Leviton bought NSI but NSI as an upstart company but not having much in the way of real
stage controllers bought
Colortran before this
Leviton buyout happened. In other words, what was set into motion was set in stone before
Leviton had bought one out thus both now. Did I mention that if your electrical supply
house has an account with
Leviton they can get
Colortran gel frames for you now?
In any case,
Colortran has been a secondary compay for years now in once being owned by
Strand, than
Lee color filters, than NSI. Development within them has lagged behind for years now. Once NSI bought out
Colortran at least I had hope that the upstart company in providing affordable light boards might be able to tap into the lineage of well designed ones and history. This might still happen. NSI being bought out by
Leviton does not change this, it just adds dollars to the budget because
Leviton was than able to come out with their own architectural controls that are
DMX capable, and
Colortran by way of NSI and NSI have a huge cash flow available to them now.
Were I an investing type person,
Leviton would be my prime source given the budget and big guy ownership of an innovative company that also owns the experienced company of
Colortran. Great things to rivel
ETC and others I might expect in development given the pool of resources.
About a month ago,
Leviton if I remember right got into an agreement with another even more large or more known manufacturer of gear. Could be Grand Ma but I don't remember specifically who it was beyond being an important partnership. This going to another company would tend to put back the need for any new developments on the NSI/
Colortran side but also add to the wealth of knowledge in something big on the horizon.
In any case, just because NSI and by way of them the ancient company of
Colortran have been eaten up by the
Edison plug Goliath, I would not be much concerned that quality and R&D will no longer be possible. If anything, they now have the big bucks behind them to overtake the market in a few years.
As for built in China, lots of stuff is built there and lots of it beyond that is even the same gear with different names. Such is the nature of a lot of our business today. By the time
Leviton/NSI/
Colortran is ready to introduce the next Sensor rack, hopefully China products will rise to the
level of Japan products at which
point the workers will demand decent wages and it's all going to balance out again. I would not mind re-visiting these predictions in 10 years.
Most of you will not remember the days before Sony Walkmens when things made in Japan were for the most part stamped tin knockoff clones to Hot Wheels cars, much less their technology even in motercycles was sub
par in coolness to that of Harley or other brands. I remember those days much less the days later when Japan was buying out the US ownership of companies. This I expect as a goal is the model for market share that China is following.
2 posts ago i think maybe bds said that strand users live by them... this is so true! once you get comfortable with a strand and learn all the backdoors and shortcuts to the software they are fantastic... bearing in mind if you have a network in your theatre you can operate the desk from a pc anywhere in the theatre! screw a RCU.
. So what your favorite?
