INDUSTRY NEWS Copyright Lighting &Sound America November 2016 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html

brands. Texas Scenic was established in 1936 by Adolph Texas Scenic and Martha Beck to design, build, and install theatrical stage equipment. Over the course of 80 years, the business Acquires Pook Diemont has expanded to include all types of stage equipment for every kind of performance space. Texas Scenic provides & Ohl and acouStaCorp counterweight and motorized stage rigging, lighting, dim - ming, and control equipment, stage and acoustical curtains, In one of the more interesting industry deals to happen orchestra pit lifts and shells, and other custom stage equip - recently, Texas Scenic Company (TSC) has acquired the ment for a broad range of clients. Among its recent projects Bronx-based stage equipment contractor Pook Diemont & have been the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Ohl, Inc. (PDO) and its sister company, variable acoustic Antonio, featured in the May 2016 issue of Lighting&Sound banner manufacturer acouStaCorp, LLC. The acquisition America ; Dallas City Performance Hall; the Moody Theatre was announced just before LDI in Las Vegas last month, at the W Hotel in Austin, home of the Austin City Limits and became effective on November 1. broadcast; the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at What makes this acquisition unique is the nature of its James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia; and participants. This is not the standard entertainment technol - Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. The company takes on ogy industry acquisition in which a small company is sub - projects of all sizes; in 2012, it installed stage equipment in sumed into a larger operation, shedding its identity in the 11 schools in one San Antonio district. No longer a family- process. In fact, both companies are long-established owned company, Texas Scenic has been on a growth path . c n I

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: o t o h P L-R: Ted Ohl, Barbara Pook, Steve Surratt, Tony Diemont, Richard Mecke, Irene Byrne Ohl.

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for several years and is now run by a team headed by COO and employees. We are excited to begin the transition of Steve Surratt and president Richard Mecke. combining our teams.” Speaking to LSA, he also stressed Established in 1982 by Barbara Pook, Tony Diemont, and that the companies have similar cultures, even though Texas Ted Ohl, PDO is known for its scrupulous attention to detail, Scenic has close to 110 employees and PDO/acouStaCorp aggressive stance on coordinating with general construction have a combined staff under 40. Mecke noted that Texas trades, and practical knowledge of technical theatre sys - Scenic has an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), tems. Its project list includes such well-known venues as which helps provide long-term financial stability for workers Park Avenue Armory, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Lincoln and generally reduces employee turnover; this plan will now Center’s , The New Whitney Museum, and be available to PDO employees as well. NBC, CNN, and Fox News studios in City; New Founding partner Barbara Pook stated that the combina - World Symphony in Miami; and Herbst Theatre at San tion of Texas Scenic and PDO/acouStaCorp will provide the Francisco’s War Memorial, CA. Like Texas Scenic, PDO company with considerably greater geographic reach. As specializes in creating custom solutions for its clients; in the projects listed above indicate, much of Texas Scenic’s 2009 the company established a second brand, work has been accomplished in the south, while PDO has acouStaCorp, which designs and manufactures variable its strongest foothold in the Northeast. (There are excep - acoustic products for venues with conflicting acoustical tions in both cases. For example, PDO worked on the needs. The banners debuted at NYC’s Alice Tully Hall at Kodak—now the Dolby—Theatre in Hollywood and Chicago in 2009. More than 100 projects later, they Shakespeare Theatre; Texas Scenic’s projects include the have been employed on six continents, including Borgata in Atlantic City and Milwaukee Theatre in Mississippi’s Grammy Museum, Singapore’s MES Theatre at Wisconsin.) The new firm will have established offices in Medicorp, DC’s Museum of African-American History, and San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Atlanta, the following educational institutions: Chapman University, Boston, and , with Los Angeles in the offing. Princeton University, University of Chicago, Ontario’s St. Surratt added that all three company names—Texas Catharines Performing Arts Center, and Northrop Scenic, PDO, and acouStaCorp—will be retained; there is Auditorium, at the University of Minnesota. no plan, at least for the near term, to create a new portman - In a release, Surratt commented, “This merger will pro - teau brand. As everyone who spoke to LSA notes, despite duce the strongest nationwide theatrical systems integrator. their difference in sizes, this deal represents a coming By combining cross-country project expertise with a central - together of two artisanal firms, both of which specialize in ly located manufacturing source, we will expand our custom solutions for highly specific projects. Both are well- addressable market. Our companies’ core values align known to the same client base, consisting of the country’s incredibly well.” In an interview with Lighting&Sound top theatrical consultant firms. The plan is to keep on pro - America , he added that Texas Scenic wasn’t necessarily viding the same services, but to a wider range of projects. looking for an acquisition, although the company has Although such acquisitions are necessarily littered with expanded in recent years, adding a new 70,000-sq.-ft. road bumps, everyone reports that everything has been pro - building in San Antonio in 2013. When discussions began ceeding smoothly. Surratt adds that the staffs from both with PDO, the coming-together made a great deal of sense companies have been enthusiastic about the acquisition. based on their mutual interests and corporate philosophies. “Everyone is really excited,” he says. Keep an eye on Texas Founding PDO Partner Ted Ohl said in the press release, Scenic/PDO as 2017 unfolds. “Combining our companies is a ‘win-win’ for our customers

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