Interview: Bob Schacherl

Many people are now referred to as ‘lighting industry veterans’, but few have enjoyed the Midas touch through the decades like Bob Schacherl, who is currently Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Vari-Lite - a Philips Entertainment Group brand. Prior to joining Vari-Lite at the turn of the century, Bob co-founded High End Systems with Lowell Fowler and Richard Belliveau in the 1980s, and helped that organisation reach astonishing heights. Mr Schacherl also gave me my first job in the industry nearly 20 years ago, so we find it completely appropriate that I now make him sit still long enough to reflect upon his career and accomplishments.

Though you live in Dallas now, you are a true ‘Austinite’. Tell us about your formative years...
I am apparently a rare breed in that I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. I majored in communication at the University of Texas and graduated, in 1977, with a degree in Communication, majoring in Radio Television and Film (RTF). In my junior year, I fell in love with the art and science of photography and capturing images. I became infatuated with it, and RTF was a perfect outlet, especially with this exciting new medium coming out called ‘video’.

Upon graduation, did you find immediate work in that industry?
1977 was a seminal year for me; in January I met Carol Wade, and we got married in December. I graduated in August, while she was scheduled to graduate in December. We figured after we were married we would move to either the west coast or the east coast, because that’s where the television and film industry was centered. I picked up a flyer from the job placement service in the RTF department, and was flipping through the pages when I came across the biggest ad in the pamphlet... it was from a company named Blackstone Productions. It went on and on to list the many requirements of the job - must be able to do darkroom, handle all aspects of photography, familiar with all types of equipment, RTF degree required - and paid three dollars an hour! It was such a broad job description that it really appealed to me, because I knew most of the techniques, and it looked like a good environment for me to hone my skills in other areas prior to going off to LA or New York.

As strange as it sounds, the interview for the job was held at a liquor store near the University of Texas campus and it was there where I first met Lowell Fowler. In addition to running Blackstone, Lowell was partnering with Bill Becker, owner of the liquor store to build Starz nightclub. Lowell said he didn’t have enough work to hire me full time for Blackstone, but maybe I could help out with construction at Starz. I told him my dad was a carpenter, and I had helped him build custom homes in the Austin area. Lowell said, ‘Wait, you have an RTF degree and you can drive nails? You’re hired.’ It was that magical combination that met Lowell’s needs for that particular moment in time. We developed a great friendship, and the trip to Los Angeles or New York City for me and Carol never materialised. I stayed in Austin and went straight to work for Blackstone.

What was Blackstone’s business niche?
During the early years we concentrated on remodelling pubs and nightclubs for the larger hotel chains such as Ramada Inn’s, Holiday Inn’s and other similar franchises. We did lighting and sound systems, but the centrepiece of our designs was a multimedia show called Atmospheres - in basic systems we used three 35mm slide projectors aligned horizontally to form a panoramic view; larger systems used two sets of three projectors that overlapped each other which allowed images to dissolve, cut or animate back and forth. Many slides had polarising material applied to them so when projected through a rotating polarising wheel positioned in front of the projector, it caused the projected image to animate. Looking back, by today’s standards it was pretty crude technology but it was very cool back then. It wasn’t too long after joining Blackstone that Lowell gave me the responsibility of putting together all of the Atmospheres shows. Being a small company, it really was a collaborative effort between Lowell’s wife Sue, Carol and me. We creatively borrowed from various sources and developed content of our own, such as hiring models for glamour shots. We also specialised in scenic photography. As we travelled across the USA, we’d take photographs of mountains, valleys, ocean views and sunsets. We had special cameras with registration in the viewfinders so we could fairly accurately line up the images for Atmospheres. Our club installs ranged from just installing a slide show to a comprehensive lighting and sound system to actually remodelling the entire bar. We would often act as the general contractor - bringing in electricians, plumbers, etc. - for a top to bottom remodeling. That’s where we were up to by about 1980, and that’s where Richard Belliveau really came into the equation.

Richard was one of the first DJs at Starz, and he also worked part-time for Blackstone shortly after I joined the company, doing field repairs on our lighting and sound installations. After a horrific experience on a small puddle jumper airplane going to Oklahoma, he came back and said, ‘I’m never flying small planes again but I’m going to help you guys in making entertainment system sales. I’m not taking any salary, so I’ll work strictly on commissions to prove I can do this.’ He went to Dallas and came back a week later with the proprietors of a large adult club. At first, Lowell and I were a little put off, but when they said they had $75,000 cash to do the first club, we decided it was going to be okay. That led to us doing three more clubs up here in Dallas, and ultimately the owner, Don Furr, met with us in Austin about a new state-of-the-art gentlemen’s club concept named Million Dollar Saloon. He had $150,000 to spend on the entertainment system. And Richard, to his credit, said, ‘let’s make this a showcase and give Don really good value for his money’. That single installation set Blackstone apart from all other nightclub installation companies, and led to a lot of referrals from other club owners. Blackstone just exploded, and we started doing mega-clubs all over the US from 1980 through to 1986.

And then the disco market imploded...
At that time were two John Travolta movies that really affected our business. Saturday Night Fever set off the disco industry, and it really did well for us in driving sales, and then Urban Cowboy came out, and it kind of killed discotheque because now ‘disco sucks’ - that was the catch phrase. A lot of the American lighting manufacturers we worked with went out of business, and we lost access to their products. We discovered the European discotheque industry around 1985; Richard was looking for a smoke machine, and began making contacts with European suppliers - one of which was Lightfactor Sales. In a strange twist of fate, John Adams at Lightfactor (now Director of Luminaire Development for Philips Entertainment Group) sent Richard a copy of Disco and Club International magazine which was full of advertisements for all the great British and Italian manufacturers, so we began contacting companies that appealed to us and began setting up distribution agreements. Richard and I agreed to pursue the idea of a distribution company as the timing coincided with us starting to have families and our wives wanted us to get off the road with Blackstone. Lowell wasn’t exactly sold on the idea straight away but thankfully he eventually agreed.

And that led to the formation of High End Systems in 1986?
Yes. We simultaneously began advertising the brands we were distributing and established a dedicated telephone line for High End Systems within Blackstone’s office. The phone was located on a four drawer file cabinet behind my desk. Whenever it rang, I answered, ‘High End Systems’. Apparently the telephone number was previously used by an air conditioning company that had recently gone bust as the majority of the calls I took were angry customers wanting service or refunds! It didn’t take too long for our advertisements to have the desired effect and we were flooded with calls. We then exhibited at the first Nightclub and Bar Show with booths for Coemar, Clay Paky and the other products we distributed such as Pulsar, Optikinetics, Mode Electronics and JEM smoke machines. We also showed Laser Chorus for the first time. It was the first of many great products we were to eventually manufacture under the Lightwave Research brand. Despite all the great European products we had just started distributing, there were still deficiencies in those product lines and Richard developed products that filled in those gaps.

A few years later the European distribution agreements soured, and High End entered the market with Intellabeam. You took on the role of president and established a global distribution network...
My experience with Blackstone in selling entertainment systems transferred on the wholesale distributions level; we actually hired a general manager to run High End, and that didn’t work out, so I was the next logical choice. That’s when I made the official transition from Vice President of Sales at Blackstone to President of High End Systems. When we shifted from distribution to manufacturing, we had already set up the beginning phases of global distribution with Laser Chorus, followed by Dataflash and Color Pro - all of which were amazingly successful. The advantage we had was that we were able to go out and test the waters of international distribution of our own products - without risking a high percentage of our total sales. We had a lot of people helping us along the way so I think it is appropriate to give credit to people like John Featherstone (now with Lightswitch) and Rob McKinley of LD Systems who gave us early tips on what to do with Intellabeam from both ergonomic and performance perspectives, they helped us design products that were roadworthy and suitable for touring. 

As HES adapted products for the touring industry, there weren’t that many players in the market. Vari-Lite had the dominant market share - they virtually had a monopoly. We were blown away at the response when we adapted Intellabeam for the touring industry; we couldn’t build them fast enough. We developed strong relationships and incredible sales with customers such as Don Stern at BASH Lighting, Michael Strickland at Bandit Lites, John Huddleston at Upstaging and broke into the international market with Peter Chong in Hong Kong, Uli Petzold in Germany, Mick Hannaford and John Adams at Lightfactor in the UK and Ushio U-Tech in Japan, just to name a few. Much credit needs to go to Chas Herrington (now at Zenith Lighting) for first using Intellabeam 700 on Dire Straits world tour in 1991. It was a combination of being at the right place at the right time with the right product - all these things came together.

And the next three or four fixtures became industry standards?
Yes, there were some overwhelming successes - Cyberlight, Trackspot, and F100 Smoke Generator for example. But at the heart of everything, when you look at the organisation, and at Lowell, Richard and I, there was a great synergy. I always credited Lowell with having the vision, and with Richard being the driving force and technology expert, I was comfortable being in the sales position, out in front of people and managing the distribution network. Behind it all, we had a lot of enormously talented and dedicated people working for us; you included.

How would you describe the industry changes that followed?
In addition to the rapid growth of the industry, we too were growing incredibly fast in terms of sales and as an organisation. We were hiring people like crazy, becoming more vertically integrated as a manufacturer and opening subsidiary offices in Asia and Europe. Unfortunately, the introduction of Studio Color took High End down a path that really set us on a collision course with Vari-Lite due to patent litigation. We firmly believed that we didn’t do anything wrong, and therefore we were probably in denial over the legitimacy of the lawsuit. We tended to give it less importance than we should have. It severely impacted our business. The financial difficulties and subsequent restructuring put all sorts of changes in motion, and High End Systems took a different course.

What year did you leave High End?
It was December of 2000. Looking back, I felt like we did a lot of great things and helped establish High End Systems as a leader in the entertainment lighting industry. After leaving, I took off about half a year and collected my thoughts. Ironically, I remember noticing that Vari-Lite had decided to start selling their products. I watched them go through the evolution of shifting from a rental model to sales and distribution. During this time I was trying to decide if I wanted to get back in the industry or not, and I thought if there was one company that I could see working for, it was Vari-Lite, another market leader. They were certainly the pioneers of automated lighting, and I was always impressed with their professionalism and outstanding reputation.
I sent Rusty Brutsche an email asking about opportunities at Vari-Lite. That was on a Sunday evening, and Monday morning he called and asked me to come up to Dallas and talk with him and Clay Powers. I went up on Wednesday and met them for dinner. After five minutes of exchanging pleasantries, Rusty looks at me and asks when I could start. Two weeks later they let their existing sales management staff go and handed me the keys.

It was such a great feeling to realise that I had a blank slate; I could literally take advantage of all that I know, all the relationships I have, and avoid the mistakes that I made in the past. It was just a wonderful environment. Rusty continued to manage the Vari-Lite Production Services offices, and I reported to Clay Powers who was in charge of Vari-Lite Inc., the manufacturing and selling entity. Everyone in management showed me the utmost respect for my accomplishments at High End. John Bilyk and Jaime Friedstadt were already in place as Regional Sales Managers and I quickly hired J.R. Chai and other great sales people to come on board in 2001. Then 9-11 occurred and really set our industry back. For about three months the world was in shock, and it took a while for things to settle down and for commerce to resume. Despite the tragedy, to everyone’s credit at the company, we came within 5% of hitting our annual goal, which I think is quite an accomplishment. Of course, there still was a little conflict of interest - the production services side of the business was still a hell of a production lighting company, and potential buyers that were in close proximity to the VLPS offices in the United States really didn’t want to talk to me, as they saw Vari-Lite as the competition. That said, we did have enormous success in the early days of Vari-Lite sales in the international market, particularly in the UK and Japan. Again, it was the combination of all the right ingredients and timing, plus the brand name was so strong. Vari-Lite was like the Holy Grail. It was just a matter of figuring out the right pricing structure, conducting effective marketing and promotional campaigns, and taking advantage of relationships and contacts that myself and my regional sales managers had with potential dealers and distributors. It all came together really quickly and actually the sales success and volume that we achieved at Vari-Lite was greater than anything I experienced at High End Systems. It was a great selling environment, the currency exchange rate was favourable, the products were phenomenal, the brand name was there, and the timing was so right for Vari-Lite to enter the market.

What was the product range as you took over Vari-Lite sales in 2001?
It was actually, relative to the manufacturers that we were competing with, a narrow product line that I inherited. There was a derivative of the VL6C and derivatives of the arc and tungsten versions of the VL5. And they showed me the prototypes of what became the VL1000 which we launched in 2001.

Although you had potent new ammo from R&D and a growing international base, did you feel there was unfinished business in America with VLPS?

Again, we did have a conflict of interest due to our inherent association with VLPS, which, as I mentioned, alienated most rental oriented customers from buying our brand. That conflict disappeared at the end of 2002 when the Genlyte Group came into the picture. The VL1000 had been enjoying good success, but customers wanted the luminaire to have an onboard dimmer. Clay and the engineering team did their research, and found this great IGBT dimming technology, which was built right here in Dallas by the Controls Division of Genlyte. Initial conversations with Steve Carson - then GM of Genlyte Controls - about buying IGBT dimmers quickly turned to Genlyte’s interest of acquiring Vari-Lite. Rusty, to his credit, saw that in order to maximise both Vari-Lite’s sales and production services businesses, they must be separate, so that each could prosper and grow to their full potential. In November of 2002, the company was sold to Genlyte, and that completely removed any conflict of interest. Vari-Lite became a lighting manufacturer that generated revenue strictly by selling through a global distribution network. The timing of the acquisition by Genlyte also coincided with the introduction of the Series 3000 luminaires. That product line elevated us to a new performance level and provided an incredible platform for sales success.

It seemed Genlyte brought great things to the table for Vari-Lite?
Yes, and not only in the technology that we acquired. Genlyte and Steve Carson should get credit for reconfiguring operations; they really turned Vari-Lite into an efficient and highly profitable manufacturer. And again, similar to when I first came onboard at Vari-Lite, Genlyte had very little experience of selling and distributing into the entertainment industry. Vari-Lite was a whole new ball game compared to the architectural and commercial lighting industry. Genlyte was blown away at the size of the transactions, the adoption of the technology, and how professional our customer base was compared to their expectation. Due to Genlyte’s relative lack of experience in the entertainment market, they deferred to myself and my sales staff’s judgment, and gave us a lot of leeway on making decisions - as long as they had favourable results. Thankfully things worked out very well. We were fortunate to have a lot of great people with a great deal of collective wisdom; we introduced many outstanding products and had a different approach to selling those products through a limited number of customers. This resulted in 30% annual growth for five years running. It was just phenomenal.

How was Vari-Lite merged into Genlyte’s multi-form business structure?
Genlyte is actually a collection of business units, each run autonomously. There is no Genlyte brand per se, it’s really the corporate umbrella and the bank which funds operations and assigns financial goals. Our division is actually a very nimble business unit, able to determine our own path, products and marketing. We set up what many believe is the best customer service department under the direction of Julie Smith, and so it wasn’t as daunting as you may imagine. There was a little more reporting to Genlyte’s corporate headquarters, but we were having so much success it was a great environment to work in.

What market conditions led to Philips’ acquisition of Genlyte?
From 2005-2007, the US and world economy was going through the roof, and Genlyte did benefit from that, as the company continued to have record sales and earnings. Our division played a big part in that sales and earnings growth. The Controls Division went from being the smallest division at the time of Genlyte’s acquisition of Vari-Lite, to being within a few million dollars of being the third largest division. As a result, we won ‘Genlyte Division of the Year’ two years in a row, which was a huge deal. All of this coincided with Philips being on acquisition missions themselves - they purchased LumaLEDs, Color Kinetics and a variety of other companies. Ultimately Philips were looking for a way to break into the US commercial lighting market beyond lamps and ballasts. Philips have a wealth of marketing resources so they did their homework and due diligence, and everyone kept pointing back to Genlyte as being the best choice for them – in terms of product line, customers, market share and sales forces. In December 2007, the Genlyte acquisition was announced by Philips. So again, a whole new chapter in history began, in the sense that we came from being a company that was largely North American based to now being part of a leading, multinational enterprise, with three distinct competencies - health care, consumer lifestyle and lighting. The Genlyte acquisition made Philips the largest lighting manufacturer in the world.

It was made clear to us by Philips that LEDs were going to be a part of their strategy going forward - at the consumer level, the architectural level and also on the entertainment level. So it was with that encouragement that we began exploring LED opportunities from a development standpoint. We were highly aware of the adoption rate LED luminaires were enjoying in the entertainment space but were adamant to avoid introducing a ‘me too’ product. Our own internal research led us to a range of high-powered LEDs, and this past August we released the VLX Wash luminaire, less than a year after previewing it at PLASA in 2008. It is truly an amazing product that has the potential for reshaping the wash luminaire landscape of the future.

What integration has occurred in making Vari-Lite a Philips brand?
Upon the Genlyte acquisition, Philips advised us that there would be a two-year period to fold Genlyte into Philips, a process called Post Merger Integration. We will officially become fully integrated in January. To their credit, Philips hasn’t changed anything with the management over these two years. Our division’s name has changed from Genlyte Controls to Philips Lighting Controls Division to, now, Philips Entertainment Group. At the beginning of this year we handed the Entertainment Technology and Lightolier Controls brands back to Lightolier; we now act only as the OEM supplier and no longer sell and market these products - meaning our whole focus now is on the entertainment market, thus the shift to Philips Entertainment Group.

For a guy that’s done everything from drive nails to drive sales, what consumes the typical Bob Schacherl day? Do you still travel a lot?
Over the last three years I’ve travelled more than ever, and that’s driven largely by the success that we’ve enjoyed as a company. Wherever I’ve travelled and worked with a local distributor and Regional Sales Manager, it’s yielded positive results. So there’s a lot of gratification - on both a business and personal level - and I still enjoy the hell out of it. I really view it as a privilege to have been so many places around the world. So far, I’ve been to 45 countries, seen parts of the world and experienced cultures I’m fascinated with... and deep down inside when you remove the language barrier, humans are very similar from place to place. They all enjoy family, like to laugh, benefit from each other’s company, take pleasure in having have a great meal and a drink, and that’s what makes the world tick. That’s what makes business tick as well, and if you couple that with great products, good business practices and world class service, it provides the ingredients for success and enjoyable work environment. Business is tough right now and at times I feel frustrated, as I’m sure a lot of people do who are involved in manufacturing and selling. I’m confident we’ll get through this and the world and our industry will eventually recover.
I’m very excited about being part of Philips, because they bring a whole new business perspective to our operations. They’re very excited about the entertainment industry, they see this as a growth market, and they recognise that what starts in the entertainment industry has the ability to trickle down through the commercial sector, and eventually to the consumer level. I give a lot of credit to Lowell for his paraphrasing of ‘art becoming mainstream’. And I think Philips understands that; they haven’t come out and said that we’re an incubator, but that’s the perception I get. I’ve been overwhelmed by the people that have contacted me from various Philips organisations around the world who have said ‘Our customers are asking about Vari-Lite, how do we help them out?’ And again, to Philips’ credit, they recognise that the entertainment lighting industry is unique due to the complexity of the technology and the specialised profile of the companies involved in projects or productions. Philips also recognises the entertainment industry is a global business. So we’re one of two business units that have the designation of being a Global Business Unit which allows us to manage and control our distribution network.

What have you learned from your peers over these many years?
I view all of the people I’ve had the pleasure of working with as teachers. I think we’re all put on this planet to observe and learn. I’ve been very fortunate to work with a lot of great business minds, and learn from example - even what mistakes to avoid - so overall it’s been a fantastic experience and one that I still find very enjoyable and motivating.