Not on the Technobeams, but Strong is the standard of the industry on follow spots. The Trouper,
Super Trouper, Xeon Gladiator are all built by Strong. Anyone who has run a Strong spot will tell you they are the Rolls Royce of follow spots. It would be hard for me to believe that anything they
build would be junk.
Of course anyone who's ever owned any kind of British automobile will likely bore you to tears with how poorly engineered they are and how much time they spend in the shop (grin). Of course if you can AFFORD a Rolls, then it's probable that the cost of service is trivial.
Seriously though, I used Strong Carbon Supers for years and they truly were finely made and great running machines.
But just like the
current crop of Korean made automobiles have caught up to the US and some Japanese makes, in terms of quality, I would recommend the
Lycian line of spots over Strong.
One big reason. For whatever reason - smaller company, a company concentrating on just spots (Strong is a huge supplier of projection equipment), I find that the ergonomics of the
Lycian product
line to be superior to Strong. Case in
point. The placement of the color
boom on the Supers, stuck way out in front of the machine like it's an afterthought. On the
Lycian xenon series, it's adjacent to the
shutter/
dowser.
etc... a much more convenient location.
My.02 about Strong, and BTW, the Metropolitan Opera in NYC uses 7
Lycian xenons
SB