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NEWS
6 PLSN DECEMBER 2010
consider Wiseman’s entitlement to court costs
and attorney’s fees.
Following the ruling, Wiseman issued
a press release thanking the many defense
witnesses who came forward without subpoena.
“This affirms the keystone of our defense,
that our industry is founded on trust
and relationships, where the client, and not
the court or the litigation process, gets to
decide who they want to work with. It’s just
that simple,” he noted.
The plaintiff’s case focused on two distinct
areas. In the first, they claimed that
while Wiseman was CEO of XLTV, he used
company funds to wine, dine and entertain
customers who ultimately chose Chaos
for their tour or project. On this count,
they sought to recover $257,000 and were
awarded $23,500. The defense brought out
its best game to refute XLTV’s second claim
that Wiseman misused trade secrets and
proprietary knowledge to divert tours to
Chaos. The team for Chaos countered with
a simple strategy. It denied that the concert
industry has any secrets worthy of misappropriation.
The jury heard testimony from 20 personal
managers, designers, tour and production
managers drawn from concert industry
royalty. Marc Brickman, Paul Guthrie,
Eliot Saltzman, Chris Adamson and others
explained how a major concert tour grew
from tentative tour dates to early napkin
designs to production rehearsals. In occasional
hilarious exchanges with bemused
attorneys, the eccentricity of the process
was shown to feed more on rumor than
secrecy. At times, the attorneys’ convoluted
multi-part questions prompted the
response, “Is there a question in there and
can you repeat it?” However, all agreed
that after the band meetings, design and
scheduling changes, the video and lighting
companies were asked to bid on the
same written equipment list. Setting aside
the possible effects of bribery, the playing
field was as level as could be expected. The
designers either retained the copyrights to
their work or sold it to their client, but often
had little influence on the choice of video
company. In other cases, a video company
might be able to offer a technology so superior
as to wipe out any competitive bid.
Even this tactic could not be construed as
secret or proprietary. Attempts to compare
the concert industry’s insider knowledge to
the computer industry’s intellectual property
were just not working for the plaintiffs.
Unlike the secretive world of Silicon Valley,
the concert business has too many people
who know and say too much for a secret to
have a decent shelf life.
The tour and production managers testified
that their job was to choose vendors
based on price, quality of crew, equipment
and depth of technical support. A few observed
that “getting in early in the discussions”
could help a vendor influence the
choice of equipment a tour might use. Most
of the testimony confirmed that, all other
P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
Jury Verdict Reached in Trial of XLTV vs. John Wiseman, Valdis Dauksts and Chaos Visual Productions
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conditions being equal, a track record of
reliability and a proven ability to address
and solve daily road problems was the key
to getting the tour. Other testimony confirmed
Wiseman’s strength and credibility
as the single point of contact regardless of
his current company affiliation.
In cross examination, the attorneys for
the plaintiffs repeatedly tried to show that
Wiseman’s early meetings with designers
gave him access to “secret and proprietary
knowledge” that would help him secure
their business. Paul “Arlo” Guthrie, production
designer for Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood
Mac, made the point that a design
can change so much from concept to reality
that it doesn’t matter who sees it. Designers
played down the video hardware as simply
the building blocks used on every show.
The LED screens, I-Mags, media servers,
high- and low-resolution video walls are
now the common currency of contemporary
productions. Everything can be rented,
including the video techs who work freelance
and skip from tour to tour. In a rare
glimpse into the decision making process,
the jury learned that some bands leave the
vendor choice entirely to the creative team
while others take a more democratic approach.
No rules and no secrets became the
recurring theme.
Gary Borman, the manager for Keith Urban,
laughed off the idea that tour dates
could or should ever be secret information.
“We want everyone to know that we are touring.
Once the halls are booked, we want the
John Wiseman
word to get out. It’s a competitive market.”
If the dates are well-publicized and everyone
can reach the production manager
to bid on a tour, what exactly are the secret
and proprietary components in play? The
failure to explain this to the jury ultimately
cost XLTV their chance to win this case.
Establishing that a charismatic executive
can retain clients and that our industry
has no secrets, has cost both sides a lot of
pain and, of course, money. It’s hard not to
focus on the millions spent on attorneys
and court fees and wonder if a settlement
could not have been reached. With the
possibility of an appeal from XLTV and the
unresolved claims of the defendant’s court
costs and stock options, both sides will
have the chance to try a less public solution
to their differences.
Pete’s Big TVs, Creative Technologies and Rock-it Cargo
Help BET TV’s Production of Black Girls Rock Go On
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with weight loads that modern buildings have,”
Benjamin said. “It was built to hold movie screens
and a few lights. So weight was a big decision in
which screens we could use.”
However, the specific LED screens they
originally purchased for this set did not arrive
in time for load-in. Realizing the clock was
ticking and their overseas shipment kept getting
bumped from freighters, a call to Creative
Technologies in Los Angeles and fast work
from Rock-it Cargo rescued the situation.
“It cost us one and a half days of production
time, but we didn’t lose the show,” Benjamin
said. “Within 30 hours, we had the gear we
needed. We had three different shipments because
the equipment list was so large. We owe
a big thanks to Creative Technologies’ Stephen
Gray and Ethan Pico.”
The equipment included an 11mm Basic
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always an annual highlight, and I look forward
to contributing to them in any way we
can.”
For three decades Solotech has been
providing sound, lighting, video and new
media for clients throughout North America
and beyond. Founded in 1977, today it
has a team of over 300 professionals working
on events big and small. “Throughout
the company’s history, we’ve stood out
through the passion we show for our profession,”
Roney said. Over the past 15 years
the company has supplied the majority of
the technical equipment for three world
expos and has worked on most of Canada’s
award shows. Solotech has been closely
Tech LED screen for the centerpiece and 12mm
LED Flyer 12 screens for the “ribbons” swirling
on each side of the set. Along with the gear,
Creative Technologies sent along two crew
techs — Luis Castillo and Abram Guererro —
to help Pete’s tech crew members Matt Ellar,
Rob Villalobos and Rob Maloney make sure the
new gear was working well in plenty of time.
Art Director Star Kahn created the technical/build
drawing for the set shops and worked
on the physical realization of the design. Show
designer Anne Brahic designed the video elements
to be “an elegant and multifunctional
backdrop.”
The last-minute change in equipment apparently
didn’t faze Brahic, as her video vision
came through in the end.
“I wanted something that could change
the look of the set through patterns, imagery
and color throughout the show, and yet also
act as an architectural vocabulary of its own,”
Brahic said. “I love using negative space/black
with video and breaking it apart into shapes
like the stripes of video I designed here. They
become these ribbons of scenery that retain
their shape by the nature of the horizontal
bands but can morph into a plethora of different
looks because they are video and not just
lit surfaces.”
The “ribbons” of video were for decoration,
with stock content fed from the MBox media
server, which was programmed by Patrick Dierson.
The main center screen had its own video
feed showing live content and show logos.
“We actually ended up using higher-resolution
screens than we had originally specified,”
Benjamin said, “so the show did not suffer
with the switch.”
Dean Roney of Solotech Joins Parnelli Board of Advisors
involved with Cirque du Soleil since its inception,
and for more than 20 years the
company has been behind the Montreal
Jazz Festival. Their world touring clients
have included Céline Dion, Michael Bublé,
André Rieu, Leonard Cohen, Britney Spears,
Bryan Adams and Diana Krall, among many
others. In addition to Céline Dion’s residency
at Caesars Palace, the Vegas office has
also been involved in both Cher and Bette
Midler shows.
“Dean is a great addition to our Parnelli
Board of Directors, and his experience and
insight will go far in keeping with our desire
to continue to expand and stay a vital part
of our industry,” said Terry Lowe, Parnelli executive
director and publisher of PLSN and
FOH magazines.
Dean Roney