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March 2011 entertainment, presentation, installation

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RoxyMusic

LSi reports from Manchester . . .

Group StrategyLSi meets Philips Entertainment

TF: Clay Paky SharpyAn in-depth LSi examination . . .

Roland SystemsSound and Vision . . .

Skills & TrainingFocus on the NSA

• ISE & NAMM 2011 in Review • Frankfurt Forecast: ProLight&Sound Preview •• Julie’s Bicycle: Green Help at Hand • PLASA backstage with Cirque du Soleil •

• Cold Turku: Finland celebrates in style •

Also Inside . . .

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Group StrategyThe acquisition of entertainment lighting brands by one of the

world’s largest companies has formed a significant new force in

the market. Lee Baldock spoke to members of the Philips

Entertainment European sales team to discover how Strand

Lighting, Vari-Lite and Selecon are fitting in to the bigger Philips

picture and what they will bring to the industry . . .

Royal Philips Electronics turned over 25.4 billion Euros in 2010.

The Dutch-based multi-national clearly deals in far larger

numbers than the entertainment lighting industry is used to

discussing. Until relatively recently, Philips’ interest in our little

corner of the lighting world was limited to the lamps it

produced for our luminaire manufacturers. In recent years,

however, that situation has changed considerably, and Philips

has brought an unprecedented degree of consolidation to the

market.

The LED TrailIn 2005, Philips moved to stake a claim in the rapidly-emerging LEDlighting field: it founded LED manufacturing operation Lumileds in a joint venture with Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett Packard.In 2007, now with total ownership of Lumileds, Philips embarked on anacquisition spree that would give it a powerful presence in globallighting markets - entertainment among them. In March 2007, Philipsacquired TIR, a developer of LED optical systems. Several months latercame the far more high-profile acquisition of Color Kinetics - the mostcontroversial lighting company in the business at the time (see ‘BrandAwareness’, p.78). Now Philips had LED semiconductors, opticalpackages and the all-important intellectual property in its grasp. Next,they would be looking at lighting fixtures and control.

AcquisitionsThe acquisition of US-based Genlyte in late 2007 brought Philips a vast lighting group straddling mainstream commercial, industrialand residential lighting markets - as well as entertainment. Amongthe Genlyte assets were Strand Lighting - perhaps the most famous

name in dimming and control systems for theatre and television,although admittedly by this time a somewhat damaged brand - andVari-Lite, the best-known moving light manufacturer in the world. At the time, we wondered how this vast organisation would deal withthese brands.

The question was pertinent because weeks earlier, Philips hadannounced that Color Kinetics would henceforth be known as ‘PhilipsSolid State Lighting Solutions’ - more a sober description of intendedactivity than a brand name. This seemed like corporatisation doing itsworst. Was the rock and roll-soaked Vari-Lite destined to becomePhilips Automated Lighting Solutions? Fortunately, lessons werelearned and the strength of these global brands was recognised.Today, each brand still retains its own name - albeit with the uniform‘Philips’ prefix.

Strand and Vari-Lite now formed the core of the Philips Entertainmentbusiness unit. Color Kinetics resided elsewhere, its sales channels

largely geared towards architectural lighting applications. Next to besnapped up was New Zealand-based luminaire manufacturerSelecon, in 2009. Although Strand had previously been a significantmanufacturer of stage luminaires, Philips now backed Selecon in thismarket; Strand’s future focus would be on its renowned control anddimming solutions.

In 2010, after a period of internal organisation, the new ‘PhilipsEntertainment’ division was announced. Michael Goldberg,previously with Selecon, was European salesdirector, supported by Strand Lighting’sBill Richards and Amber Tomlin,

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Selecon’s Ritchie Reed, and Rainer Weggen in Germany. Next, thedivision was boosted by the addition of Grant Bales-Smith as salesmanager for the UK, Benelux and Scandinavia, and by Graham Ealesas regional manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The new team has its work cut out. Philips’ stated aim in everybusiness segment it operates in is to be first or second in the market.Philips has high expectations and sees significant opportunity forfurther consolidation in the sector.

In fact, it recently acquired a Chinese OEM manufacturer called NCWHoldings Ltd - not a name that many will be familiar with, although itscustomers include some well-known professional entertainmentbrands - among them Strand Lighting, for whom NCW was a keysupplier. The factory adds significant manufacturing flexibility to thePhilips Entertainment division.

StructureAs Graham Eales explains, one of Philips’ strengths is in recognisingthe distinct characteristics and requirements of a market segment -essentially what makes it work. With entertainment lighting thisincludes several ‘unique’ aspects, such as the importance ofpersonal contacts and relationships. For this reason, the team aimsto strike a balance between preserving that ‘small company’ ethos -with all its advantages of face-to-face contact and a reputation forexcellent customer service - and being part of a powerful, global,multi-billion Euro organisation.

To facilitate this balancing act, the Philips Entertainment team sitsslightly outside of the main Philips structure. While most saleschannels are conducted through a ‘country management’ structure

(the UK’s country management centre, for example, is in Guildford),Entertainment is designated as a ‘Global Business Unit’ and has itsown reporting structure which does not include the Philips office inthe UK, or any other European country centre. Instead, theEntertainment unit reports directly to head office in Dallas, from whereSteve Carson leads the global team.

Dallas is also one of three ‘Centres of Excellence’ - the others beingin New Zealand (Selecon’s base) and China. “Centres of Excellenceare R&D and also manufacturing facilities,” explains Eales. “Broadlyspeaking, Selecon is developed in Auckland, Vari-Lite in Dallas, andStrand partly in Dallas and partly in China.”

There are also a number of other locations, including one in New YorkCity serving the local theatre market and consultants; there is a distribution office in Enschede, The Netherlands; there is a salesoffice in Hong Kong and another in Australia. In all, around 700people work for Philips Entertainment across these locations. In addition to that structure, the dealer network is considered anextension of the direct sales team. “You won’t see us going for a project directly - it’ll always go through a dealer,” says Eales.

Sales ChannelsPhilips Entertainment aims to be the market leader by presenting themost dynamic and complementary product portfolio, which can beapplied to a broad range of applications. Eales says: “We’ve definedour market as anywhere you might want to shape, colour or set a moodwith lighting. So we’ve taken it outside of ‘traditional’ entertainment -we’re not saying it’s theatre, TV, education etc - it’s anywhere you wantto tell a storywith light.”

Products, from far left: The SeleconPL1; the Vari*Lite VLX Wash movinghead; The Selecon PL3; The StrandLightPalette VL9.

Just some of the Philips Entertainment team, pictured at The PLASA Show in London. Left to right: Jeremy Collins, Grant Bales-Smith, Bill Richards, Ritchie Reed, Steve Carson and Peter Rogers.

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He continues: “We’re building the complete package of lightingproducts, so everything interacts, the technologies complement eachother and work together seamlessly, and that helps the user.” Naturally,a complementary portfolio of well-known brands presents theopportunity to leverage one with another, and sales channels are key tothat opportunity. Eales says: “We’re going through a period ofconsolidation at the moment, where we are streamlining the saleschannels. Selecon dealers may become Strand dealers, Stranddealers may become Selecon dealers or the relationship may stay as ithas been. We are working with our partners to position ourselves tobest meet the opportunities that are evolving as our industry changes.”

One example of such streamlining is in South Africa, where DWR wasrecently confirmed as the country’s representative for Selecon andStrand, adding to Vari-Lite, which it already distributed. That degreeof sales integration is not possible in Europe, of course, where Vari-Lite is sold exclusively by PRG Distribution - an agreement whichPhilips inherited from Genlyte. Eales says: “We do share dealers inEurope with Vari-Lite, but they buy from PRG.”

But, Eales adds, it’s not a case of simply grouping the brandstogether under one sales channel for each territory: “Gone are thedays when you’d have a dealer in a country who sells all the Philips

Entertainment group products. What you might have is a dealer whospecialises in museums, a dealer who specialises in rentalbusinesses and a dealer who specialises in theatre. Yes, there will beoverlaps, but it’s about picking the right company for the rightmarket.”

Brand StrengthDiscussing the respective brands, Eales says: “Selecon is theleading brand for traditional luminaires in Europe. If you break thatdown into segments, ETC may be the fixed beam leader, but in termsof overall packages supplied to theatres, Selecon would be thenumber one brand.”

The biggest question concerning brand strength is, of course,Strand. Eales says: “Strand does still have a very strong brand name.However, it did get very badly damaged, and the year that it wasremoved from business in Europe certainly caused major issues forcustomers. We’ve all spent a lot of time trying to fix perceptions in themarket, to get people’s confidence back, and work with those whogot a rough deal. Slowly that confidence is starting to return.”

Readers in the UK and Germany are more likely to have a rather poorview of the Strand brand. These were the territories in which Strand

Color Kinetics was formed in 1997 inBoston, Massachusetts, by graduatesfrom Carnegie Mellon University whosaw the opportunity offered by thearrival on the market of the blue LED.They began by launching a range ofattractive RGB LED lighting fixtures -novel in those far-off days - for interiordecorative applications. Moresignificantly, they began to build a portfolio of US patents encapsulatingmany aspects of LED lighting control,including pulse width modulation (PWM)- a method long taken for granted byeveryone else in the lighting industry.Their stranglehold on LED control ledfirstly to a campaign of protest from thelighting industry amid resounding andconvincing claims of prior art, then to a lucrative raft of licensees asmanufacturers took the path of leastresistance, and finally, in 2007, to anapproach from Philips, which acquiredthe now public company - and all itsvaluable intellectual property - for thenot inconsiderable sum of US$794m.www.colorkinetics.com

Selecon was founded in Auckland, NewZealand in 1969, when one WalterColeman developed a 6” Fresnel, using a P28-based lamp, to meet the needs ofthe New Zealand schools market.

Jeremy Collins and Andrew Nicholsbought the company in 1985 with aneye on export - initially Australia, andlater South-East Asia, then Europefollowed by North America. Today,Europe is Selecon’s largest territory,while the UK is its single largest marketworldwide. Selecon, which nowproduces a wide range of stage anddisplay luminaires, is known for itsinnovative approach to product design -its heat management system for itsdistinctive Pacific range of luminaires a case in point. The company wasacquired by Philips, for an undisclosedsum, in 2009.www.seleconlight.com

The Strand Electric Company wasformed in 1914 by two London theatreelectricians, Arthur Earnshaw and PhillipSheridan. It grew into the leadingprovider of lighting and control systemsto UK theatre, equipping the new RoyalShakespeare Memorial Theatre,Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1932 and theRoyal Opera House, Covent Garden in1934. From the 1940s onwards itbecame increasingly international in itsreach, and permanent overseas officesfollowed during the 1950s. In 1968 itwas acquired by Rank. For many yearsthe industry leader in theatre andtelevision lighting, Strand later found itsposition challenged by the emergence ofnew competition - the likes of ElectronicTheatre Controls from the United Sates

and ADB from Belgium. In 2005 itannounced that its factory in Kirkcaldy,Scotland was to close, with the loss of90 jobs. The company was acquired byGenlyte in 2006, and moved, with itsnew stablemate Vari-Lite, to the Philipsfold in 2007.www.strandlighting.com

The pioneer of the moving light, Vari-Lite’s standing in the history ofentertainment technology is assured.The company was formed in 1981 byemployees of Texas-based ShowCo -one of the US’s leading productionrental houses of the time - including co-founder Rusty Brutsché, who wouldlead Vari-Lite for many years to come.Vari-Lite was borne from an idea ofusing computers to control themovement, colour, dimming and beamshape of individual luminaires. Afterseeing the first prototype, developed bya team led by engineer Jim Bornhorst,ShowCo client Genesis funded a production run of the first 50 units:these famously debuted on the band’sAbacab tour in 1981, their firstappearance being in a Spanish bullring.Many models and innovations later, Vari-Lite is still one of the most admiredmoving light brands in the world. Thecompany sold to US lighting giantGenlyte in 2002 for around US$11m.Philips snapped up Genlyte in its entiretyin 2007 for US$2.7bn. www.vari-lite.com

Brand Awareness . . .

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employed many people in its hey-day, and where the fall-out of its troubles hit closest to home. Goldberg comments that it was their agreed strategy toget both Strand, and its customer support infrastructure, functioningeffectively in other European markets, UK included, before they tackledGermany, so that the team could approach that market with absoluteconfidence in the brand.

It’s important to note, however, that Strand remains a strong brand in manyother global territories, where it continues to be specified in major capitalprojects. In Spain, notably, distributor Chemtrol has supplied Strandequipment to 14 theatre installations in the past 12 months. Similarly inFrance, Africa and the Middle East, for example, the Strand name remainsstrong: the biggest single installation for the brand is currently being finalisedin Qatar (see side-panel, right).

The first major, high-profile installation to fully exploit the potential for leverageacross all the brands was the stunning Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina,which reopened last year. In total, Stage Tech SRL supplied the venue with 48Vari*Lite luminaires, 424 Selecon luminaires, and over 860 Strand Lightingdimmers. The entire venue was fitted with Philips low energy light sources.

As to Strand’s presence in the UK market, Goldberg comments: “We haven’tyet gone out of our way to talk about this in the UK . . . We’ve had to get ourhouse in order first.”

He recalls: “When we were first handed Strand, I got together a number of UKdealers, customers, various technicians, to find out what they wanted from us. . . there was a glimmer of support, from almost everybody, that said it wouldbe really nice if we could regrow it. That was encouraging.” The Philips name,says Goldberg, has been vital to regaining confidence in that of Strand. “Thedealers understand that this is not another equity company coming in, it’sPhilips - and the confidence that the Philips name brings to somebodythinking about a project is huge.”

Qatar National Convention Centre

This year will see the opening of the QatarNational Convention Centre, one of thearchitectural showpieces of the major EducationCity development. The vast complex, with its2500-seat auditorium, 500-seat theatre, two300-400 capacity lecture halls, 15 meetingrooms and 4000 capacity multi-purpose hall, willfeature one of the largest networked dimmingsystems ever installed, with over 2600 channelsof distributed Strand eS21 dimming and 6000channels in eC21 racks. The system uses 39networked Light Palette consoles, together withVision.net architectural lighting controlintegration using 200 touch-screens, 500occupancy sensors and 143 Ethernet nodes.www.strandlighting.com

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InnovationStrand, Selecon and Vari-Lite have all enjoyedstrong reputations for innovation, and this willcontinue to be a key feature of the portfolio. Ealessays: “The future of lighting is very much LED, andthat is bringing a radical change to the way weview lighting. If you put a Fresnel with a colourscroller on a rig, it’s two channels of DMX; if youput our Selecon PL3 LED fixture in the same place,it’s 24 channels of DMX: 20 of those in a rig andyou’ve pretty much eaten a Universe of DMX, butyou can do so much more with those tools . . . So we’re trying to bring that change in technologyand drive the agenda that says at some point theindustry is going to stop thinking in terms ofUniverses of DMX and start thinking about the rigand the tools.”

He adds: “When I started in theatre it wasanalogue, then we had DMX, then came Ethernet -and now I think we’re on the cusp of anotherfundamental change in lighting control.”

Staying ahead of that change, and making life forits customers as straightforward as possible, is thecompany’s aim. “The Philips brand promise is‘Sense and Simplicity’ and that’s something thatwe try to bring to this market - to make the solutiona simple one,” says Eales. This includesdeveloping control technology which simplifies theselection of LED colour, and colour temperature, sothat designers can quickly get the result they wantwithout having to understand how to mix RGB andCMY fittings.

Dealers are provided with Strand’s System Buildersoftware, enabling them to easily draw a venue,place Selecon, Strand and Vari-Lite equipmentwithin it and have the software automaticallyproduce the wiring diagrams. “It’s all about makingpeople’s lives easier,” says Eales.

SustainabilityAnother notable aim of Philips Entertainment, aswith the company as a whole, is to address issuesof power usage - helping end users to reduce theenergy they use but still ensure they get everythingthey need from the technology.

Then there is manufacturing policy, as Ealesexplains: “All the metal we use in luminaires isrecyclable, as is the plastic - we’re trying tomaintain that ‘green footprint’ throughout the wholeprocess. In the US, there is a very strong drive onenergy efficiency - California is brutal about it. That

will affect all of us more and more as time goes on,so these energy-efficient solutions will becomeincreasingly important to the market.”

Obviously, a big part of this power efficiency comesfrom LED luminaires, but there is also ‘active powermanagement’ - a range of tools and techniqueswhich reduce power consumption. The Selecon 80VPower System, for example, halves the energyconsumption of traditional 2.0/2.5kW luminaires withStrand’s new distributed dimming IGBT solution,increasing efficiency and reducing losses throughthe total system, says Eales.

Product DevelopmentThe Philips LED technology came quickly to itsluminaire brands. Vari-Lite’s VLX Wash fixture was a significant technological step forward for thebrand (see LSi March 2010 for an in-depth review ofthis fixture). Given a behind-closed-doors prototypepreview at the PLASA Show in 2008, the productionversion of the VLX appeared at PLASA the followingyear. Selecon’s PL1, which uses a RGBW 120WLED chip, was originally designed for displayapplications in museums, galleries and exhibitionsbut is now finding favour in pure entertainmentmarkets. Its fully tunable high output LED lightengine has a variable beam (10°-50°), colourtemperatures from 3000-5600K, plus colour mixing,and a maximum output comparable to that of a 70W metal halide luminaire. The PL3 uses three ofthe same LED sources to offer colour-balancedwhites and colour mixing for stage, film and TVapplications.

Eales says: “Philips has LED R&D in Dallas; and inTurnhout [this, in Belgium, is the main Europeanlighting R&D centre for Philips], in CK’s NorthAmerican facility and in our new facility in China.One of the challenges is to ensure that theinformation coming from those centres flowsseamlessly through such a large company.”

LED-based stage luminaires have now reached thepoint where a designer could have an all-LEDlighting rig on a small theatre show. There is stillsome way to go with longer-throw profile luminaires,but they will come as the technology improves, andit is improving rapidly. Eales believes that thisprogression, which has been more rapid than manypeople believed possible, has left us in a situationwhere tungsten-halogen fixtures and traditionaldimming may be facing obsolescence, while thelighting industry is in serious need of LEDeducation. But that’s a subject in itself.

Top left: Inside the Seleconfacility, Auckland, New Zealand.

Top right: Vari*Lite VLX Washfixtures on test in Dallas, Texas.

People, from top:

European sales director, Mike Goldberg.

EMEA regional manager, Graham Eales.

Control systems specialist,Amber Tomlin.

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CultureClearly, sharing information across divisions is a priority. The Philipscorporate culture is coloured by Dutch character, more so than yourtypical multi-national behemoth, so the management style tends tobe open and communicative. Regular ‘Town Hall’ meetings are heldwithin each division, at which a member of the Philips board willstand up in front of staff, who can comment on or question anythingthe company is doing - constructively, of course. In addition to this,staff have a monthly opportunity to put written questions to the board,and receive a written reply.

This listening culture is also reflected in the continuity that Philips hasgranted to its Entertainment division acquisitions, as Eales observes:“Vari-Lite and Strand Lighting are still run by Steve Carson, Selecon isstill run by Jeremy Collins. It hasn’t been ‘old management out, newmanagement in’. Yes, they’ve added resource to the brands, but thefundamental ethos that made Selecon what it was, for example, is stillthere.”

ResourcesWorking for a company the size of Philips brings benefits beyond thescope of the far smaller companies that most of us work for.Goldberg says: “The diversity of things that we can now offer to ourcustomers by saying ‘we’re Philips’ - as opposed to Selecon orStrand - is immense. Our dealers are also starting to see some of thebenefits of it,” adds Eales, “because they ask us about othertechnologies that they’ve seen within Philips that they think might beapplicable to their business.”

On a wider business level, the sheer number of connections betweenmarkets brings an added strength to the operation. Major projectscan be picked up by cross-referral from other business units. A majortelevision station project came to Philips Entertainment throughanother Philips unit. To capitalise on this, there is an active movetowards developing greater in-house resources dedicated to projectsupport.

There are many other advantages too. Staff have access to a hugetraining resource, covering all manner of business areas. At end-userlevel, the company offers a wealth of informative training material viaYouTube, while at purchasing level, Philips can offer financepackages, through an allied bank, allowing clients to buy equipmentsooner than they would otherwise have been able to, or perhaps tobuy more equipment than they could otherwise have afforded.

Eales observes: “For us it’s about looking around at the resourcesPhilips has, and taking the tools that we need from that great toolbox- whether R&D, training or finance packages - we can take the thingsthat allow us to benefit the customer.”

ConclusionThere can be no doubt that Philips Entertainment is a powerful forcein the market, and these, remember, are early days for this newly-formed division. As we are seeing, the lighting industry isexperiencing rapid technological change which is throwing up a series of new challenges, in fixture specification, in control andinterfaces, and in education. Considering the astonishing resourcethat a company like Philips can apply to this changing market, maybethe level of consolidation that Philips has brought to entertainmentlighting did not come a moment too soon.

Above, left: Philips Entertainment head office, Dallas.

Above: The stunning Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whichopened after a refurbishment last year, is the first major installation todraw on product from the Philips Entertainment brand portfolio.

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