End of the Leko

[derekleffew]

One has to wonder about about the decision to use the new Philips Hi-Brite FastFit lamp in the Leko Lite™ (essentially a remodeled SL), and to use the traditional GLA-family lamp in the newfangled SPX.

If I currently have a stock of SLs, do I ...
Buy Leko Lites so lens tubes can be interchanged, but I have to stock another lamp type?
or
Buy SPXs that use the same lamps I already have, but have no interchangeability with my existing inventory?
or
Buy another brand of fixture, one that is regarded as the industry-standard, and that to which all others are compared?

Philips/Strand/Selecon certainly does like to present the consumer with difficult decisions, don't they?

 

[STEVETERRY]

One has to wonder about about the decision to use the new Philips Hi-Brite FastFit lamp in the Leko Lite™ (essentially a remodeled SL), and to use the traditional GLA-family lamp in the newfangled SPX.

If I currently have a stock of SLs, do I ...
Buy Leko Lites so lens tubes can be interchanged, but I have to stock another lamp type?
or
Buy SPXs that use the same lamps I already have, but have no interchangeability with my existing inventory?
or
Buy another brand of fixture, one that is regarded as the industry-standard, and that to which all others are compared?

Philips/Strand/Selecon certainly does like to present the consumer with difficult decisions, don't they?

I am trying not to laugh or choke.

ST

 

[erosing]

I'm a little late to this party so I'm responding to some posts a few pages back.

Hey, the Vari-Lite thing is FINALLY dieing out. My students back when I taught called any ERS a Source Four, I think that will become the next "leko".

That's very interesting, I wonder if this is a regional thing. I have never heard anyone with the knowledge of such things call any instrument a S4 other than an S4, everything else remotely similar falls under the names axial, radial, ERS, or Leko. To me the S4 was/is so distinct to call anything else a S4 seems wrong.

And the new hires and other tech people just walk on without asking questions. Could care less about what's hanging above them at the time clock they punch into - this from 1916 to 1993 as they punch out for the day in a wealth of gear to wonder about. Such stuff I don't get - got a museum above the time clock... any questions? Nope.

Kind of amazed that from kids at work for the summer in going to college for theater lighting, to them at community college, to them that graduated etc. in them that want a career, yet to get only a few requests for a tour of like 70x antiques on display and of many examples. Here I am working on a trade of a 6x12 360Q for a Pre-360 series Altman Leko for the museum and other lights. Yet amongst many pro thru laborer types in the shop, a kind of dis-interest and lack of learning about their field. Leko for them that don't educate themselves into their job that should be a career is very limited in scope. 9:5 mostly and send me on tour. Example every Fresnel as example from it's invention in each type... no curiosity from college graduate, kid, or there for a job person in once even asking about them.

Leko perhaps is a "Old Timer" term and thanks for clearing me in on it. Fear also the loss of history in general. Spent around 20 minutes at one point explaing the genisis of the "Bunch Light" to the modern scoop in fixture type. Fixture and lamp development dates such things based on the lamp and invention of spun larger reflectors, there is a clear and presentable history. This to both MFA and non-college types. Hope some got a understanding at least and perhaps it inspires them some. Doubt any got much from a few minutes of education in a 12 to 16 hour day of pulling rocks up a slope as it were by way of "Job" in prepping gear. This rather than some guy describing the science of lighting a hundred or more years old and how it now relates to us in modern gear.

I'll admit I've always held a certain fascination to the old, ancient, etc. But your situation just bugs the heck out of me. Most of the venues I work(ed) at have a large back catalogue of things 2-3 times my age and I find them incredibly fascinating. As the gear becomes close to unserviceable (money or time) or it becomes dumpster fodder it quickly ends up in my trunk. But in trying to share this fascination, I've only found one person (my age range) that I've met face to face who actually cares about this equipment, and it baffles me. I loved discussing the equipment my old(er) professors had used and hearing the stories about it (particularly the problems they found with it). The equipment I'm privy to pales in comparison to your offerings to those that work with you, I don't understand how no one cares about it. I would be all over your equipment.

That said, most of the equipment at the colleges (even a good amount of the high schools) I've been to is half my age or younger, so maybe that has something to do with it. Perhaps it is just a lack of exposure during their college educations that is preventing them from asking, in that perhaps an attitude of, "if it's not spanking new it's not worth my time." Truly a shame. I'm rather embarrassed for those my age.