GreyWyvern
Well-Known Member
What would you consider a generation?
Printed Gel??
- Thread starterApolloDesign
- Start date
Ok, does anyone think it's going to be less than a generation before traditional gels go completely out of production?
How many Altman 360Q's made in the 70's and 80's are still in service? Off the top of my head I know 4 spaces still using them for sure and half a dozen others come to mind as "probably" and I bet you can do the same. If that many places are still using 40+ year old lights because they can't afford to upgrade to Source 4's... gel will be around a while.
Secondly how many theaters do you know with 20 or 30 old fixtures in storage that they keep around just in case. Even after the majority of us upgrade our primary lights to LED, we are still going to have a few incandescent fixtures around... just in case.
So the need for Gel is going to continue for a LONG time. The problem is the demand level will be significantly lower than it is now, (and it's already been dropping fast). Will there be enough sales to keep all the current companies in business? Probably not. Will there be enough sales to keep the current production process profitable? Probably not. As I said you don't want to get stuck with a warehouse of gel stock. Demand will continue but the property taxes and mortgage will be higher than the profits. Gel printed on demand is a smart solution to all of this.
Jay Ashworth
Well-Known Member
As taper implies in a reply just after your question, I mean "a generation" -- generally understood in standard USAdian parlance to mean 20-30 years...
GreyWyvern
Well-Known Member
**I am not speaking for Apollo, as I do not know financial information nor know what/if the president and owner (and CFO) are discussing about Apollo's future business direction. That being said, I am confident that Apollo will be around for many, many years to come, as the company, being forward thinking, is continually adapting to new technology and pushing limits with new ideas.**As taper implies in a reply just after your question, I mean "a generation" -- generally understood in standard USAdian parlance to mean 20-30 years...
I would say that in that time there will only be one, maybe two companies that have gel available. It will very likely be an on demand solution such as printing. It won't be readily available anymore. You won't be able to walk into your local dealer and walk out with what you need, because they won't carry stock anymore. I'm guessing that for most companies that manufacture gel by the traditional methods, it is barely profitable, if at all, even at this point. That is only going to continue to get worse. Companies, whether involved in gel or not, that don't adapt and change to move forward with industry trends will quickly fade away. Here's looking at you Wybron!
It is sink or swim.I would wonder if there isn't a way to offer on demand printing at the dealer level. There are very few venues that would have enough usage to invest in a machine. I can completely envision a future where I had one in my rental shop and bought all the supplies from a gel manufacturer that would allow me to have zero printed stock in hand, and could run it off as needed.
The big gap here is if there is enough of a market that would pay off for development of such a machine. With how much work Apollo has put into this and it is barely there from the manufacturer's side to necessitate it, that might all be a pipe dream.
The big gap here is if there is enough of a market that would pay off for development of such a machine. With how much work Apollo has put into this and it is barely there from the manufacturer's side to necessitate it, that might all be a pipe dream.
