LED Scene Lighting Retrofit Success Story

By Zach Rudy, Akron Brass District Sales Manager Gulf Coast Region

When I travel the Gulf Coast area there seems to be an occurring trend with many fire departments and municipalities.  The reality is that budgets are tight and many fire departments are forced to make their vehicles and equipment last up to 10 years beyound the average vehicle life.  If you look at your mid 1990’s apparatus, you will mostly find out-of-date halogen quartz lights mounted either on the brow, on a pole, or even recessed into the side of that truck.  Halogens can be inefficient, fragile and really not that bright.

Recently, I have had a fantastic solution to offer these frustrated fire departments, specifically the SceneStar^TM. SceneStar is the newest high powered LED addition to the Akron Brass family of scene lighting.  The SceneStar light heads can be easily put on any new piece of fire apparatus or retrofitted to replace any existing light head to revitalize that older truck and bring it up-to-date without having to purchase a new truck.

Chief Arlen Sharpentier from Bourg Fire Department in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana had continuing issues with his halogen scene lights and contacted his local distributor, Lee Chambers from Ferrara Fire Apparatus, about possible solutions he may have.  I was contacted too as a product expert and made the trip to the Bayou to help out. After showing Chief Arlen a SceneStar Demonstration and explaining the simple retrofit process, he was ready to make the commitment to replace his old halogens with a pair of 20,000 lumen AC LED SceneStars on his late 1990’s pumper.  “Chief Arlen loves his new lights and was impressed how simple it was to switch them out”, stated Lee Chambers. “The last time we spoke he is getting ready to get budget approval for the replacement of his whole fleet of halogens and make the switch to the SceneStar”.

If you are interested in a simple, easy retrofit for your apparatus’ scene lighting, please feel free to contact your local Akron Brass Distributor or District Sales Manager at 1-800-228-1161.