TLS Productions Plays Key Role at Los Angeles Auto Show
Walking the floor at the Los Angeles Auto Show (LAAS) the morning of the inaugural press event is a strangely peaceful process. All around, credentialed professionals are silently setting up media capture equipment.
In every booth, car detailers in their branded vests are silently whisper-whisking any remaining smudges or dust that might detract from the polished sheen illuminated by the myriad of brilliant lights. Despite the effort to conceal the miles of truss from which thousands of lighting fixtures hang, the black canopy of aluminum stands out against the 40-foot ceiling above.
It is easy to pick out the technical staff, which has been here the last ten days installing the tons of metal and glass in the air. They are the ones looking up at the ceiling, not the cars. At the south end of the convention center, the Toyota booth’s massive display signage can be seen as it stretches east to west from wall to wall of Hall G. The booth itself occupies 36,000 square feet of show floor.
It is here that TLS Productions (TLSP) once again has returned to create and participate in the launch of the North American Auto Show season, which will be staged in several cities including Detroit, Chicago, and New York over the next six months.
Since 1954 TLSP, a full service sales, rental, and production company, has provided for and produced special events for the automotive and trade show industries. The 2016 event marks their third decade at the LAAS.
Along with their role in illuminating booths for Toyota and Lexus, TLSP was involved in Toyota’s press event, working with production partners George P. Johnson (GPJ), Gregory Cohen (with UVLD), O2 Communications and Creative Technology (CT).
The Team
Ryan Nicholson, lighting director for Neil Diamond for 15 years, is now the in-house LD for TLSP. He designed the Toyota and Lexus booths at LAAS. For Toyota, he chose all automated fixtures, with 345 Elation Design Par 575’s serving as the workhorse in the booth.
Nicholson deployed 135 Studio Due CS-1 Automated Daylight Pars in the Lexus Booth for the same purpose. Though smaller in footprint (15,000 square feet), the Lexus booth requires 88 motors to distribute the heavy scenic load.
Bobby Glowacki, one of the lead lighting designers at TLSP, is the production manager for the Toyota and Lexus booths at the LAAS. A graduate of Oakland University in Rochester, MI with a BFA in Lighting Design, he worked as a touring stage manager for theatrical productions based in New York City before returning to Michigan to accept a position with TLSP in 2011.
He is a member of the “new” TLSP team that formed after TLSP’s Bill Ross and Brad Hayes led the employee company buyout in 2013. Ross and Hayes, co-owners of the company, share the company title as president.
“We are one of the few companies built on the back of exhibits,” says Ross. “We started as a production company first, with an emphasis on lighting and rigging. It is what brought us to the dance. Over the past 17 years, TLSP has been establishing and growing the concept of onsite production, delving deeper into audio and visual production needs. We really embrace the whole project.”
“Bobby was initially hired five years ago, for one particular project, says Doyle Martin, VP of show services and director of design services. “We recognized his capabilities could allow him to branch out into other areas with the company.”
The Challenge
The largest challenge to Glowacki and the TLSP crew for this year’s booth was that the main freight aisle into the hall bisects the 360-foot back wall of the booth. The build had to be staggered in order to accommodate the flow for the other booths on the floor.
“This required an accurate and integrated knowledge of the timeline of producer George P. Johnson, and end client Toyota,” says Glowacki. “There are always challenges on an Auto Show due to the very nature of the event and the large scope of the Toyota booth. My background in theatrical staging and dance come into play, along with the lessons I learned in stage blocking. You develop a sense of what is going to happen next, backed up by meticulous notes documenting what is supposed to happen next. When the unexpected happens, or chaos hits in the heat of production as the gear hits the show floor all at once, adapting and repurposing people and gear stems from my background of directorial changes.”
Tim Kruse, rigging supervisor for TLSP, notes that the LA Convention Center’s weight restrictions posed a challenge, one that often requires additional “spanner truss” bridging load bearing beams to better distribute point weight. Tim works closely with Kelly Green, G.E.S. rigging supervisor, and his team.
“G.E.S. worked with us on a pre-rig to alleviate some of the scheduling conflicts the delayed build of Toyota’s back wall entailed. I’ve always been pleased working with the G.E.S team of riggers here in L.A.,” says Kruse, whose 16 years of rigging experience includes tour work with Alan Jackson.
The Company
TLSP’s Ross joined the company 28 years ago for what was to have been a three month temporary position. Four years ago, he bought the company. A graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in technical theater, he now calls his gig “the best temporary job I ever had.”
Carl Kedzierski, director of marketing for TLSP, is credited as the guy who brought the backbone of TLSP into the digital age. In 2006, he joined as assistant shop manager and helped to spearhead the implementation of IntelliEvent, the company’s sales and rental inventory system. Kedzierski also serves as the account executive for FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), while Kirt Bachiero, vice president of sales, works as TSLP’s account executive for Toyota & Lexus.
“In all honesty,” says Ross, “there are only three or four companies that play in this field, and we’re all equally adept at doing these events. What TLSP brings to the project is our attention to detail, our ability to work with the client and the setup company to help find those synergies so we all can make some profit.”
“I’ll take that a step further,” says Kedzierski. “Many companies can source the gear to do these shows, which is one of the many things that we are good at. The biggest TLSP advantage to our customers is that we have a tremendous core staff, along with a consistent pool of outside human resources that have been involved in special event productions for decades.”
“Instead of freelancers,” asserts Ross, “we have permalancers.” One such person is fellow Parnelli honoree, Michael Keller. Keller just won LD of the year for his work with Black Sabbath, while TLSP took the Hometown Hero Lighting Company of The Year award from the 2016 ceremony’s winners podium.
“Michael has been working with us during the auto season for 25 years,” beams Ross, “whenever he’s not on the road lighting a rock ‘n’ roll show.” Stan Green, LD for Tom Petty (who also attended the 2016 Parnellis as a surprise presenter for Lifetime Achievement award honoree Richard Fernandez) also carves out time to work for TLSP.
Mentors for the Future
Of equal importance to the growth of TLSP is bringing along the next generation of lighting and production people.
“When Brad Hayes and I bought the company in 2013, we sat down with Bobby Glowacki and asked him what he wanted to do,” recalls Ross. He told us he really wanted to get into design work, so we opened that avenue for him, and he proceeded to blow everybody away on his first project. He’ll be designing the upcoming Chrysler booths for Chicago and New York, which are huge shows.”
Co-owner/president Hayes, with 30 years experience in the entertainment, lighting & production industry, worked on national and international tours and industrial markets as electrician, master electrician, crew chief, stage manager and production manager, before coming to TLS Productions, Inc. in 1997.
“We are lucky to be located in an area with a great number of colleges and universities that support a lot of production and theater on their campuses,” Hayes says. TLSP is actively involved with tech programs at both Eastern Michigan University and the University Michigan and also has strong ties with local high schools, community theatres and houses of worship.
TLSP also funds the John Briggs Endowed Scholarship in Entertainment & Design Technology at Eastern Michigan University. This scholarship honors the passion, dedication, and commitment to the field of theatrical technology by Eastern Michigan University Alumnus, John Briggs. Over the years, Briggs and TLSP have given their time and equipment to assure EMU Theatre productions are of the highest quality, while using the most cutting-edge technology.
“Every design student does one production as part of their curriculum,” says Hayes. We invite them into our shop to pick from the latest and greatest to use on their show, no matter the budget.”
Doyle Martin sees these partnerships as a way to resolve a common problem other skilled labor trades are experiencing. “The path that leads to technical training is not readily available anymore. Lots of great students are coming out of theatrical programs that don’t have a realistic grasp of what jobs are available and what those jobs entail.”
Martin also cites the company’s annual Open House & New Product Showcase, now going in to its fourth year, as a way for the company to reach out to students. It is an all hands on deck situation, which involves the entire TLSP staff for the week long run. “The event as a way to bring a little bit of LDI to the high school and college students,” Martin says, “which nurtures young new talent, while giving back to the local community.”
Hayes agrees. “Most of us in the management side of TLSP learned our trade on the road, by doing it,” he says. “We started on the road because we needed a job and that is what we wanted to do, so we found a way out there. Those opportunities do not really exist anymore. So if we’re going to have another generation, a better generation with better trained, more capable people; we need to help feed that.”
“The idea that you need an education in order to get a job seems to dominate kids thinking these days,” he adds.
“The problem occurs when graduates come out of college with this huge amount of student debt. They look for the top tier, designer positions immediately to resolve the debt as quickly as possible. Our task is to distill out of that group the people with the drive and ambition to improve. At TLSP, we have been pretty good at finding that new young generation by putting them through the paces just as we went through. They start in the shop, learning cable, fixtures, and all the foundations before we send them out on a project.”
While Ross and Hayes are majority shareholders, many key production and staff members hold shares in the company as well. Hayes credits one of his mentors for the idea that “he did not want employees, he wanted partners. That resonated very heavily with me,” he says.
The biggest takeaway Hayes finds is the people that make the project happen, and “we have the best in the industry. They are the rock stars.”
2016 Los Angeles Auto Show
Toyota Booth
- 1 grandMA Light console w/3 NPUs
- 345 Elation Design Par 575 fixtures
- 57 Studio Due CS-1 automated daylight pars
- 15 Martin MAC Auras
- 8 Chroma Q Static white light pars
- 144 Motors
- 3,500 Linear feet of truss
Lexus Booth
- 1 grandMA Light console
- 130 Studio Due CS-1 automated daylight pars
- 21 Martin MAC Auras
- 8 Chroma-Q static white light pars
- 82 Motors
- 3,200 Linear feet of truss
For more information on TLS Productions, go to www.tlsproductionsinc.com.
