“Boutique” Shop Expands Further into the Touring World
Video director Mark Haney describes Upstage Video as “a leader in large screen displays and live video production services that has evolved into a turn-key event company that handles everything from load in to load out. It was founded 14 years ago by Doug Murray, who is a true entrepreneurial creative spirit. It’s been impressive to see what he’s done in a short amount of time from being a single-employee start-up to a company interacting with some of the biggest brands in the world.”
And they are on the move in more ways than one. In December of 2016, they were the first tenants to move into Pod 2 at Rock Lititz in Lititz, PA. “Our facilities up until then have always been moved into out of sheer necessity,” Murray says. “The move from our original location in Pottstown to Rock Lititz allowed us to start with a blank slate and put ourselves into an incredible environment. The community of production companies and the people we get to interact with on a daily basis has just been awesome. I study other people’s shops as a sick hobby, and I think our shop runs as efficiently as any I’ve seen. We’ve got a great 5,000 square foot demo room that our clients and sales staff have really taken advantage of.”
Murray is proud of his “boutique” status and says it enables Upstage to react quicker to a client’s needs than a large company owned by a hedge fund. “I always look at the big companies and am certainly envious of their resources, but am quick to realize how ass-backward they did things. Their people were always changing — or worse, they put the success of the entire production in the hands of a lead freelancer.” He’s not making that mistake. Recent hires include GM Geza Divenyi, VP of business development Jason Cataldi; and Parnelli Award-winning video director Haney in touring. Cherie Sturm is another recently acquired talent. “She is credited with starting VER’s touring division, and years later was tasked with opening their touring office in the U.K.,” Murray says. “She is one of those rare individuals that not only has a knack for hyper-networking, but she also knows the gear down to the bolt, pixel, codec, cable, lens, frame rate and case.” There is also senior project manager Norvin Maloney, previously a freelancer working primarily for XL Video, who has toured with the likes of Coldplay, Jack Johnson and Roger Waters among others. “These are not just qualified people,” Murray adds. “These are people with decades of deep, hands-on experience in everything that we do. If you ask anyone that knows any of these folks, you’ll not only hear about their technical prowess but more than likely you’ll hear about how dedicated they are to delivering great service to their clients. It’s not an easy assignment to try to grow a company with this formula of talent-first, but it’s key to our success.”
Out West
The L.A. office is also mission-critical for the company’s development in the West Coast market. Conveniently, Haney has long lived in the L.A. area, so growing that office there to be an offshoot of the Rock Lititz complex made sense. But what also made sense is sharing the building with a couple of other companies based in or near that quaint Pennsylvania town. Enter the building at 9420 Telfair Avenue in Sun Valley, CA and you’ll also find spaces for Atomic Design and Mountain Productions (which is two hours north of Lititz in Wilkes-Barre). “We’re located in the San Fernando Valley and are close to everything,” Haney says. “We’re on top of Hollywood and right off the Golden State Freeway, so it’s easy for anyone to come by.” The office was founded five years ago by Ed Winquest, West Coast GM of the LA Warehouse and West Coast sales manager who, with video technician Stephen Sharot, hold down the San Fernando Valley with Haney.
The West Coast shop continues to handle Eric Clapton and has recently worked with Blondie and the 2Cellos tours as well as several music festivals. Upstage Video was also there for the recent Pearl Jam stadium run, Haney says. “What’s great about Doug is he continues to think about improving the product, and he’s more on top of the technical aspect of the business than anyone else I’ve ever known. I think we’ll continue to be on the forefront of that.” (For more on Haney, see sidebar, page 72.)
Origins
Murray did the touring-in-a-van thing for years with a band based in Boulder, CO. Increasingly, though, he became more interested in the production side of the show. “A lot of artists focus on the song and the performance, and I was spending all my time with how the rig looked or sounded,” he says, adding with a laugh. “In retrospect, I probably should have spent more time on the songs!” Or not. As the early 90s ignited with lighting and video innovations, he was struck by how it all added an entirely new dimension to the feeling that the artist was trying to create through their music. Meanwhile, he got off the road and became a stay at-home dad. “In a period of about 30 days I went from minor league rock star to uncomfortable dad in the corner of the pool at the YMCA swim-and-sing.” During presumably nap time, he taught himself how to edit video on an Avid and how to use Final Cut. He then started a digital signage company serving doctor offices, but that was a struggle. It all changed with a 2004 visit to InfoComm, where he spotted a Barco D7 LED wall, and “it was love at first sight.”
A year later, 2005, he opened Upstage Video with a truck mounted 9 x16 10mm SMD screen from Daktronics. “If you aren’t aware, in 2005 a truck-mounted 10mm SMD screen was just a really bad idea. It was so damn expensive.” While he started the company with highly questionable choice for a mobile screen, it quickly morphed into something that made sense. “We have been super fortunate to have been able to keep our core team intact for more than a decade now. With amazing talent like Greg Brown, Christian Mathews, Curtis Filchner and Jason Detwiler, we’ve been all over the world serving our clients.” And through the years an impressive array of clients have been built up — they are handling corporate, education and exhibitions events. Also, their installation business has become a significant contributor to the bottom line over the last few years. “We recently installed a 1.5mm curved LED wall in a network broadcast studio in Washington DC, as well as a 113-foot wall we installed into Sight & Sound Theatre near Lancaster, PA.
Forward Thinking
So, what’s next for Upstage Video? A new website that avoids competing in the “my box is cheaper than yours” space and explains that what Upstage Video is really selling is knowledge, service and results. Otherwise, it’s all about attracting more talent, more tours and growing in a manner consistent with the company’s philosophy.
“I’ve said this to anyone who bothered to ask, so I’ll say it again,” Murray says. “We’re not the best fit for every tour out there. We’re the right shop if you’re looking to settle in for a few album cycles with the same team of people servicing your account year after year. If you’re just looking to go ‘shopping’ then you’re probably going to do better at one of the Three Letter Shops. Our mission is pretty simple: use the best ‘ingredients’ — that’s people, sweat, knowledge and gear, and then serve each client according to their needs and do it exceptionally well.”
Mark Haney: Swimming with the Sharks
Mark Haney has had a long, varied career in video working for many other video companies before joining Upstage Video. He grew up in Knoxville and got into the business via his big brother, David “Hud” Haney, who already established a successful career as a stagehand and monitor engineer. Through him, Mark fell in with what might be called “the Knoxville mafia” as he’s known PM/live event professional and fellow Parnelli board member Steve Gudis since he was 15. “I got introduced to Stephen, and since I was a big kid, the next thing I knew I was loading trucks with him,” Haney says with a laugh. He would attend Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, TN and earn a degree in broadcast journalism. He was all set to be one of those guys who reads news for a living, but says he was lucky to have Glenn Cragwall as a professor. “He actually had spent a little time in the music business, and from him I learned video signal flow and how everything in that world worked. It was a real revelation.” Suddenly Haney was shooting live sports at the campus and living the world of load in/load out. Meanwhile, through his brother, he would meet Parnelli Lifetime Achievement honoree Randy “Baja” Fletcher. “I was literally out of college a month and a half when I was on a bus for a Randy Travis tour. I thought, ‘I’ll do this for two or three years.’”
That last part didn’t quite work out. Soon he was an independent contractor handling I-Mag duties, and then worked at Performance Video for a while before embarking on a 15-year career at Screenworks. He got a taste of the business side there, and then vacillated between being an independent contractor (through his own Black Bear Productions) and working for various companies including Elation, XL Video and Colonel Tom Touring. In January of 2017, he joined Upstage Video as VP of Concert Touring and Events. His personal list of clients through the years include Kenny Chesney, Lord of the Dance, Britney Spears, George Strait, Luis Miguel, Eric Clapton, David Byrne and Florence + the Machine, among others. (He is also a long time respected member of the Parnelli Awards Board of Advisors.)
Haney says he was impressed with Murray from the first time he met him. “Doug and I met briefly years ago and sat around and talked music business and immediately hit it off, sharing a lot of the same opinions,” he says. In 2016, the two crossed paths again at an Event Safety Alliance conference on the Rock Lititz campus. “He was moving into a music-centric environment, and it was immediately clear that it was a natural fit. It’s an interesting time to be establishing a foothold in that part of our business, which Haney readily admits. “A very wise man in the concert touring video business once said this is a shark tank,” Haney says with a wink. “So I swim with a lot of sharks. But if you go out and do the best you can with clients and do the things you say you’re going to, you can get and retain business. But it’s not an easy field, and it’s been especially cut-throat.
“One of the things I like about Doug is he mandates that we not try to do be all things to all people but do what we do well for the certain types of clients we’re particularly well-suited for.”
