Yes,
ETC is the king of long term reliability and support. There is no risk or gamble when it comes to buying
ETC products. They WILL stand behind that product FOREVER and fix ANYTHING! That's important, I have a
Strand console that's only 6 years old and very difficult to get tech support for now. You are correct that long term reliability and support of Chauvet Professional products is a question we don't know the answer to because Chauvet is a very different company than they were 10 years ago. They used to be something just a step above American DJ. Today the professional
line products are absolutely competitive with the other major manufacturers. I can tell you the
build quality on the Ovation
Batten LED's is top notch. I had a few issues getting them to work with the rest of my
system initially. Chauvet's tech support was great helping me figure out what I needed to do with my setup. But will long term support be there?
Let me tell you the two reasons I felt comfortable buying Chauvet for my
cyc lights. First, was the relationship I've built up with
@Ford over the years both here on CB and in person at the shows. He's passionate about building great products and making sure every component is done right. From what I know of him, I'm confident that Chauvet didn't cut corners to make a product that looks good but will break down in a short time. Secondly, I've had the opportunity to speak to Berenice Chauvet a few times. She is a passionate business woman, she knows her company, and is proud of the work they have done to
build a company with a product
line that is truly competitive with the other major players in the industry. I would quite frankly be terrified to challenge her about the long term reliability of her products! She's a wonderful person and absolutely loves what we do here on CB, but she is intense man! I would not want to argue with her and there's no way I would ever want to challenge her on a question of if her company will support products in the future! She's the kind of person that when her name is on a product it means a lot.
Finally a concern you might have is that founders Berenice and Albert Chauvet are getting older and so there is the question of what will happen in the future. We've seen a lot of product lines fall apart over the years when their founders retire or sell the company. Well,
@dvsDave and I had a great conversation with Caroline Chauvet two weeks ago at
LDI. She's the next generation of the Chauvet family and is currently working in the newly purchased
Chamsys product
line. I walked away from that conversation thinking, if Caroline is the future, Chauvet is going to be around a long time and be a very good company.
Yes, until Chauvet has 20 year
track record of supporting their professional
line there is a risk involved in buying their equipment. But when I saw the performance of the Chauvet
Batten Cyc lights (seriously get a demo), I compared the price of getting the same performance in another product
line, and when I got to know some of the people at Chauvet, I found the any potential risk to be small and the benefits of buying that product huge!
