Nova Scotia-based company praises IP rating and reliability
Based in Nova Scotia, rental company Tour Tech East has extended its long relationship with GLP by ordering an initial batch of 50 GLP impression X5 IP Maxx fixtures. The powerful wash light delivers 21,000 lumens of output from 37 high-performance 40W RGBL LEDs, and has enabled Director of Business Development, Peter Hendrickson, to upgrade the company’s inventory by retiring their older stock. The order was serviced by GLP’s territory distributor DataVisual Marketing.
The new X5 IP Maxx has already enjoyed a heavy tour of duty, including shows with Nickelback, Lenny Kravitz and The Killers (among others), culminating in the Canada Summer Games Opening and Closing ceremonies in St. John’s Newfoundland — a precursor to the Olympics. “They were used by three different LDs on those concert shows and we provided Killers’ long-term LD, Steven Douglas, with a bunch more for Hozier, with whom he also works,” he continues. “They have hardly been in the warehouse since we’ve had them.”
With such an active outdoor season, Peter Hendrickson was unequivocal about the primary feature that attracted him to the fixture—and that was the IP rating. “Many of our events between May and October take place outdoors and so an IP rating was essential,” he said. “A rain-hood is not a good compromise … it’s a band aid on a stitched wound.”
Although Tour Tech East is a multi-brand house it was this feature, and the fact they could meet the delivery requirement, that swung the order in GLP’s favour.
“On top of that,” he continued, “our greatest track record with LED has been with the GLP product and so that was always the front runner.” His long relationship with GLP director, Mark Ravenhill, also helped seal the deal.
Peter Hendrickson has been delighted at the response from his LD clients — which further vindicated the purchasing decision. In addition to creatives like Steven Douglas he singles out the vastly experienced Yves Aucoin, Celine Dion’s former LD, who lit the Canada Summer Games , and needed no convincing. “He is a very competent and knowledgeable LD, and was already well aware of the fixture. If you have a good relationship as a vendor, [LDs] need to have the confidence that when you put something forward it’s in the wheelhouse of what they are looking for.”
Over the decade he has been using GLP solutions Peter Hendrickson has had the opportunity to assess the build quality and stability of their fixtures at first hand and builds on the legacy of the previous generation X4. “When you consider the amount of impression X4s we have, and the amount of work they have done, the failure rate was minimal. It was the money-maker fixture in our inventory.”
And he expects the new impression X5 IP Maxx to follow in that tradition. “I never need to worry when I put [a GLP] in the case and take it out that it is going to work. Most of the time these fixtures live in a Tyler type or pre-rigged truss so they also need to take up little room and be of reasonable weight.”
Rob Deslauriers, VP of Sales at DataVisual Marketing, added his own plaudit. “It’s truly been a joy watching Peter and the Tour Tech family grow over the decades into the well-regarded powerhouse they are today in North America. We couldn’t be more excited to see Tour Tech East join the GLP family, and DataVisual is delighted to support them in making their investment in the best-in-class GLP X5 IP Maxx a tremendous success.”
Peter Hendrickson can thus now look optimistically towards the company’s future while at the same time reflecting on an illustrious history during which they have “supplied everyone from the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, David Bowie and Rod Stewart.”
“We have been using GLP equipment since around 2014,” states Hendrickson — adding that Tour Tech East has just enjoyed its biggest year in the history of a company that dates back to 1981.
