Osram sells Entertainment and Industry lamp division to Ushio!

[Stefan Scholz]

Osram had a widely automated manufacturing with still manual processes. Even if this would be an advantage, the German labor costs, highest energy costs in the world, highest transport costs, environmental costs, etc would make it unlikely to continue the manufacturing there in Augsburg or Berlin Spandau.
It is more likely to move the production line to a place with better overall costs.

And, Osram hasn't been a prime choice in lamps for years. We encountered all of the above mentioned problems as well, but mainly early blackening of the envelopes, flicker, and striking issues were the ones that occurred frequently. So the choice became Ushio since years.
Best warranty in the industry, that's the one you never have to claim.

[Tj Hopland]

I see Ushio has a division in Steinhoring. What do they do there?

I don't think follow spots has ever been that huge of a market for xenon lamps, they just don't put the hours on like cinema did/does. Seems like there are a lot of venues that only do a few shows per year and even a Vegas or Broadway venue isn't running them 10+ hours per day. A case of carbons or one lamp often seemed to be a lifetime supply. I'm not around live shows that much but it seems like a lot of the follow spot jobs have been replaced with what I assume are LED or laser based remote control lights. One director was telling me that the lights pretty much run the show these days. They are all pre programmed including moving lights and its up to the 'talent' on stage to stay in sync and position with the lights.

[Eric Simonian]

Eric from LTI here! I’m proud to say with absolute confidence that lamp explosions are truly a thing of the past. Manufacturing xenon short arc lamps isn’t just a process—it’s an art that requires skill, precision, and deep understanding.

At LTI, we design, manufacture, and ship all of our products right here in Baldwin Park, CA. We’d be delighted to welcome anyone to our facility for a tour or even just to stop by for a friendly chat.

If you’re interested in trialing our lamps, we’d love the opportunity to work with you. When we used to manufacture bulbs for Philips, innovation was often limited by the phrase, “Do it our way or get out of the way.” Since Philips exited the cinema lighting market over 10 years ago, we’ve been free to innovate—and we’ve been thriving ever since.

Today, there’s a reason over 20,000 screens worldwide continue to trust LTI as the light source for their projectors.

Feel free to reach out to me anytime if you’d like to talk more: Eric.Simonian@ltilighting.com

[Ryan Gallagher]

I see Ushio has a division in Steinhoring. What do they do there?

I don't think follow spots has ever been that huge of a market for xenon lamps, they just don't put the hours on like cinema did/does. Seems like there are a lot of venues that only do a few shows per year and even a Vegas or Broadway venue isn't running them 10+ hours per day. A case of carbons or one lamp often seemed to be a lifetime supply. I'm not around live shows that much but it seems like a lot of the follow spot jobs have been replaced with what I assume are LED or laser based remote control lights. One director was telling me that the lights pretty much run the show these days. They are all pre programmed including moving lights and its up to the 'talent' on stage to stay in sync and position with the lights.

I came from and/or am still in that world and can speak to that a bit. Most venues will probably change follow spot lamps once ever 2-3 years or only when they start to notice a flicker. Only your busiest broadway houses might change them more often, and yeah, even then only on for 3-5 hours a day unless doing doubles. And it's pretty rare for any of them to be as large/expensive as cinema lamps, only maybe in huge stadiums and outdoor venues for concerts. 3K is considered a bright long throw lamp by most follow spot standards.

Yes and no to lights running whole shows... at least for Broadway and touring Broadway, they still all have lighting console operators (usually the head electrician), and cues called by stage managers, but yes whole sequences can be linked or fired from timecode if the show calls for it, but too much of that is still a recipe for disaster if the cast (or conductor) is off pace, especially if there is scenic automation and cast safety involved. Programmed moving lights do a lot of the heavy lifting now, but most broadways still have xenon human operated follow spots at the front of the house. Any follow spots closer to the stage such as in proscenium arches or in the rig itself are more likely to be something other than xenon.

"Ground Controlled" spotlights are a thing now too, where the operators comfortably sit in a backstage room somewhere and operate a moving head unit via low latency camera feed that is integrated into the unit's head, but most indoor fixtures are moving away from big xenon bulbs other than follow spots. A couple companies smartly figured there was a liability loophole they could close if people no longer had to climb rope ladders and walk truss to get to their follow spot.

[Ryan Gallagher]

An amusing side thought. In some ways Cinemas and Theatres are ass backwards from eachother business model wise. A roadhouse boradway theatre is basically a rentable venue by the productions. If they have deep enough pockets and very specific needs, they will even fund or cost share major structural modifications to venues, among other upgrades. The original Phantom of the Opera is the biggest example of that, there are a slew of elements that every show after can inherit that still hold "phantom" in the name. "Phantom Rig Points", etc. That chandelier gag and dimensional scenic arch / audio towers were quite demanding back in it's time, and most big shows after are built around those engineer approved venue improvements phantom left behind.

At some point the number of front spotlights you had to have to qualify as a broadway capable house also settled on 4, presumably due to some exceedingly popular show of the past that upgraded that number from a more modest count.

In cinema you also have technology driven demands from directors fueling upgrades too.. (see high frame rate etc)... but the cinemas rent the content from the studios! No meaningful effort is made to cost-share those improvements. (That I am aware of). Maybe cinemas should have just stayed rooms studios could lease? Of course the studios used to own plenty of them back in the day and got away from that business model, much to their benefit i expect.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The only time I can really think of a "cost sharing" model is when it benefitted the bottom line of the studios the most. We all remember VPF, don't we?