The readers of PLSN have chosen these five U.S. companies as the best of their respective U.S. regions plus one chosen as best in Canada. The six regional lighting company winners of the year are as wide a variety as the communities they serve, but they all have this in common: They have faced a period of incredible demand for live event services with aplomb. Other commonalities include knowing that investing in new gear is a key to success, as is a fierce dedication to the clients and the communities they serve.
One of these companies will be named “Hometown Hero Lighting Company of the Year” at the 22nd Annual Parnelli Awards held at the Anaheim Convention Center on Jan. 26, 2024. All six are now on the Parnelli Awards official ballot and voting is open to PLSN subscribers at www.parnelliawards.com/vote. For more information on the gala, and to get your tickets go to www.parnelliawards.com.
NORTHEAST: BML-Blackbird, Fair Lawn, NJ
This company handles it all: Concerts, theater and dance, festivals, corporate events, trade shows, sporting events, nonprofit events—and a perk of being close to New York City—even fashion shows. Oh, and weddings—in the past, ones that featured performances by the likes of Pitbull and Christina Aguilera. But besides those gigs that have them signing NDAs, they are also there for all in their community including installs for theaters, churches, and schools.
“BML-Blackbird was formed in 2006 when I found out that Elliot Krowe, former VP of See Factor, was planning on starting his own venture,” says Eric Todd, CEO & President. “I reached out to him, and we agreed that joining and building a bigger venture would be better than two ventures.” In 2016 there was an opportunity to sell the TV and film portion of the business to 4Wall, and Krowe parted ways to become regional GM of 4Wall Northeast.
Recent projects of note include Ellis Island Honors, a high profile/high security event; corporate events for JP Morgan Chase; lighting up the New Jersey Devils hockey team for a third season; and college graduations in and around New York City. BML-Blackbird have also supported numerous touring art exhibitions including Van Gogh, Banksy, and Jean Michel-Basquiat. There is much more… but “while the prior year has been busy, many of the more significant events, both social and corporate, have required NDAs that do not allow any vendor or third party provide to mention any association with the event,” Todd explains.
In their toolbox one can find a large collection of automated lighting including Martin, Coemar, Elation, High System, Vari-
Lite, Robe, CHAUVET, Claypaky, and GLP. They carry the full grandMA product line but also have ETC, High End Systems, and Leprecon consoles. Todd reports that their special effects inventory is growing as well.
SOUTHEAST: Music Matters Productions, Atlanta, GA
“After the initial post-Covid event boom, we’ve been getting into our groove and able to figure out which style of events have stuck and become the most popular and how each of those events affect inventory needs, staffing, operations, etc.,” explains owner Aaron Soriero. He adds that there has been steady growth, especially in the festivals and outdoor event segment, plus they have been busy with E-Sports. “We’ve also been touring with several artists, including a world tour with Miss Jill Scott that concluded at the end of the summer.”
Other highlights include the Ocean Calling Festival in Ocean City, MD, which was “hurricane’d out” last year, but this year 50,000 showed up for the full production with the stages filled with lighting, video, audio, and rigging supplied by Music Matters. Other festivals of note included the Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, AL; Electric Forest in Rothbury, MI; and Mary J. Blige and Pepsi’s Strength of a Woman Festival and Summit in their hometown. “This was a series of arena performances over two days that was packed with some of Hip Hop and R&B’s top acts,” Soriero says.
Appropriately for a company doing so many outdoor events, the company invested heavily in IP65 rated fixtures, specifically Elation’s Proteus Rayzor 760s. They also picked up a “pile” of new Martin MAC Ultras, and just placed an order on some new Robe spots. Today they make it all happen with 35 full time employees plus that extensive list of freelancers.
“I’m excited about this nomination because I started my career in lighting and was a lighting director in the early years of Music Matters,” he says. “We’ve all been working together for more than 15 years, and we’ve got our systems side down. Our rigs are prepped immaculately, and load-ins are a breeze—and our clients have really taken notice.”
MIDWEST: Legacy Production Group, Minneapolis, MN
In 2015 Tom Gorman and Tom McKnight were at career crossroads and decided to see if they could build a production company for themselves. The idea was simple: to create a company with state-of-the-art equipment and be all about customer service. “We wanted to solve clients’ problems before they knew there was a problem,” Gorman says. “We wanted [to employ] people that cared about being the best and had a passion for customer service. We also wanted to create an amazing work environment where people actually wanted to come to work.”
Despite the pandemic “hiccup,” they have gone from a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse to a 50,000 sq. ft. one, complete with a full black box studio space and production offices. “It serves the virtual events we still do as well as tour preps, and we can demo shoot outs,” he says. In addition to the large volume of corporate events typical of our Hometown Heroes, they also supported Jane’s Addiction with a supplemental lighting and video rigs; local but up-and-coming band Hippo Campus; and they were there for the filming of some comedy specials.
“We have been constantly expanding our inventory and now have over 60 Robe MegaPointes and Spiiders,” he says. They also have made investments in Martin MAC Ultra Performance, Elation Artiste Monet, and
Ayrton Perseo fixtures along with MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles and more than 900 ROE Visual Diamond LED video panels.
Putting that gear to work are 17 full time employees. They have a new warehouse which has 12 loading docks allowing them to take on many local and national events at a time.
“Winning the Hometown Hero Midwest award proves that all our hard work is paying off,” Gorman says. “You don’t have to be the biggest, but you have to have the people and the service to make the difference.”
NORTHWEST: Hollywood Lights, Portland, OR
Like true regional heroes, Hollywood Lights are taking care of their community supporting events such as those at the University of Portland and the Oregon Zoo. In July they supported the Her Voice 2023, a traveling Christian ministry. They also take care of weddings, corporate events, and trade shows. They even do holiday lighting and rent power.
The company has a rich history, going back to the 1950s, when it started primarily as a theatrical lighting and trade show company. In 1995 Hollywood Lights acquired Superior Stage Lighting to further expand its inventory and talent base. In 2002 they opened a full production lighting department in Seattle with remarkable success.
And Hollywood Lights is still on the move: “Our system sales team has been extremely busy selling and installing large systems for schools, auditoriums, and churches around the Pacific Northwest,” reports Greg Eggen, sales manager. They have further expanded their sales and installation with their AV Director Alex Marine designing and installing large scale audio and video systems. Eggen also notes, “Our Live Event Manager Ben Bruce has been pivotal to our successes in events and has been propelling us to new levels with his eagerness to expand our technical capabilities to new levels, always making incredible strides in customer satisfaction and customer retention.”
They have beefed up their inventory list with Elation FUZE MAX moving heads, Elation Proteus Excalibur moving head beams, Elation PALADINs and ETC Source 4WRD units. “We are one of the largest ETC dealers in the area and have a full electrical contracting team on staff to get these large projects done from start to finish.” They do it all with their 50-plus employees. “We are honored to be receiving this award, and on behalf of everyone here at Hollywood Lights, we thank you!”
SOUTHWEST: Eggshell Lighting, Honolulu, HI
Eggshell Lighting will be celebrating their 50th anniversary of serving the Hawaiian Islands next year. Owner Bob Harmon has maintained that longevity by taking on many big projects, like recent ones including lighting up the USS Missouri battleship memorial in Pearl Harbor and projection mapping the iconic Iolani Palace and the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell. “We lit some great concerts including The 1975, The Doobie Brothers, America, Pitbull, Jo Koy, and Brett Young, as well as local favorites Common Kings, Henry Kapono, Maoli, The Green, and the Hawaii Symphony,” Harmon says. Fitting of every Hometown Hero they have served many corporate clients including Tony Robbins, Marriott, The LPGA, and Royal Cosmetics.
Eggshell recently added Vari-Lite VL3600 IP lights to their inventory. Also new are GLP X5 Washes and Elation PALADINS—the latter of which has “become the go-to light for illuminating the dome of the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell.” Getting into projection mapping has been a big step forward for the company, and they have been approached by other clients to do more of that work, which has led Harmon to picking up more Christie 4K projectors and AV Stumpfl’s Pixera two Media Servers.
Eggshell does it all with more than a dozen on the payroll, always adding to that through the IATSE 665 and local crews for larger events. “I am proud to point out that Tyler Joyce, a younger lighting talent that I discovered from his internet postings during the pandemic, is in no small way part of our rapid regrowth in this post Covid era,” Harmon says. “We are a boutique lighting company run by creative lighting people you can trust, and I think that is exactly for whom this award was created. It’s such an honor that so many of our clients and peers think so well of us. Thank you one and all!”
CANADA: Innovation Lighting, Burnaby, British Columbia
Steve Matthews began his career in the stage lighting industry in 1995 working for a company called Showtime Lighting. This company grew and evolved into Q1 Production Technologies and then Epic Production Technologies, which ceased operations in 2013. Innovation Lighting was founded in 2013 by Steve and his wife Jenn Matthews as a supplier of stage lighting equipment and creative design services to the live events industry. Throughout the years of growth, Matthews says they have maintained a strict focus on lighting and rigging with a variety of offerings specific to this niche: rentals and production; design and consultation; sales and installation; and service and repairs.
“Our core business includes corporate events, fundraiser galas, high-end private events, festivals, concerts, and even some TV and film work,” Matthews says. Recent highlights include the Laver Cup 2023 (a world-class professional tennis championship); TED Talks 2023 (their flagship conference based in Vancouver); Michelin Star Awards 2023; and the Insomnia Festival 2023 with Tiesto as the headliner.
The company is located in Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, and they currently employ 15 people at or near full time, with well over 60 freelancers on their call list. In their 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse one finds a variety of lighting products including those from Astera, CHAUVET, ETC, Vari-Lite, and MA Lighting. Specific recent purchases include Astera AX9 and PlutoFresnel; grandMA3 control consoles; CHAUVET Maverick Force 1 spots; and hazebase hazers.
“We are privileged to work with some of the top event producers in western Canada who push us to create some of the most incredible events anywhere, but I am most humbled every day by the clients who trust us with their reputations and the crew who work tirelessly to make the magic happen,” Matthews says. “And now this level of recognition makes it all worthwhile!”
