The readers have spoken. And who are we to argue with them? Not that we ever doubted their choice, but they have voted for an especially eclectic group of companies for the regional winners of the Parnelli Hometown Heroes Awards. The common thread among them is that they are all serving their clients above and beyond the call of duty, yet they all do it in their own unique way. From these six winners, one will be chosen to receive the overall Parnelli Award for Hometown Hero at PLSN’s gala ceremony Oct, 24 2008. So read about those you don’t know and reacquaint yourself with those you do. Then go to www.parnelliawards.com and cast your vote! Northwest
Hollywood Lighting Services
Portland, Ore. & Seattle
Hollywood Lighting Services has a long, rich history. Founded in 1948 by Don Cameron and George Howard in Portland, the company went through several owners and partners before Tom Neal joined in 1969. Neal holds a BS degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University with a background that includes R&D engineer for Boeing. He worked his way through college as a humble stagehand.
Then came Richard Fuller, who started in the company’s rental department in 1973. In 1978 Fuller bought into the business, and in 1989 he became sole owner. In 1994, the Seattle office was opened. Today the company boasts 9,200 square-foot showroom and warehouse.
Dwayne Thomas, president of Hollywood Lighting Services, would love to show you pictures of some of their most recent work, a military assignment. But then he’d have to kill to you.
“We just finished lighting the product rollout for the [censored], and new type of [censored] that [may or may not] float,” he doesn’t say. They weren’t allowed to photograph it, though it involved a “shock and awe” unveiling, which is what they got with the help of a couple of tons of trussing. Lots of Martin MAC moving lights may or may not have been involved. The roll out was just for the hard working employees who did or didn’t build whatever it is we’re not talking about. Not only was there no press at the event, but also no generals or government officials.
Some things Thomas is a tad chattier about include work they do for the large number of apparel companies in the Northwest, including Macy’s, Nordstrom and “every shoe company in Portland, which is, like, all shoe companies.” Adidas recently brought in 1,000 associates for a spring sales meeting and Hollywood Lights was on hand to help motivate the crowd.
Thomas is a musician who transitioned to lighting, and has been running the company since 2005. “It comes down to creative design,” he says. “We believe great lighting is not just about gear, but the people behind it. I like say we have a pretty darn ingenious design staff. Not to say we’re just about big. If you’re only required to hang two PARs, hang them right. We take it all seriously.
Southwest
Precise Corporate Staging (PCS)
Phoenix, Ariz.
It’s the quality of the equipment,” says David Stern, president of PCS, when asked why readers of PLSN nominated the company for a second time in a row as best lighting house in the Southwest. “That’s what makes a company grow so large in eight years.”
But of course, Stern makes it look easy when it’s not. He doesn’t blindly buy everything that comes off the line. “If a company pushes something that they say is cool but the clients aren’t asking for it, I don’t buy it,” he says. “I’m careful about the selection and what ends up in our warehouse.”
Right now he’s got equipment on the road with Tom Petty, Billy Joel, Elton John, Tina Turner (“I have 148 lights out with her”), Alice Cooper and Madonna. He says that lighting designer Roy Bennett paid him a big compliment when his gear was used on the Spice Girls reunion tour. “He said that he had never seen cleaner moving lights out on a tour before,” Stern says. “That’s another aspect that has really driven our growth. You look at our gear, and it all looks brand new. We maintain it that well.”
Stern got into the business as a musician and was a sought-after keyboard tech for Bon Jovi and Van Halen. When he tired of the road, he formed PCS with his wife Marla, and they’ve been successful since founding the company. “We were both brought up in the age of ‘the customer is always right’ and that is hard to find these days.” A belief in mutually beneficial relationships with the clients allows for their growth and success as well.
Today they have two offices — one in Tempe, Ariz., and another in Marietta, Ga. Last year, they moved into more spacious digs: a 36,000 square-foot building that they bought. They needed a place that would to hold all their gear, and that’s a lot.
Midwest
Blue Planet Lighting, Inc.
Hollister, Mo.
Blue Planet Lighting was formed out the Branson, Mo.¬-based Koster & Associates. Partners Kelly Koster and Mike Gormley received Parnelli honors last year, and have since re-branded themselves as Blue Planet Lighting.
“We’ve all been lighting designers and tour techs, and we wanted to go to the next level with Blue Planet. And man, are we glad we did,” says Kelly Koster. “We’re right in the center of the country, and being near Branson doesn’t hurt, though it only accounts for about a fourth of our sales. We’ve sold to Sweden and Mexico. We’ve become a world-wide company very fast.
“One huge advantage is our location. We don’t have local competition, so we can carry High End, Clay Paky, all the big brands. Go open a lighting shop in L.A. and good luck getting a High End dealership,” Koster adds. He says another advantage they have is their service department, which is run by John Hurst. “He takes care of all our lighting repairs, and I’ll put him up against anybody. Andy Evans is a great service tech as well.
“We’ll be expanding and hiring a few more people because business has been going through the roof and we’re crazy busy,” he laughs.
One of their recent big projects was “just up the road” in the St. Louis metro area. Lindenwood University built a new Performing Arts Center, a venue for students and professional acts coming through. Koster says it’s a beautiful space made even better by the Vari-Lite, Martin, Color Kinetics, and pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. He almost sounds jealous when he talks about the new tools the students have. “Those kids have it all!” he laughs.
Another big project they worked on was a church in Upper Marlboro, Md. Closer to home, they have done a lot of work for the local Silver Dollar City theme park in Branson.
The company has even recently launched Light Nation Radio, an online radio station dedicated to lighting industry professionals. Blue Planet also has a lighting forum on their Web site
(www.blueplanetlighting.com).
Southwest
Eye Dialogue Lighting & Sound
Charlotte, N.C.
There are many professionals in the live event industry that take an unusual path into this business, and that’s certainly the case with Jack Kelly. The son of a preacher, he was slated to become a church music director. He would become a professional musician, restaurant manager, sound engineer, lighting designer, dance instructor, movie consultant…
Kelly got his start as a “copy tape boy” recording his father’s sermons. He graduated with a degree in music composition, but shifted gears. He tried many different things before volunteering to work for a new lighting company in Wilmington, N.C. in 2002. “It lasted a New York minute,” he says. He bought the equipment from the defunct company for “pennies on the dollar,” and started running lights for friends sometimes for $50, and more often just for free drinks.
His gift for lighting design was getting noticed, and was then doing Christian rock bands, youth confer
ences, and “edgy” churches. At one point he asked to design Charlotte’s hottest club, the Sky Lounge, which brought him national acclaim. Then he was asked to do the Ménage Lounge, which was the biggest install in Charlotte at the time.
The LED revolution was in full swing, and Kelly realized he couldn’t compete with companies that had conventional lights, nor did he want to. He taught himself everything about LEDs by reading manuals online and reading PLSN. He kept picking up more clients, and Eye Dialogue Lighting & Sound was on its way, formally being founded in 2004.
Today it is a lighting, sound, special effects and video company. The company boasts the largest stock of LED color fixtures in the area. They serve clubs, houses of worship, live events of all kinds including corporate and educational events, and some very imaginative parties.
Kelly believes that there is no such thing as competition. “In a market that is underdeveloped, you can’t really have competition. In sound, you’re not developing new clients, you’re trying to take away others,” but he believes LEDs can and should be used everywhere. “People throwing $3,000 parties used to spend $1,500 on decorations, but now they are spending that money on lighting.”
The young company already boasts seven full-time employees, and seven part-timers, and offers health benefits. He keeps overhead low: “My office is still a red barn next to my house in the center of the ‘hood.’ ”
Northeast
Earl Girls Inc.
Egg Harbor City, N.J.
“That our customers have voted and made us winners of the Northeast Hometown Hero award for lighting five years in a row assures us that we must be achieving our primary objective, which is satisfying our clients,” says Don Earl, president of Earl Girls. “We have been growing at a tremendous rate and we realize that it is primarily because of the word-of-mouth praise that we receive from our existing customers. We try to view every customer as our friend and colleague, and we try to satisfy every concern from the client’s point of view, since our experienced staff knows first hand what it’s like to produce events.”
For those of you at home keeping score, Earl Girls is five for five on the regional award. The company has in recent years expanded into a larger warehouse, adding an addition 15,000 square feet to their needs.
When Don Earl was a kid growing up in Connecticut, his parents were active in community theatre, and he was on the stage at the tender age of seven. But luckily for the lighting clients in New England, he didn’t get bit by any acting bug.
“I remember looking up the stairwell at the theatre, and there was this board with all these lights and dials,” Earl recalls. “And I was thinking I had to find out more about that…”
He did. He earned a college degree in technical theatre, then moved to Atlantic City and worked on the lighting in casinos opening there. In 1991 he founded Earl Girls in honor of his wife and two young daughters.
“This past year has seen remarkable growth in our video and rigging departments, as well as the moving light area,” Earl says. “Video installations have been increasingly interesting, and we are particularly happy with a unique installation that we did with Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania, using a holographic screen.”
The tougher times haven’t phased Earl either: “This is presently a challenging economy; however it provides Earl Girls with the opportunity to show our customers how to get the most for their dollar.”
Canada
Metalworks Production Group
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
{mosimage}The Metalworks people have it figured out.
First, they have an award-winning studio that draws the talent to record their projects (Prince recorded his Musicology there most recently). Once they have their ear, they introduce them to their live event division. Then a third component is their education facility, where hundreds of students learn about live event and recording arts. This creates a talent pool from which to draw.
Founded 30 years ago by Triumph guitarist Gil Moore, who is still very much involved in all aspects of the company, they handle concerts, live theatre, corporate, and special events.
“What we did was develop into a one-stop shop approach,” says Owen Whitehead, production manager. “We were good at multitasking and becoming experts all kinds of events. And with all our clients we’re able to take an event from conception to completion.”
“We supply LDs, stage managers, the CAD equipment — down to the paperwork necessary to have a show go on,” president Bob Spencer adds. “We’re the first supplier to [arena] Rogers Center here in Toronto, and our assortment of Stage Line mobile stages allows us to do almost all the big festivals that Canada has.”
Metalworks has a full inventory of products that relies heavily on Martin products. “We have 150 moving lights and 150 LEDs,” Whitehead says. “And I believe a couple of miles of truss. And everything we have is new, as we sell-off product when it gets old.”
Spencer says what attracted him to the organization is that it’s not just “a bunch of good-old boys” but is staffed with forward-thinking people. “The company is well-financed and has a proper attitude. We have great international support for the organization because of all three of our components. Consumers see our state-of-the-art approach as a positive.”
A few recent highlights for the company include handling all of Alice Cooper’s Canadian tours, “as we’ve done for the last seven years,” Spencer says. They handled some especially large concerts by Queen of the Stone Age and Blue Rodeo. And they reach beyond the border, too. Last year they took on the two week Seventh Day Adventist convention held in St. Louis, with 60,000 people in attendance. They built the mammoth set in Toronto.
Whitehead’s highlight of the year is more personal. “I was setting up a Steve Winwood gig and he was on stage practicing,” he smiles. “I snuck on stage and played drums with him.”
Ah, the perks of the biz!
