Interview: Steve Lakin

You could say that Steve Lakin is something of a born survivor. Trace the development of professional A/V rental and image support over a quarter of a century of evolution, and his name will come up at every turn.

Even when the industry was in its infancy he was running the predominant company Viewplan, drawing inspiration from the worlds of broadcast and film, cross-pollinating with companies such as Samuelson Communications.

During the early 1980’s major companies like Sony, Panasonic and Mitsubishi were pioneering big screen RGB overhead projection in the days of CRT (while the first Barco Vision projectors were starting to be seen in the UK’s more savvy nightclubs). At the highest end Aston 3 character generators might migrate from the broadcast world and there would be occasional sightings of the massive Eidophor large screen television projectors.

Today Steve Lakin is the head of Production Technology (Protec) - a complete staging production company operating out of a 70,000 sq ft warehouse in Dubai - with a huge fleet of Christie 3-chip DLP digital projectors outputting up to 20,000 ANSI lumens). It’s a far cry from the incipient industry trying to discover itself in the early 1980s.

In fact by the time you read this Protec’s founder could be on the verge of signing a deal that will increase his warehousing facilities to a massive 100,000-120,000 sq ft. But more of that later.

In the often cut-throat world of large-scale video support, Steve Lakin has made a lot of money, lost a lot of money, ruffled a lot of feathers along the way ... but ultimately gained the respect of his peers.

Born in Burton on Trent (and trained as an accountant), his entry to the video world came when he joined Dixon’s, one of whose subsidiaries, Dixon’s Professional Hire rented out playback and multi-screen equipment. But when Dixon’s decided to pull out of rental, they sold the stock to Lakin, enabling him to set up Viewplan with one of Dixon’s employees, Claudio Quarticelli.

With ex-Samuelsons personnel like Andy Bennett helping to drive the business forward, Viewplan quickly became one of the great names in the early 80’s, along with REW (and of course Samuelson’s themselves).

“We had Sony cameras and the Microcine Mignon 35mm film projectors,” remembers Steve. “It was the early days of projectors when video was just starting to take off, and we also had the Sony VP-1210 U-Matic for corporate and West End work.”
And the West End is where they were based - first in Soho’s Dean Street and then Soho Square, where they remained until 1983, when they relocated to 18,000 sq. ft in Goswell Road, Islington.

“Everyone thought we were nuts moving from the West End but by the early 1980’s video was becoming a reliable format and was starting to be used in presentation work.” The industry gathered momentum, with Viewplan and Samuelsons at the vanguard.

Among their 220 staff were a number of former BBC broadcast engineers, which also gave Viewplan a foothold into the broadcast OB market, with state-of-the-art vision mixing, using Ampex technology and Philips switching gear.

Two of the rising stars at Viewplan were Graham Andrews, who later went on to set up Creative Technology for the Avesco Group - and Robin Coles (who also joined Avesco, and eventually founded SPS).

In fact Viewplan had embarked on a joint venture with Avesco, which had been founded by Richard Murray in 1984; this gave birth to the outdoor screen company, Screenco, which helped Avesco achieve their flotation in 1985.

But the joint venture was short-lived; the tide was already beginning to turn and Steve Lakin quit the company in 1987, shortly followed by his long-standing friend from Birmingham, Tony Cant.

“Viewplan had been taken over by Trillion, a major independent television company, and the biggest OB operation in the world, but it wasn’t the same.” The deal echoed Carlton TV’s takeover of Avolites around the same time, and by 1990-91 Viewplan had been wound up altogether.

After a year or so of “doing not a lot, mostly getting bored” Steve Lakin was to make his next major play - setting up what would become the mighty Gearhouse Group.
Initially run out of Tony Cant’s house, Gearhouse Birmingham was founded towards the end of 1988, later moving to a freehold industrial unit in the centre of the city. Shortly afterwards, Proquip was set up on a farm in West Horsley, Surrey, before relocating a short distance across the county to Chertsey.

“Proquip was more into visual presentation, and it gave us a southern base,” remembers Steve. “But the industry was developing quickly by then.” In fact Proquip’s first job was the lucrative Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tour for which they supplied two 36-module Barco monitor walls. They extended their stock to 1080 modules, adding the popular Electrosonic PIC-3 wall processors, and were thereafter largely known for being a videowall company.
By the early 1990’s Gearhouse had also acquired Melville Presentation Services, run by Gary Davis, which metamorphosed into Presentation Services (PSL). The company today continues to prosper under the co-ownership of Davis and Lakin, operating out of an ultra-modern facility in Potters Bar.

“The industry was moving heavily into videowall technology - with Pioneer and Electrosonic cubes - but the setting up of PSL gave us a full service company in London,” reasons Lakin.
Acquisitions were now in full spate - with Onview Presentations in Birmingham and Indica (the old Viewplan operation) in Glasgow coming under the Gearhouse umbrella, allowing the Group to float on the USM in 1995 (by which time they had 32 operations functioning around the world).

Among them was Gearhouse Dubai, which was set up in 1994 and run by Simon Ransom,.
In that year Gearhouse turned over £10.1m (with £1.4m operating profit) and the Group continued to show healthy year on year hikes as they set up Gearhouse South Africa (under Ofer Lapid) in 1996 and Australia in 1997 (by the following year the company was showing £8.2m operating profit on a £67.1m turnover).

But something had started to go wrong by the time they launched their two new pioneering ventures. OptiScreen (following in a long line of industry big screen displays, from Starvision to Jumbotron and Megascreen), was one of the first commercially available LED giant screens produced in the UK, and was joined by Rudy Enos’s outrageous 16-pole, 80ft-high, portable tent called Tensile One. But by now the results of the company’s over-expansion was becoming all too obvious.

As a consequence, in August 1998 Steve Lakin was replaced by finance director John Napier, (who became Gearhouse’s new chief executive).

“I had just started to turn Australia round when I departed. I had done 20 circumnavigations of the world in three years and I was completely knackered,” recounts Steve. In addition to the markets in South Africa, the Middle East and Australasia, on the other side of the world Gary Davis was overseeing the operations Stateside - in Los Angeles and Nashville.

Gearhouse had also fallen marginally short of its predicted sales forecast in 1998 - a notoriously difficult year in the industry. “We forecast £7.1m profit and made £6.2m profit which I didn’t think was too bad. The problem was that we had put out [to the City] that it was a rock solid business; but no rental business ever is. We were heavily dependent on the UK.”

Following his departure from Gearhouse more “key” people all departed in the first six months. The following year, while Gearhouse upped the turnover, the operating profit plummeted, and then went into loss.

The bank eventually pulled the plug in 2000 - but before that happened, in a desperate attempt to rescue the beleaguered company, Gearhouse’s founder approached the bank and offered to turn fortunes around - without remuneration - but his offer was politely declined. In December 2000 shares were suspended because the company was unable to report its financial results and administrative receivers were appointed.

The Gearhouse name has survived of course, as Lapid continues to run the thriving business down in South Africa, while Gearhouse Broadcast is flourishing as an independent, fully-international broadcast rental and systems integration outfit.

Steve Lakin’s connections with Dubai were already strong. “My wife had chosen to live there in 1995,” he explains. “Because I travelled the world it didn’t matter where I lived. We had friends in Dubai and the kids were in schools there.” And of course, Gearhouse Dubai had been operating since the mid-90’s.

“I had a non-compete clause wherever we had an operation but for some reason [Gearhouse] had taken Dubai out of the flotation document and hadn’t locked me into Dubai.” Steve Lakin took full advantage, although the move clearly didn’t impress the Gearhouse board.

In 1998, along with James Rock, Steve Lakin set up a small AV rental business called Production Technology LLC (Protec) - and went straight into the major league. For within two months of starting the company, he had the opportunity to acquire Vari-Lite Production Services’ Middle East operation, giving him a full production service (including the proprietary VL5 and VL6 moving lights).

At the same time a major contract was being tendered in Riyadh for the launch of Al Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s first skyscraper. Designed by Lord Foster, the Al Faisaliah Tower was a commercial centre soaring to 267 metres and part of a £320 million complex to include a five-star hotel, luxury apartments, an up-market retail mall and a major banqueting venue.

Steve Lakin found himself quoting against his old adversary, John Napier at Gearhouse. “We won the contract, and that’s what really got Protec started.”

And so the start of the new millennium will be remembered fondly by the entrepreneur as he opened the latest chapter of his remarkable career.

As they ramped up their own infrastructure - creating the ability to offer a turnkey staging service including complete ground support - Protec were perfectly poised to take on major contracts with high production values. This included the opening of Dubai Media City in January 2001 and the opening ceremony for the 2002 Dubai Shopping Festival - the most spectacular and technically complex show ever staged in the Middle East.

“The event in Riyadh was actually 20 times the size of Media City,” remembers Steve. “Dubai Media City was a great show but we were given it ten days before the event - and our competitors had already built the set by the time we became involved.

“We were told there was to be a chat show - but only one speaker had been confirmed, so we totally changed the show around. We changed the backdrop and dropped it hydraulically, putting the show into the context of a conventional opening ceremony spectacular.”

Steve Lakin also plays down the significance of the VLPS acquisition as he explained how the deal came about. “VLPS had been looking to sell - they didn’t seem ecstatic about being out in the Middle East.

“We contacted Rusty Brusché [Vari-Lite’s chairman/CEO] but our investment was considerably less than the equipment we had already. I paid $800,000 for the assets of Vari-Lite, but I have since sold the VL5’s and VL6’s - and while the newer models are great lights, they are not suited for work in the desert.”

Today, at least half of Protec’s vast moving light inventory comprises Clay Paky fixtures.
But times have changed in Dubai, and to an extent the larger contracts have dried up - although the Emirates has found its way onto the major touring circuit. Protec have provided full production support for major international acts this past year, including Aerosmith, Pink and Celine Dion, but Steve Lakin is fairly critical of venue suitability.

“Where you promote these shows is a big problem. We did several at the Autodrome [the motor sports circuit, where Shakira performed 12 months ago] but it’s currently a logistical nightmare.” The other venues include Festival City, Dubai Exiles Rugby Football Club [now demolished], where Protec supported Aerosmith, and of course Dubai Media City.

“We have three designers on board but many of the shows come in with the design already done. Also, the cost of staging a show is greater here than in Europe because you have to earn your money in just six or seven months of the year - you don’t get the utlisation you get in Europe.

But this hasn’t stopped Protec from keeping their inventory right at the cutting edge, retiring and selling off older fixtures - typically into the North African countries - as they constantly reinvest in new technology, right across the board.

For their sound reinforcement Protec started out running a Turbosound system, before making their line array investment in JBL’s VerTec system; they also run NEXO GEO-S.
Protec stock 231 CM chain hoists (in an inventory of 318 motors) and a large number of circular trusses, manufactured by Total Fabrications. Big in motor control and rigging, they have recently been investing in Anton Woodward automation, running Pegasus software.
The company is also working with advanced motion control and continues to invest heavily in lighting and video technology, using the MA media server and now the Vista Spyders for delivery.

Top-end video is also an emerging market and Protec’s investment in Christie top-end DLP projection has been consummate. Seeing their products on show at the PALME Middle East show last year Steve Lakin was so impressed that “I immediately struck a deal,” and in so doing kick-started a massive US$2 million investment in video inventory upgrade - all in the space of six weeks. To put these costs into perspective, Protec reckon to have invested AED 75 million (£10.2m) in equipment since their adventure began.

Meanwhile, he continues to operate out of a facility that houses 13 warehouses, giving Protec the scope to build up to six or seven sound stages at a time. The company also stores some of the rock industry’s most famous stages - including two of Kylie Minogue’s sets, Take That, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran ... and more.

“It was easy to store sets when warehousing was 10 Dirhams a square foot, now its 45 ... so we need to find cheaper storage,” Steve rationalises.

With competition hotting up in Dubai, Protec find themselves working increasingly in Abu Dhabi. “We’ve been there for six years and are just starting to get accepted.

“There are more and more companies fighting for the business [in Dubai] but we will only do shows with a decent margin, it’s not worth it otherwise.”

Steve Lakin clearly enjoys leading his key team - experienced production technicians like Jason Strange, Rick Wade and Rob Storm - from the front line. Providing a complete stage rig, fully supported, in the desert presents unique challenges, and Steve Lakin is famous for coming up with custom, off-the-cuff solutions during the construction process.

Although occasionally escaping the industry to pursue his passion for skiing, Steve Lakin is married to the business and has no plans to retire. However, he knows that it was probably his constant travelling that cost him his own marriage “although my ex-wife is my best friend, and also lives in Dubai.”

All his children have grown up in Dubai and been educated in America, and he is already handing down to the next generation. While his son James has been at Protec this past two years, his other son, Matthew, is set to join in the summer.

“I am in a business that’s probably one of the most interesting in the world. I have never met anyone who didn’t enjoy it - or at the same time who doesn’t moan about the shitty pay!

“My big grouse is wondering why do people only book the kit four days before a show when they have had the venue booked for ages?”

Steve Lakin says that a lot of people have impacted him along the way - most notably Andy Bennett in the early days - and he’s clearly still enjoying the roller-coaster ride. “I’m not one to harbour regrets; I have made a lot of money and lost a lot of money along the way ... but I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”