I was one of the very first to start using both Chinese lights" and
LED when people were arguing that
LED will never ever be used in professional
stage lighting. At the time I argued with a lot of people here that
LED is that way to go and it eliminates GELS - people laughed. Who's laughing now. I said almost a decade ago now that I use Chinese lights exclusively, pars and moving lights in a commercial setting, again I was laughed at. "What I said back then still holds true today. Even when I was buying " Pro lights" made by the big boys, I would get a 10-20% failure rate. With the Chinese lights I get the same. Back them people argued " what about the warranty and who will fix them" I said I am the warranty, and I don't fix them I
throw them away. Think about it, I can buy six or more Chinese moving lights for the price on one from the "big boys" so I don't bother, if one goes down, I toss it immediately, I don't even bother saving it any more for spare parts. Not even worth my time to repair, I simply open a new box and I'm up and running in two minutes. No "big lighting company" can get me up and running in two minutes. Shipping is nearly as good as Amazon. I ordered 18 pars (WITH A
ROAD CASE TO FIT ) on a Thursday and it was at my front door on Monday. I have gotten great support from the companies I work with. I was the first person to introduce the Chinese to making uprights with batteries. I still have the first prototype in my shop. I did a test years ago where I did lighting for an airplane hanger event. Half the room I did traditionally with a generator, 600 ft of 50 amp cable, 6 bistro boxes, 2 staff, extension chords,
gaffer tape to tape down all the chords,
etc.
etc. The other half I did with battery op uprights. I took the 18 lights, dropped them where I wanted them, focused them, turned them on and walked away. That took me less than ten minutes, and at show time no one could tell the difference between my help and the "traditional half at
strike, the two guys took over and hour to
strike, rolling cable pulling tape
etc. I took another ten minutes. Do the math 2 guys 10 hour day rate, generator, rented cables, distort, generator, duel, delivery charges. That's profit going out the door in labor and rental. If I did the job 100% I could have put a $1000.00 in my pocket. By the way the blazing bright 1
watt original
LED pars I got over a decade ago, are still working just fine at the high school I donated them to of their plays. It really is about economics plain and simple. I can buy the lights from China and get them paid for on the first job they go out on, no one can say that by buying a 7K and above moving light traditionally.
