COMPANY 411 PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS People, Products, Philanthropy Define Company By RichardCadena If you want a peek into the corporate culture of any <strong>com</strong>pany, 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 <strong>com</strong>pany 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 <strong>com</strong>pany he leads. On the surface, it might seem that the success of the <strong>com</strong>pany is entirely due to the success of its products. After all, 2.3 million of the <strong>com</strong>pany’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 <strong>com</strong>monly 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 <strong>com</strong>pany 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 <strong>com</strong>puter-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 <strong>PLSN</strong> 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 <strong>com</strong>pany with the help of his talentheavy staff. Through a series of acquisitions, ETC has be<strong>com</strong>e a highly regarded, internationally recognized brand. In 1990, ETC acquired Lighting Methods, Inc (LMI), taking them from a controller <strong>com</strong>pany 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 <strong>com</strong>pany’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 <strong>com</strong>pany 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 <strong>com</strong>pany 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 <strong>com</strong>pany, 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 <strong>com</strong>mittees, 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 <strong>com</strong>pany, starting the moment you set foot inside. The atrium is a full-blown Town Square straight from the 1940s, <strong>com</strong>plete 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 <strong>com</strong>pany’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-
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