PDA

View Full Version : Lighting Brands - Who Should You Buy Your Lights From?



Synaxis
02-09-2012, 08:58 PM
I remember back in DJF1.0, in the speaker sub-forum, there was a list of speaker brands, dividing into the good, the OK, and the bad. There never was one for lighting, and with a decent about of them, I figure it might be a good idea and my attempt at contributing to the forum. So, let's compile as list of all the Lighting Companies out there, into four categories.


Tour/Theatrical/Architectural Grade
The "best of the best," which most of us probably can't afford anyway.

AvoLites (UK) (http://www.avolites.com/)
Chroma-Q (UK) (http://www.chroma-q.com/)
Clay Paky (IT) (http://www.claypaky.it/)
Coemar (IT) (http://www.coemar.com)
Diversitronics Strobes (US) (http://www.diversitronics.com/)
DTS Lighting (IT) (http://www.dts-lighting.it/)
GLP - German Light Products (DE) (http://www.glp.de/)
Leprecon (US) (http://www.leprecon.com/)
MA Lighting (DE) (http://www.malighting.com/)
Philips - Color Kinetics (US) (http://www.colorkinetics.com/)
Philips - Vari Lite (US) (http://www.vari-lite.com/)
PRG - Production Resource Group (US) (http://www.prg.com/)
Strong (US) (http://www.strong-world.com/Products/Lighting.aspx)


DJ/Club/Small Theater Grade

The Best

Ayrton (FR) (http://www.ayrton.eu)
ColorKey (US) (http://www.colorkeyled.com/)
High End Systems (US) (http://www.highend.com/)
Martin Entertainment (US) (http://www.martin.com/)
Robe Lighting (CZ) (http://www.robe.cz)
SGM Technology (IT) (http://www.sgm.it/)

The Good

Chauvet Lighting Pro (US) (http://www.chauvetlighting.com/chauvet-pro/)
Blizzard Lighting (US) (http://www.blizzardlighting.com/)
Elation Professional (US) (http://www.elationlighting.com/)
Enttec (US) (http://www.enttec.com/)
Microh (CA) (http://www.microhpro.com)

The OK

American DJ (US) (http://www.americandj.com/)
Chauvet Lighting DJ (US) (http://www.chauvetlighting.com/dj-club.html)
Eternal Lighting (US) (http://www.eternallighting.com/)
ProLight (UK) (http://prolight.co.uk/)

The Ehhh

Eliminator Lighting (US) (http://www.eliminatorlighting.com/)
OmniSistem (US) (http://omnisistem.com/)
Chinese Ebay Knockoffs



If you know of any others, leave a reply, and what category/order it should be in.

DJStevieRay
02-09-2012, 09:08 PM
Synaxis, I was a moderator for ADJ for many years, and I recently switched over to Blizzard. For many reasons, quality, and better top line products was one of them, so I place Blizzard a little higher than ADJ. Maybe you need split the middle categories. a higher middle, and a lower middle. I would also put Chauvet's "pro" line into the higher middle.

In you top line, you missed a few.
GLP
DTS
Robe
Strong
PRG

Synaxis
02-09-2012, 09:18 PM
Alright, I edited the list based on your suggestions. How does it look now?

DJStevieRay
02-09-2012, 09:20 PM
I'll rep you tomorrow. You can add Eternal lighting in their around the ADJ/Chauvet lighting.

ksmalk08
02-09-2012, 11:04 PM
Woah... Missed a ton on this list lol.
All of the following is truly pro-level gear used on mission-critical rigs.

Under The Best:

Avolites Consoles
Barco Projectors
Christie Projectors
Clay Paky
Chroma-Q
Coemar
Diversitronics Strobes
ETC
Leprecon
MA Lighting Consoles
Philips Color Kinetics

ksmalk08
02-09-2012, 11:11 PM
The following would at least fall under "good"... but are better than either brands you have listed as "good".. probably under "the best". At least if mobile Djs were using this stuff it would be:

LeMaitre Special Effects
ColorKey
SGM
Ayrton

A bit farther down...maybe with Chauvet consumer or Blizzard:

Microh
EnTTec

fueledbymusic
02-09-2012, 11:23 PM
I didnt know that there were that many brands of lights

fueledbymusic
02-09-2012, 11:31 PM
I am pretty new to lighting. I have spent $700 on my light set up. Its all led based. Most of my lights are non DMX (I just have 8 lights)

Most of lights are Chauvet. It seems to me that I had a little issue with a couple of my chauvet lights. I had ordered a led DJ bank. One of the elements was not working property. And then, one of the Chauvet LEDsplash 86b par cans sound active mode does not work. These are things that happened out of the box. Makes me wary about the brand.

But I do have 2 ADJ tri-led mushrooms. They work well as of now

instinct
02-09-2012, 11:50 PM
Woah... Missed a ton on this list lol.
All of the following is truly pro-level gear used on mission-critical rigs.

Under The Best:

Avolites Consoles
Barco Projectors
Christie Projectors
Clay Paky
Chroma-Q
Coemar
Diversitronics Strobes
ETC
Leprecon
MA Lighting Consoles
Philips Color Kinetics

True.. but honestly.. 99% of the people on the forums have no need for any of these (maybe some source 4's, or other ellipsoidals). There are other forums like the Light Network and Control Booth which are more dedicated to high end gear.

ksmalk08
02-09-2012, 11:58 PM
True.. but honestly.. 99% of the people on the forums have no need for any of these (maybe some source 4's, or other ellipsoidals). There are other forums like the Light Network and Control Booth which are more dedicated to high end gear.

I agree. That stuff is the arguable "best", however.

Mystic
02-10-2012, 04:24 AM
Really? You put Elation in the best category? :P

PRG is a tour rental company.

And yes, most people here will never need any of the best stuff.

DJStevieRay
02-10-2012, 07:27 AM
Lol,
Love to Mystic, I was waiting for that one. Although I have been seeing Elation Platinum stuff showing up on more tours (15R pro's and above).

Sween
02-10-2012, 08:34 AM
Aren't Eternal and Blizzard pretty much relabeling the same Chinese products?

FYI... most of the companies above listed as US are actually manufactured in China even though they're US owned.

Good to see you back Mystic.

Mystic
02-10-2012, 08:43 AM
Lol,
Love to Mystic, I was waiting for that one. Although I have been seeing Elation Platinum stuff showing up on more tours (15R pro's and above).

Yah, I've seen them on tours lately. I'm starting to lose faith in some designers because of it. lol
Realistically, a lot of these designers are pissed. Tours are trying to cut costs while still having giant rigs so the person who makes the decisions ends up getting cheaper fixtures to replace the better ones. The truth is that most people wouldn't know the difference either way, but from a designing standpoint and a reliability standpoint... meh. That is all.

DJStevieRay
02-10-2012, 11:45 AM
Aren't Eternal and Blizzard pretty much relabeling the same Chinese products?

Sween, to a point yes, but Blizzard get's it's Chinese heads from a different factory, and the Torrents 90's and Torrent Beams are pretty good. The G60, is brighter than the Stellar 60, again from a different factory. Blizzard is the only "lower end" company with a pixel mapped LED wash The Northstar Quantum Pro. The original pucks, and eternal flat par pro's were virtually identical, but the new Puck unpluggeds, and Eternal Cube's are totally different, and again different factories (although, I think Eternal won this one in design.)

The one thing Blizzard has that Eternal does not, is a choice of different levels or LED Par cans. Blizzard has a huge selection comparatively, with some higher end designs.

instinct
02-10-2012, 05:59 PM
Really? You put Elation in the best category? :P


I knew he was going to make this comment. From what I've been reading, most people have had really good reviews about the Platinum Spots.

ksmalk08
02-10-2012, 06:02 PM
Yah, I've seen them on tours lately.

I have as well.

I saw an Adamson/Lab.Gruppen/XTA rig go out with.... 15R's??? I was kind of disappointed.

DJ M&M
02-10-2012, 07:37 PM
Saw George canyon roll in with a bunch of those elation 15s. personally im loving martins new led line of movers

Synaxis
02-10-2012, 08:25 PM
Ok, I split the list into two groups, high end and low end. Let me know what you think.

And I moved Elation down, just for you Mystic!

LiteTrix
02-10-2012, 08:57 PM
Martin, High End, Robe should be up in the "Tour/Theatrical/Architectural Grade" section.

disbjohn
02-10-2012, 11:28 PM
I would love to have some Clay Paky sharpy's!

ksmalk08
02-11-2012, 06:29 PM
Is there any reason LeMaitre Special Effects didn't make it onto the list?
This is a "Lighting/Visual Effects" forum... and pyrotechnics are definitely a visual effect. :lol:

Projectors are definitely a visual effect as well, and are even used by Mobile DJs quite a bit. No Christie or Barco in the list? Of course that then opens the door to a whole slew of lower-end companies that do your typical office-grade projectors... and that list could get long.

Also - A lot of the companies listed as "small theatrical grade", can definitely do tour-grade, architectural, or large theatrical stuff as well. Maybe a clarification on the nomenclature there? I mean just about all of those brands under "small theatrical grade" make high level tour-grade products.

Some more brands that I know less about, and have seen less of in the market - but still appear occasionally in the pro level used market, and on pro level discussions:

JB Lighting (http://www.jblighting.com)

Lightronics (http://www.lightronics.com/about_us.html) maybe somewhere between the OK and Good list

Acclaim Lighting (http://www.acclaimlighting.com/#/about-us/4537512803)

ElektraLite (http://www.elektraled.com/elektraLite_LED_pro_line.htm) they are part of Group One Limited, which also distrubutes very high end sound gear like XTA, and MC2, it would be logical that they distribute at least decent lighting too (http://www.g1limited.com/)

Pulsar (http://www.pulsarlight.com/News/tabid/244/Default.aspx) also part of the Group One network

Also a good link to look over for brands:
https://www.ip.philips.com/services/?module=IpsLicenseProgram&command=View&id=100&part=11

That is a list of all the companies that Philips is a partner with to distribute their LEDs. generally if a company is putting Philips LED's in it - you could at least give some more credibility to it than some of the random unknown Chinese stuff.

On that list is a company called "TEI Lighting" which I've seen in the lower-end market a few times, maybe put them in somewhere between "Ehhh" and OK
Also a company called "Techni-Lux" that I've seen before, maybe between OK and Good List.

I have seen a Chinese company called "G-Lites or GLites" (Grace Corporation) a few times and apparently their reputation is good for a Chinese one. http://www.g-lites.com/products.html Maybe someone can give some more info on them.

Synaxis
02-11-2012, 08:17 PM
Is there any reason LeMaitre Special Effects didn't make it onto the list?
This is a "Lighting/Visual Effects" forum... and pyrotechnics are definitely a visual effect. :lol:

Projectors are definitely a visual effect as well, and are even used by Mobile DJs quite a bit. No Christie or Barco in the list? Of course that then opens the door to a whole slew of lower-end companies that do your typical office-grade projectors... and that list could get long.


My main focus of the topic was strictly "Lighting Brands," as per the title.

Like you said, there are MANY projector manufactures out there, so I don't even want to dive into that direction.

And LeMaitre, yes pyrotechnics are a visual effect, but again, are not considered lighting :(

Besides, I doubt anyone here would even be using pyrotechnics to begin with.

Thanks for the lists ksmalk08 . Any recommendations on classification? Maybe I should just move all of "The Best" into the higher tier. But then again, Martin manufactures some lower end products as well, so perhaps it should belong in both groups?

DJStevieRay
02-11-2012, 10:19 PM
That is a list of all the companies that Philips is a partner with to distribute their LEDs. generally if a company is putting Philips LED's in it - you could at least give some more credibility to it than some of the random unknown Chinese stuff.

I agree to a point, so.....
Blizzard Lighting Joins Philips Electronics’ LED Luminaires Licensing Program (http://www.blizzardlighting.com/index.php/news/item/83-blizzard-lighting-joins-philips-electronics’-led-luminaires-licensing-program)