High End Systems is an Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of entertainment lighting and control systems. The embryo of the company, Blackstone Audio Video, was founded in 1972 by Lowell and Sue Fowler. Later on High End Systems was founded, owned, and managed by Lowell Fowler, Richard Belliveau, David Blair, and Bob Schacherl before it was bought by Belgium-based Barco in 2008.
Early history
Lowell Fowler founded Blackstone Audio Visual with his wife Sue. Richard Belliveau set out to install more advanced lighting equipment in nightclubs, when he began working for Blackstone Audio Visual. Blackstone Audio Visual moved from central Austin to offices in north Austin in the mid 1980s. By this time, Bob Schacherl, who was one of the first employees of the company, had become a partner and David Blair joined as well. The three partners installed Pulsar, Clay Paky, Coemar, Optikinetics, JEM, and other European brands that were difficult to find in North America. At the same time, Belliveau began designing and building loudspeakers especially for nightclubs and discothèques. Blackstone Audio Visual specialized in installing high end audio, video, and lighting systems in nightclubs all over the United States. But Belliveau was unhappy with the design of many of the products they were selling, so he began to design his own.
High End Systems
In 1987, Belliveau began experimenting with dichroic filters and designed a color fadinglighting instrument called Color Pro. It used three MR-16 lamps to crossfade between colors, which was unique at the time. In the process, it was discovered that dichroic filters, which are color-tuned thin-film filters deposited on hardened glass, were very expensive. Belliveau bought a used vacuum chamber and directed employees to re-build it for the purpose of manufacturing their own dichroic filters. At the time, there were no other lighting companies that made their own dichroic filters. Color Pro was distributed worldwide through a newly established distributor network. Around the same time, Belliveau set up a manufacturing division called Lightwave Research for the purpose of designing and building new products. Another new company called High End Systems was incorporated in order to separate the installation company, Blackstone Audio Visual, from the sales and distribution of equipment The next products to be designed and built were the Laser Chorus and Dataflash. Laser Chorus was a multiple-head laser system with 4.9-milliwatt gas laser tubes available in red, yellow, green, and orange. The heads were controlled by a microprocessor-based controller and they were capable of producing effects such as tunnels, planes, and various other geometric shapes and patterns. Because they were not over 5 milliwatts they were Class IIIA lasers and did not require a variance to operate in most states in the U.S. Dataflash was a multi-head, microprocessor-controlled strobe system with DMX512 control. It was used on high-profile tours, including the Michael Jackson Dangerous tour, as well as in nightclubs.
Intellabeam launched
Intellabeam automated light was introduced in 1989. Until that time, most automated lighting in the live event production industry were rented, and Vari-Lite dominated the concert and touring market. This allowed production companies to buy their own automated lighting and rent them for concert tours and corporate events.
Later years
In 2000, High End Systems introduced a digital projection system with a video projector, Orbital Mirror Head, and a DMX-controlled media server that interfaced with a lighting console. It allowed a lighting programmer to program the video switching and effects into the lighting console and play them back as part of the light show. The first such system was called Catalyst, but Catalyst evolved into the DMX-controlled media server in 2002 while the Orbital Mirror Head was marketed alone. Up until that point, media servers were manually-operated systems where the media, either tape or video computer files, were switched using a push button matrix switcher or a T-handle switcher to crossfade between sources. That era marked the beginning of High End Systems’ immersion in digital luminaires. Soon after Catalyst, they introduced the DL.1 Digital Luminaire, a moving yoke projection system under the control of DMX512. It required the use of an external media server but the next evolutions of the product, the DL.2, DL.3, and DL.V all have media servers built in. The integration of media servers in their digital luminaires led to the development of another media server, the Axon Media Server. In 2017, High End Systems was acquired by Electronic Theatre Controls.
