Clay Paky

July / August 2008

What is Clay Paky’s main focus today?
Recently, Clay Paky has increased its focus on the professional market: Theatre, Television, Live events. Our products are designed to meet the most demanding LD needs, typical of these lighting sectors, from low operating noise to brightness, from the wide range of effects to maintenance and installation needs.
However, we do not neglect the entertainment sector thanks to which Clay Paky got its start back in 1976 and for which we still produce specific projectors, often “simplified” versions of those suited for professional use. Compared to the myriad of low quality and poor performance products, we believe that Clay Paky products can provide this market with a highly competitive quality/price ratio.

How do you view China? As a cheap manufacturing threat or a huge potential market?
Our sector has witnessed the birth of various companies in recent years, often focusing on price policies without placing too much emphasis on product quality. In Asian markets, and especially in China, small manufacturers who, exploiting European designs and even brands, have multiplied, supplying products with questionable quality, also thanks to European distributors who played along. Faced with these phenomena which, moreover, are hard to keep in check, we remain loyal to the philosophy that has always set our company apart: quality products, made with first class materials, and designed to provide maximum performance and reliability.
‘Copied’ products are, in fact, empty shells. They are not the result of rigorous studies and tests to achieve the highest results in terms of quality, performance, materials and safety. Attentive customers know that Clay Paky is backed by a quality certificate that no other “emulator” will ever be able to give, at least not on the short-medium term. This drives us to continuously improve and, in this sense, China is a factor in our pursuit for innovation.
The Clay Paky policy, clearly against the mainstream, is rewarding us in those markets where problems should have occurred: China is now, in fact, one of the most dynamic markets for Clay Paky where we can count on important references like the National Grand Theatre in Beijing - the most innovative and futuristic theatre in all of China - the fabulous Opera House and Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, the leading television studios, this year’s Olympic and Para-Olympic Games. This is proof of how our culture and professionalism is appreciated and desirable, even in the country with the highest population and fast growth in the world.

What are your major/most important markets?
As said, we boast some prestigious installations in China, Russia, Europe, India and the Middle East – with special reference to countries experiencing high economic growth, where the markets haven’t been flooded with supplies and where increasingly more professional demand is growing.
We are also strongly penetrating the US market, thanks to our recent partnership with PRG.

The latest addition to the Alpha range is the 300 series. Briefly, what is the advantage of this product?
The Alpha 300 series was conceived to include the typical performance of higher category products to four compact and energy-saving projectors while still maintaining the Alpha family quality standards.
Thus the introduction of the Alpha Spot HPE 300 and Alpha Wash 300, lightweight, bright, silent, with superior graphic, colour and optical performance. In a word, the most complete “spot” and “wash” in their category, ideal for any professional sector where the advantages of being “small” are combined with the performance of the “big”.
Alpha Beam 300 is worth a special note. It is not just an innovative product but a new “concept” highly anticipated by Lighting Designers.
It is a Moving Light Beam exclusively introduced by Clay Paky, that produces a super-concentrated parallel light beam and is used like a Par64 ACL, always included in all great Rock‘n’Roll shows but with highly superior and innovative features: broad and fast movement on two axes, unequalled brightness (three times that of an ordinary 1200W Wash), complete graphics, full colour mixing (CMY colour wheel), patented frost, electronic ballast.
As soon as it was launched on the market it was highly demanded by many lighting designers and rental companies who used in many important applications including the musical “Mary of Nazareth”, that debuted in the Nervi Room (the huge auditorium in Vatican – Rome, specifically built for the audience with the Pope) and will soon begin its world tour, the Dancing on Ice Tour featuring the ITV1 show, The High School Musical Tour in Spain, the Queen Paul Rodgers Tour and many more.
Over 1.100 Alpha Beam 300 were sold to rental companies worldwide in the first half of 2008. This is an extraordinary result, especially when considering that the Alpha Beam 300 is an absolute beginner both as a product and as a concept.

How why did you get involved in the Knight of Illumination Awards?
The “Knights of the Illumination” Awards were conceived and promoted by Clay Paky to provide public recognition for outstanding achievements in Lighting Design by British Lighting Designers in a number of professional areas. At the same time, these Awards will forge closer ties between the world of Lighting Design and the Lighting Industry.
To reach these goals, Clay Paky has promoted and organised the Awards in association with STLD and ALD whose professional standards guaranteed the credibility and the reliability of the evaluations.
Given the success and endorsements received by all at the recent Knight of Illumination Awards ceremony during the ABTT Annual Award Dinner 2008, we intend to continue to promote this event.

What can you tell us about future plans for Show-way?
The first edition of Show-way was highly successful for Clay Paky. We received many foreign visitors including the leading international ‘players’.
Our customers and our sales network enjoyed the professional and elegant climate, promoting business negotiations. Our expectations were confirmed by the satisfied visitors and exhibitors at our stand.
We won’t miss out on the next edition of Show-way since we believe it is the Italian event that best suits our professional business.