Sales director Rick Wilson, very much the public face of Le Maitre, is as excited about the future as ever. An entrepreneur at heart, he is driven by the search for the next new thing, and PLASA 2002 will see an eagerly-anticipated prototype - code-named MaxiHaze - the result of three years of investment and development.
Le Maitre’s history of innovation is well documented. In pyrotechnics, Le Maitre’s Pyroflash system has been an industry standard for 20 years. Later, extensive R&D led to the ProStage II range of professional pyrotechnics, launched in 1997, which brought a whole new level of professionalism to their products. Created with show design in mind, and intended for use only by trained practitioners, ProStage II offered increased control, allowing the creation of waves and various effects, while at the same time minimizing the emission of smoke and debris. In the field of smoke and haze products, Le Maitre is responsible for a number of firsts - the Cloud 9 unit, launched in 1980, was the first commercially-built smoke machine; the G300 was the first DMX-controllable smoke machine and the Maxi Hazer was the first with Ethernet capability. Such achievements require significant investment in R&D; today Le Maitre has seven full-time R&D personnel.
Wilson puts the success of the company down to having the right people in the right roles. He makes specific mention of managing director Colin Lane, who he says has played a major part in marshalling the company’s talent in the most effective way; to events director Karen Haddon, who has overseen substantial growth in the touring and production markets in recent years, and to the head of Le Maitre Special Effects Inc in Canada, Adrian Segeren, who has achieved such a high profile for Le Maitre throughout North America.
This profile recently reached new heights when the company scored the pyro contract for the Usher world tour - the first time Le Maitre has supplied a US-generated world tour in its entirety. Le Maitre’s success, Wilson also points out, has been achieved against very strong competition. "There are a number of pyro companies out there who are every bit as good as Le Maitre - and we’re head-to-head with them," he says.
But on the haze front, the ‘MaxiHaze’ looks like being the next major step in the company’s story. According to Wilson, it works in an entirely new way - using sugar-based fluid - and knocks spots off the competition in terms of its sheer output capacity.
Wilson explains: "The main advantage of sugar-based fluids is that they have a very high vapour pressure which means they hang in the air for long periods - glycol, on the other hand, tends to dissipate very quickly. The advantage is not immediately obvious, but because the glycols disappear quickly, it’s necessary to keep pumping fluid into the atmosphere to maintain the effect. This means that the area being ‘fogged’ has to absorb the smoke and it normally ends up as fluid, in the light fittings, video heads, etc. As an example, an average smoke machine pumps fluid though the heat exchanger (which turns it into smoke) at about 1.5cc per second - this works out to about 90cc of fluid per minute or, being generous, five litres per hour. It’s not only the cost but the amount of fluid in the atmosphere! In a 100-hour period our Neutron Star Hazer [which also uses a sugar-based fluid] will use about two litres, whereas a conventional smoke machine will have used closer to 500!"
Residue-free, sel
