unless you are purely talking through emails. Then maybe you are just misreading the tone. *shrug*
 
Sounds like someone is having manufacturing issues then.
If the cost is appealing, it offers a lot of features, and it's being massively delayed, sounds like something went wrong budget wise in the manufacturing supply chain
That's just what my mind thinks of though :p
I also wonder if it was more successful then anticipated and supply was only set up for a limited initial run. I also have seen with some other manufacturers that orders are pre-orders and manufacturing hasn't really started.
 
Hi Lyle,

I can only speak to ETC regarding major consoles for lighting and Allen & Heath for sound, but from the time I place an order to the time I take delivery is usually only about a week, give or take depending on if a weekend falls into the mix or not. I understand about not wanting to bring up specifics on a public forum, but is this one of the several new boards the have come on the market recently? Also, did you make the purchase through a reputable dealer? I only ask because I've come across MANY scammers out trying to make a buck these days. Granted this isn't anything new, but I've noticed this happening more often than ever - just last week I found an ebay auction that had been cloned pictures and all from my own listing! I've even had issues with true authorized dealers trying to nickel and dime or price gouge as best they can to increase their profits - quote one number and invoice something 30% higher...hence I only make most 4 and all 5 figure purchases through a very select network of dealers that I trust. Unfortunately my urge to collect vintage and unique effect lights often brings me to the sketchy side of ebay! Sorry...I'm ranting... Over 3 months is way too long though. If the manufacturer isn't helping and your dealer won't do anything I'd cancel the order. Price and performance are useless if you don't even have it! Hope this helps!
 
Hi,

The order was through a real store, in person. The retailer and distributor seem to have been doing what they can.

The controller company has got in touch, and it's getting sorted.

And yes, judging tone over email/forums is nororiously difficult. It is so easy to project your own mood when reading replies.
 
Having purchased lots of equipment from many different sources (corporate PO, direct, through distributor, online retailer etc), alot goes into this gear getting from origin to you. It's not like an iPhone where 150M are made 6 months before they launch and then staged in local warehouses for immediate sale. This is professional gear where quantities are very low.
You have to anticipate that a local dealer may get 1 or 2 if they're anticipated to be a super hot product and maybe one is a demo unit. Usually these are drop shipped directly from the manufacturer and that can range from same day to weeks later.

In some instances, a dealer may get free shipping if they get it shipped to them and then reship to you, which usually means the mfg uses the slowest possible shipping, which to Australia is a boat, probably on a consolidated load with whoever else ordered that week to save even more on freight.
Sorry to say this is normal in everything that isn't consumer.
 
Some things ship to AU fast like a few days others take a month or more. Just depends on what you want to pay.
@Lyle Williams I hope you have this sorted out soon and you can begin to play. Us Aussies sometime feel isolated from the rest of the world. I can't call etc 24hrs a day for support because the local distributors who offer support are only open office hours. (Never needed them yet)
Regards
Geoff
 
Having purchased lots of equipment from many different sources (corporate PO, direct, through distributor, online retailer etc), alot goes into this gear getting from origin to you. It's not like an iPhone where 150M are made 6 months before they launch and then staged in local warehouses for immediate sale. This is professional gear where quantities are very low.
You have to anticipate that a local dealer may get 1 or 2 if they're anticipated to be a super hot product and maybe one is a demo unit. Usually these are drop shipped directly from the manufacturer and that can range from same day to weeks later.
I was going to say that even a small company builds up some inventory before release, but then I remembered I'm still writing software for something our company sold in September.

:sigh:
 
Build it first fix it later.

Unfortunately that's becoming the trend with a lot of things these days. Software/Firmware updates are nothing new, but there's a fine line between keeping a product "current" and fixing things that were released half-baked. One only needs to look to the gaming industry for that! Growing up in the pre-modern internet days, it'd used to be you'd see the shiny new software on the shelf at Circuit City, K-Mart, Microcenter, etc., you buy it, and that's it (barring the rather common installation glitches). If the product sold well you might see an expansion pack or a 2nd/3rd/4th release down the road, but otherwise the software was sold as a finished product. Nowadays you buy things online with the promise that it might work later, maybe in a beta release or preorder, wait for it to evolve a bit to something usable, buy DLCs to add things that should have been in the initial release anyways, and the product is "finished" when the developers stop supporting it. Even professional software has gone that route to an extent with subscription-based software such as Office 365 and Adobe CC.
 

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