Canto USA’s RETRO Series

Hey Jasmine! How are you? – I'm good Shawn. How are you? – Outstanding! Thank you. So, what do you think? – So I am just kind of wondering what exactly these are about? So, where do I need to put them? What's their best use? Really that's what I'm interested in. – Okay great! So, with the RETRO series of product we have essentially three different groups. – Okay! – We have the Classic group that looks like this with this can on top, even though this has tabs. We can configure that in a lot of different ways and this application is actually for slope ceiling. We also have this version here where we can put this into one with a reflector that can't be removed anymore but we also can't access from the bottom. So, we can do a lot with the Classic series and customization. – Okay! – So, that's why we have the Classic. We started with Classic. We sold a lot of Classics. We still have it but it's our most versatile unit. So, that's what this is and why we have it. – Okay! – Then from there we went to the Fusion series. So, this is exactly the same guts. – Okay! – Everything in here is exactly the same as in here the only difference is the packaging. So, it's what's on the outside, right. So, with this we've gone to a plastic shell. It's a little shorter. So, if we hold these up next to each other you can see that, you know, from the bottom there the heatsink to heatsink this is a lot shorter. Even though the reflector is taller. So, they fit into fixtures a lot easier. In fact, I have a cutaway unit that I can show you. So, over here you can see that on the cutaway unit with this chamfered edge on the top edge so we can get up a little higher into the reflector. Let me move this around so you can see a little better. So, see with this one we can actually get up into the reflector a lot further because of that chamfered edge. – Okay – So that allows us to reduce the height of the stem we have to have to get to that connector. So, when the guys are screwing these in it just makes it a lot easier on them. – Okay – Okay! Then the other thing that we did, we had to do it for a music hall, is create one that's passive. So, we call it Passive. Because these are all actively cooled. There is a fan involved. It's really kind of easy to see on the Classic versions. The fan is right here and it literally forces air across these cooling fins. – Okay – So, the heat dissipates from the chip itself into these fins and then we blow air across them. On the Passives this is a 700 that's set up to go into a PAR can, a PAR 56 can. So, we have this gigantic heatsink to dissipate all that heat out. – Okay! – The 150s are naturally passive. So, the 150s don't have a fan no matter what. -Okay! – Classic or Fusion, doesn't matter. The 300s, 500s, and 700s we have a version like this. This is a 700, it's the biggest chunk of aluminum we have of the three. The 500 and 300 are a little smaller. – Okay! – It's all about heat dissipation. Then the other piece to the puzzle with that is once we got the Fusion into a 1000, so were up to 10,000 lumens. – Yeah! – Then we were able to actually make a plate that then puts it into a source 4 PAR. – Oh nice! – So, those are our two. That's the big advancement for that. People were asking if they could do it. We were like, uh we don't really want to do it until we can get the same brightness. So, we're there now. – Okay! That's great! Okay! So, I know you said that the Classics and the Fusions they have the same insides. – Yes! – So, exact same specs but the Fusions you can't customize at all, really? I mean the tops I guess you can change out but what about like rings, any of that? – So, right now we're not doing a lot with rings on the Fusions and all that. If we're going to do anything like rings then we're right now we're just staying with the Classics. – Okay! – Because, and the reason for that is, because when we built the classics we put these little nice little holes in so we can attach things to this and manipulate it a lot that way. Then we also have this big plate on top as opposed to the smaller plate on top. So, it gives us a lot more surface area to attach brackets and threaded tubes and all that. – Gotcha! Okay! Now the cutaway that you showed me. – Yes. – It's orange, why is that? – That's because all of our demo units now are orange. Some people were getting demo units and putting them into their inventory and forgetting about them. So, we're hoping that that's a nice subtle reminder in that auburn orange to send those back. – Gotcha! Okay! Very smart. Very smart. I like that. Now I'm kind of more familiar with the Classics as far as like the ease of changing things out on those. I see here that the Fusions have kind of this little lip around the top that the Classics don't. So, as far as like changing things out there top wise? – So, what you got to do is you got to crack these open. So, you're going to have to take four screws out, two from each side. You're going to have to open it up. You're going to change that plate out because it's literally slotted into that little groove. Which means you're going to have to be really careful if you do this in the field to get all of that back like it's supposed to be otherwise these screws are not going to line up. But we can walk you through that and help you with that if that happens. – Okay! The Passives are big. So, is there any place like in particular any type of establishment that you guys seem to have these kind of more frequently? I know they don't have a fan on them. – So, recital halls, rooms where noise is really really a big deal. In fact these were developed because we put our product into a recital hall with other LED products and the people in the recital hall came in and heard the fans on the other products, not our product, on the other products and said all fans must go. So, that's when we went ahead and bit the bullet and went ahead and finished developing this and then we changed all those out. I think we're still the only LED product in that room that does not have a fan that they are actually happy with. – Nice! Okay! That's awesome. So, what's this guy? He looks cool. What is he? – Great question. So, those are reflectors. So, the way we handle the light is it's generated on this chip and then the light coming out is very broad. It's really wide. Like 120 degrees wide. – Yeah! – So, we use these reflectors to recollimate that light into beam angles. So, for instance, this is a 26-degree beam angle. So, this takes that 120 degrees of light and narrows it down to 26 and refocuses all that energy. Then they're interchangeable too. So, let's say somebody ordered one with a 26 degree they get them in. They're like, oh we totally messed up. We should not have done 26s. We should have done 59s. So, no problem. We can help with that. They don't send us the whole fixture back, they just take that reflector snap it off, snap the new one on, and they're done. – Nice! Okay! Now, you mentioned the slope adaption tabs. I have never seen those. I'm not really sure what they are, how to use them, where they would go, etc… Can you kind of explain this? – Absolutely! So, a lot of times when people have sloped ceilings, it's at an angle, and they've bought a fixture that has a big gimbal on it so it'll turn so that as you turn it you can make that fixture go straight up and down. – Okay! – Many electricians when they installed those didn't care. So, they're sticking at some strange angle and there's really no way to get back in there to adjust them after the ceiling is done. So, what we did here is… What we don't want to do is have somebody screw our product in and then it be in an angle on that socket and it breaks the socket. So, that's what this is for. So, when somebody gets this in these little brain angle tack it… So, when somebody gets this in these angle brackets you fold those down, you screw this in, and then once it's in place people can use these to help steady the fixture. To make it straight on so it's not side loading that socket. Then they can put them in place and then we've even included little holes in there so they can screw them in to keep them in place if they're worried about that. – Okay! So, it kind of better distributes the weight of the light? – Exactly so instead of it pushing. So, instead of it creating that level of force like this we're able to put these in and it takes that load off. They're able to slide these up into the reflector and take that load off and these come in two sizes too. One for like a 6 or 8 inch interior and one for like a 12 or 14 inch interior. – Okay – So, this is our most popular but if somebody gets into that situation where they have a big aperture inside that fixture then we also have a version like i said much longer. – Okay! Let's talk about these. – Safety cables? – Yeah! – Great! I'm glad you brought up safety cables. Because safety cables are really important. Because you know we're all theater people, they designed and implemented these products, and the one thing we don't want to ever happen in a performance facility is something to come crashing out of the ceiling onto someone's head. So, what we've done is we have these safety cables that can be attached any way the installer sees fit. I have seen people get into the fixture and find like a 10-32 screw, slide it over the top, put another nut, and screw that down that way. We've also seen people take self-tapping screws, go through here, and then find a very secure place inside the fixture and attach it that way. They are rated so that if, you know, if they let go they will catch and hold. – Okay! – We have tested these extensively. – Okay! So, what should I do in a situation where the safety cable is in my way? Just I have no use for it? – You need to use it. – Okay! – I mean, that's the reality. We can't. I'm not gonna suggest you don't use it if that's where you want me to go with that. I've had other people try that before but no we really strongly suggest that this is part of your installation process. Because it is an added layer of safety that really needs to be done. – Okay! – I know that there are people that sometimes that when they're installed they'll be in the beam path like this. So, we just tell people to, you know, take a moment and you can coil them a little bit. So, you can coil them around your finger a little bit and create a little tension there, then screw them in, and that keeps them sometimes. That keeps them from getting down into the light path. – Okay! Okay! Makes sense. What's this? – That's a great question. This is a PAR plug. So, in those instances where somebody has like a PAR 56 or a PAR 64. This goes right into that old crumbly ceramic fitting that they had that they plugged into the back of their PAR lamps. So, what we do is we've made this. You just snap it right into that porcelain, zip tie it on, and you're done. – Okay! – Just trying to make it easier on the end-user. – Easy enough. Okay! Now these are just wires. – Yep – What's up with that? – That's a great question as well. So, one of the things that we do is a lot of customization. It's really, I would say, most of what we're doing anymore is fitting into something that nobody thought could be done. So, this is a great example. This is where somebody had a reflector that was permanently mounted and they couldn't get under it. Because of the seating on a rake. You just can't get to the bottom of the fixture. So, on this application we took the top off, dropped a wire through, they connected this wire to that, wire pulled it up through the hole where the lamp would go, pulled it all the way up until it got to there, then somebody holds it, they disconnect this they feed a washer and a bolt, or sorry a nut on top of this, attach it to the top of the reflector, then they would set a box here and then make their connection to it. So, it's just looking at situations, figuring out what's the best way to handle it, and providing a solution that's safe and effective for our end users. – Okay! All of your people know what a source 4 PAR is? – No, I don't think they do. – Okay! Can you please explain that to me? – So, it's a great question, Jasmine. Source 4 PARS have been sold by the millions by ETC. They're in a lot of situations. They were originally designed to be a PAR, a theatrical fixture, not anything else, and to meet a need. What was really cool about them is that you could change out the beam spread and you could use exactly the same lamp that the source 4, the ellipsoidal fixture that they sold millions of, also. So, for us once we had that 1000 unit with 10,000 lumens we could start to be equal in output to what that source 4 PAR was. I know for me when I was a designer and I was designing tons and tons of facilities, mostly churches that wanted to be on television, it was really easy for me back then if I had source 4s, which I almost always had a ton of, to make the house light. So, that way everything was the same color temperature. So, there are a lot of facilities that have these as house lights. – Okay! – So, there are a lot of facilities that have these as house lights and the great thing is we can change this out and make it LED now. Far more efficient. They don't have to worry about getting back up to these again. Architects were not always kind to people who needed to change out lights in facilities. So, this is sort of that one-stop shop and the great thing is it's just gonna plug right in like it did before. Same dimming. Same everything. The maintenance guy can be involved in this. So, you don't have to run DMX to it. You don't have to have an electrical contractor. So, literally, millions of these things are in the market and the opportunity now to make them LED and affordable easy to install price. – Awesome! Okay! Alright! So, Shawn, you've told me a lot. I've learned a lot but under what circumstances would I use a Passive over a Fusion, a Fusion over a Classic, or vice versa? – Great question. So, Jasmine, I think that the easiest way to think about this is Fusion is our main line. – Okay – So, we're selling and we're making more Fusions than we are anything else right now. Because it's lightweight, smaller, and it's easier to get into fixtures. Still very customizable with stems. We can do E26. We can also do E11. We can do all kinds of things to this and get it into your facility. Once again this, you know, it doesn't have to be this big. We can put short reflectors. Long reflectors. Doesn't matter. This is sort of our workhorse now. What we're also doing is anytime somebody asks for a quote this is what we're quoting. Unless there's a reason to quote something else. – Okay! One of those reasons may be that we need to add a bunch of accessories to it to get it to fit into the fixture. In that case then we're going to go with the Classic. So, we're going to be able to attach a PAR ring to this. We're going to be able to do something strange to mount it up into the fixture in some way. These are almost exclusively now when we're doing weird or unusual things that require attaching to the sides in some way. Then on the Passives that is a very small small small part of the market. Because it's those rooms that absolutely have to be 100% quiet. I mean if somebody calls and says they need Passives and then they tell me that, "Oh but we also have 200 moving lights in the room." They don't need Passives. Because the fans from the moving lights are 100, maybe a thousand times, louder than anything we're doing with the cooling on the Fusion or the Classic. These rooms are really special. Concert hall, Orchestra hall kind of thing, or very very intimate highly noise-conscious rooms. – Okay! – That's really the only place we see these and there is a cost associated with that. So these are exactly the same price but this you're going to need somebody that has got a different level of cost expectation with this. – Okay! So, between the Fusions and the Classics there's I mean really unless I need super awesome customizations of some sort… There's not really a reason to need to decide between these two other than matter of preference, I suppose. – Exactly! Exactly. I mean so like we've had jobs that are specified to be Classics. So, we're building Classics. We're gonna put Classics out the door but I think the reality is this is a smarter move. Because it's gonna be easier to handle. Easier to maintain. You know while you're getting it up into the space on this then it will be this. A lot of people enjoy how much more slick this looks and it just fits so nicely inside the fixtures. – Okay! Thank you! – You're welcome!