America; Dallas City Performance Hall; the Moody Theatre at the W Hotel in Austin, home ... it installed stage equipment
INDUSTRY NEWS
Copyright Lighting&Sound
America November 2016
Texas Scenic Acquires Pook Diemont & Ohl and acouStaCorp
brands. Texas Scenic was established in 1936 by Adolph and Martha Beck to design, build, and install theatrical stage equipment. Over the course of 80 years, the business has expanded to include all types of stage equipment for every kind of performance space. Texas Scenic provides counterweight and motorized stage rigging, lighting, dimming, and control equipment, stage and acoustical curtains, orchestra pit lifts and shells, and other custom stage equipment for a broad range of clients. Among its recent projects have been the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio, featured in the May 2016 issue of Lighting&Sound America; Dallas City Performance Hall; the Moody Theatre at the W Hotel in Austin, home of the Austin City Limits broadcast; the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia; and Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. The company takes on projects of all sizes; in 2012, it installed stage equipment in 11 schools in one San Antonio district. No longer a familyowned company, Texas Scenic has been on a growth path
Photo: Roy Harline, Texas Scenic Company, Inc.
In one of the more interesting industry deals to happen recently, Texas Scenic Company (TSC) has acquired the Bronx-based stage equipment contractor Pook Diemont & Ohl, Inc. (PDO) and its sister company, variable acoustic banner manufacturer acouStaCorp, LLC. The acquisition was announced just before LDI in Las Vegas last month, and became effective on November 1. What makes this acquisition unique is the nature of its participants. This is not the standard entertainment technology industry acquisition in which a small company is subsumed into a larger operation, shedding its identity in the process. In fact, both companies are long-established
http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html
L-R: Ted Ohl, Barbara Pook, Steve Surratt, Tony Diemont, Richard Mecke, Irene Byrne Ohl.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
for several years and is now run by a team headed by COO Steve Surratt and president Richard Mecke. Established in 1982 by Barbara Pook, Tony Diemont, and Ted Ohl, PDO is known for its scrupulous attention to detail, aggressive stance on coordinating with general construction trades, and practical knowledge of technical theatre systems. Its project list includes such well-known venues as Park Avenue Armory, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The New Whitney Museum, and NBC, CNN, and Fox News studios in New York City; New World Symphony in Miami; and Herbst Theatre at San Francisco’s War Memorial, CA. Like Texas Scenic, PDO specializes in creating custom solutions for its clients; in 2009 the company established a second brand, acouStaCorp, which designs and manufactures variable acoustic products for venues with conflicting acoustical needs. The banners debuted at NYC’s Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in 2009. More than 100 projects later, they have been employed on six continents, including Mississippi’s Grammy Museum, Singapore’s MES Theatre at Medicorp, DC’s Museum of African-American History, and the following educational institutions: Chapman University, Princeton University, University of Chicago, Ontario’s St. Catharines Performing Arts Center, and Northrop Auditorium, at the University of Minnesota. In a release, Surratt commented, “This merger will produce the strongest nationwide theatrical systems integrator. By combining cross-country project expertise with a centrally located manufacturing source, we will expand our addressable market. Our companies’ core values align incredibly well.” In an interview with Lighting&Sound America, he added that Texas Scenic wasn’t necessarily looking for an acquisition, although the company has expanded in recent years, adding a new 70,000-sq.-ft. building in San Antonio in 2013. When discussions began with PDO, the coming-together made a great deal of sense based on their mutual interests and corporate philosophies. Founding PDO Partner Ted Ohl said in the press release, “Combining our companies is a ‘win-win’ for our customers
and employees. We are excited to begin the transition of combining our teams.” Speaking to LSA, he also stressed that the companies have similar cultures, even though Texas Scenic has close to 110 employees and PDO/acouStaCorp have a combined staff under 40. Mecke noted that Texas Scenic has an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which helps provide long-term financial stability for workers and generally reduces employee turnover; this plan will now be available to PDO employees as well. Founding partner Barbara Pook stated that the combination of Texas Scenic and PDO/acouStaCorp will provide the company with considerably greater geographic reach. As the projects listed above indicate, much of Texas Scenic’s work has been accomplished in the south, while PDO has its strongest foothold in the Northeast. (There are exceptions in both cases. For example, PDO worked on the Kodak—now the Dolby—Theatre in Hollywood and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Texas Scenic’s projects include the Borgata in Atlantic City and Milwaukee Theatre in Wisconsin.) The new firm will have established offices in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Boston, and New York City, with Los Angeles in the offing. Surratt added that all three company names—Texas Scenic, PDO, and acouStaCorp—will be retained; there is no plan, at least for the near term, to create a new portmanteau brand. As everyone who spoke to LSA notes, despite their difference in sizes, this deal represents a coming together of two artisanal firms, both of which specialize in custom solutions for highly specific projects. Both are wellknown to the same client base, consisting of the country’s top theatrical consultant firms. The plan is to keep on providing the same services, but to a wider range of projects. Although such acquisitions are necessarily littered with road bumps, everyone reports that everything has been proceeding smoothly. Surratt adds that the staffs from both companies have been enthusiastic about the acquisition. “Everyone is really excited,” he says. Keep an eye on Texas Scenic/PDO as 2017 unfolds.
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