Solotech Increases Claypaky, MA Lighting, and MDG Inventory with Purchases from ACT Lighting

	Solotech lighting team: Andy Otoole, Sylvain Paquet, Jean-Baptiste Renaud, Antoine Malette, Raphael Mohr, Alexandre Malo, and François Desjardins

Solotech, the Montreal-based end-to-end provider of entertainment technology services, has made major purchases of Claypaky lighting fixtures, MA Lighting products, and MDG atmospheric generators. All of the brands are exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Lighting, Inc.

The majority of the equipment is destined for Solotech's US offices. "It's part of our overall strategy to add more Claypaky, MA, and MDG equipment to our inventory," says Francois "Frankie" Desjardins, director of R&D. "We're building our inventory in the US to gain more presence for the touring market. We've been happy with Claypaky, MA, and MDG products and so have our clients in all markets, so it was a logical choice to add more. Most of the equipment will be based in our main DeKalb, Illinois office with additional gear in Las Vegas and Nashville."

Solotech has taken delivery of more than 450 Claypaky Scenius Unicos specifically to meet the growing demand for them from lighting designers for concert tours. "We're really happy with our Scenius Profiles and Scenius Spot we acquired late 2016 early 2017. Adding the Unicos gives us the ability to offer the whole palette of Scenius fixtures," says Desjardins.

The company increased its inventory of more than 30 grandMA2 full-size and 25 grandMA2 light consoles with the addition of eight MA2 full-size and three MA2 light desks plus 22 NPUs and a total of 48 Nodes. "Lighting designers demand to work on the grandMA2," says Desjardins. "It's the most popular lighting console in every market -- everyone wants to use it and they love it. Last year we started to invest more in Nodes, which complement the consoles and make sure that networking around the consoles is flawless."

Solotech was one of the first users of MDG's theONE atmospheric generators and counts over 20 in its inventory. Now that number has grown by eight additional systems. "It's still one of the most popular fog generators on the market," Desjardins says. "We service large indoor and outdoor venues so we need to have a lot on hand."

Solotech also invested in an extensive cable package from ACT Lighting, including fiber optic, DMX, and power cable. "We build most of our cabling in-house, but it gets complicated trying to build everything and fill the demands of big projects when delivery time is short. So, when we find a partner like ACT to help us with similar products it's always a plus for us," notes Desjardins. A portion of the order was made by Rapco, which was recently acquired by ACT Lighting.

Desjardins says Solotech's equipment investments reaffirm the long relationship the company has had with ACT. "The relationship is bigger and stronger than it's ever been," he reports. "ACT's philosophy is the same as ours. We tend to use equipment for its quality and reliability, and ACT offers quality, reliable equipment. We're all headed in the same direction."