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COMPANY 411
PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS
People, Products,
Philanthropy
Define Company
By RichardCadena
If you want a peek into the corporate
culture of any company, get to know
its CEO. For Electronic Theatre Controls,
better known as ETC, the CEO is the
guy in the Birkenstocks who was once
described by a family friend as “the one
who talks.” (His brother and co-founder
of the company was described by the
same friend as “the one who thinks.”) The
telling part is that the CEO, Fred Foster,
is the one who tells the story. It’s a testimony
to the kind of humor and humility
you’ll find in this seriously successful
man and the company he leads.
On the surface, it might seem that the
success of the company is entirely due to
the success of its products. After all, 2.3
million of the company’s Source Fourbrand
fixtures have been sold. You can
hardly find a performing arts space today
that doesn’t have them, and for good
reason. The Source Four spotlight totally
redefined the industry’s expectations of
the ERS and changed a commonly used
1000-watt fixture into a more efficient
575-watt fixture that produces more
light. Their introduction in 1992 started
a virtual transformation of the entire industry,
one shipment at a time.
And if all the 1.5 million ETC Sensor
dimmer modules that have been
shipped were stacked one on top of the
other, they would reach a height of over
36 miles. Most of those dimmers are
controlled by one of the many consoles
the company has manufactured over the
years, starting with the Concept in 1982
and culminating, to date, in the Eos, Ion,
Congo, Congo jr, SmartFade and Smart
Fade ML consoles.
2MHz to 2MS4s 411
There was a time, however, long before
the Eos and Congo, when the Foster
brothers could only dream of making a
living designing and selling technologically
advanced theatrical lighting equipment.
While they were attending the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, the
brothers and friends Gary Bewick and Jim
Bradley built a computer-based controller
with the dream of one day selling it to
the Metropolitan Opera. The four friends
built the hardware and programmed the
software around an Intel 8080 microprocessor
running at 2 MHz. That was in
1975, and this prototype would be the
44 PLSN SEPTEMBER 2008
first seed of what would grow to be ETC.
Bill Foster was the first president of
ETC, but he soon answered a different
calling, pursuing a physics Ph.D. and
later a political career. This year he was
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives,
after working as a scientist at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory for 22
years. Fred Foster, on the other hand, left
school to continue his entrepreneurial
dreams, developing and marketing his
lighting products. Since day one, he has
been busy in the ETC offices, building
the company with the help of his talentheavy
staff.
Through a series of acquisitions, ETC
has become a highly regarded, internationally
recognized brand. In 1990, ETC
acquired Lighting Methods, Inc (LMI),
taking them from a controller company
to a dimming and control manufacturer.
Two years later, ETC acquired the intellectual
property for the Source Four fixture
and suddenly became an end-to-end
provider of theatrical lighting systems.
The acquisition of Arri GB in London
established their European presence in
1995, and they expanded into Asia in the
same year.
The astute observer in the late 1990s
might have speculated that the one
missing piece of the puzzle was automated
lighting. And indeed, rumors
swirled around the industry about the
company’s plans to enter that market.
In 1998, ETC acquired the Irideon line
of exterior color-wash fixtures and architectural
moving-yoke fixtures. Never
living up to ETC’s technical standards
however, the line was eventually discontinued.
Instead, ETC went to work on its
own, unique Source Four-based automated
fixture. Noted programmer Tom
Littrell (first ever to use moving lights,
1981 Genesis tour), came on board to
shepherd ETC’s Source Four Revolution
to market in 2003.
Corporate Mission: Fun 411
But ETC’s products are only part of
the picture. Dig a little deeper and you’ll
find a company culture inspired by genuine
concern for employees, customers,
the industry, and the environment alike.
It is perhaps the only lighting manufacturer
whose mission statement contains
the word “fun.” It reads brightly: “ETC
David Lincecum, marketing manager, left, with Bill Gallinghouse, vice president of business development and marketing.
“In the past few years, ETC has listened
harder than ever to what the industry
was saying about the need for innovation in
control systems.”
— David Lincecum, ETC marketing manager
will develop great new products for the
lighting world, listen to customers and
give them more than they expect, have
fun and make money.”
ETC’s Web site captures the philosophy
of the company in a few lines. There’s
a bit about Company Management (people),
Company History and Awards (products),
Corporate Philanthropy (giving),
and the Environmental Policy (caring).
What the Web site doesn’t reveal is
how ETC recruits and retains its talent.
Many of the almost 700 employees are
long term, very talented people who actively
contribute not only to the company,
but also to the industry. Steve Terry,
vice president of R&D, has been a leader
in the industry and helped develop many
of its standards since his days as the coowner
of Production Arts in New York. Today,
he sits on several ESTA-related committees,
as does Dan Antonuk, ETC R&D
network products development manager,
who chaired the ACN Task Group.
Two of ETC’s marketing product
managers, Sarah Clausen and consultant
Anne Valentino, came to ETC having
worked with other console manufacturers.
Dennis Varian, R&D senior technical
product manager, came from Light
& Sound Design. The three were instrumental
in bringing ETC’s recent Eos and
Congo console lines to market, and these
are among the first brands to readily support
ACN, the newest control protocol in
the industry.
“In the past few years, ETC has listened
harder than ever to what the industry
was saying about the need for innovation
in control systems,” says David
Lincecum, ETC marketing manager. “As a
result we’ve overhauled our control offerings.
It’s been big change, and we’re
very pleased with how the market has
responded.”
Going to Town 411
If you visit ETC’s new 328,000-squarefoot
headquarters, you will immediately
get it. The “fun” that was put in the mission
statement is more than just a philosophy;
it’s a way of life for this company,
starting the moment you set foot inside.
The atrium is a full-blown Town Square
straight from the 1940s, complete with a
life-size recreation of the café in Edward
Hopper’s Nighthawks painting. A 40-foot
façade features a theater marquee and an
art deco skyscraper, masking the company’s
offices and various departments. Every
scenic-designed detail brings Town
Square to life.
Foster directed the design group that
included architects, builders and ETC em-