Photos of the bad lamp, and it's
bi-pin contacts? Anything look other than chrome about the pins? First we do the easy in inspecting the lamp in that especially on the pins to it, if bad pins it's a bad lamp
socket. On the lamp, my notes on lamp/
fixture combination don't list your
fixture, suspect that it's more or less an industry standard MSR 575/2 description? Arc gap between the electrodes should be 7mm in length and should not change much over the life of the lamp unless there was a substantial
power supply issue. This could be a bad generator during a show, or bad
ballast. Will be shown by a blobbing/melting down of the electrode tip and more especially in perhaps a bad
ballast by a lack of bubbles in silver crusties of
tungsten finding a new home inside the
globe elsewhere.
Too much heat, bad
ballast, wrong on-site
power... long things to describe that
Mark from Osram can better when inspecting a lamp. From my standpoint... really hard but think about how long that lamps's ben in use with say a bad
ballast while still operating inefficiently. What sort of etching in
halogen effect has the
tungsten and other gasses been doing by way of pinch/
globe digging a hole, or at the fill pinch making a hole if cooler? This for me as with amount of divitrification on the
globe tells me a lot, as with measuring the arc gap and looking at the electrodes - are they blackened, lacking fresh bubbles or blobbed? Once the lamp fails - easier to
trace where the cloud of gas is headed towards in finding the micro crack
thru the glass. If under say 10 hours, doubtful if's from the manufactur of the lamp and instead inside the
fixture or from someone touching the lamp which is easy to see if before it explodes.
Anyway, encourage all when meeting a rep from a lamp maker to get GE, Phillips, Ushio, Eiko
etc. lamp vendor experts on the website also. When
Mark from Osram is busy, perhaps someone from Ushio or another Dr.
Bulb' could field the question better than me in best advice.
honestly it sounds like it's a bad ignitor, especially if it's happening on a new lamp. But certainly do what Ship says and check the 
