Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1978 - 33

_____________News
University of Texas Fine Arts and Performing Arte Center

Sklrpan-EDI Patent Suit

Contracts totaling more than $2.2 million for special equipment,
furniture, and furnishings for the new College of Fine Arts, and Performing Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin were
awarded by the UT System Board of Regents. The fine arts complex,
a five-structure project that is the largest building project in UT
history, is being completed in stages through 1980. Units of the
complex include a 3,000-seat concert hall, 400-seat opera laboratory
theatre, music building with 700-seat recital hall, drama workshops
building, and fine arts administration and library building.
Contract awards amounting to $1 ,045,500 were granted for theatrical rigging, an orchestra shell, and lighting equipment in the concert
hall, drama workshops, and opera laboratory. Successful bidders
were the Peter Albrecht Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which
was awarded $987,000 for theatrical rigging and orchestra shell, and
American Stage Lighting Company of New Rochelle, N.Y., which
received $58,500 for lighting instruments and equipment.
Contract awards for furniture and furnishings in all buildings in the
new center amounted to $1,202,863 and went to the following companies: Abel Contract Furniture and Equipment Company, Austin
($56,839); American Desk Manufacturing Company, Temple
($66,825); Aetnastak Division of Art Metal U.S.A., Newark, N.J.
($80,951); Carpet Services, Dallas ($8,502); Clegg, Austin Inc., Austin
($63,562); Fraser Furniture Company, Jamestown, N.Y. ($127,387);
Rockford Furniture and Carpets, Austin ($441,247); San Antonio
Floor Finishers ($2,900); Stewart Office Supply Company, Dallas
($301,680); Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul,
Minn. ($12,260); and Wittig's Inc., San Antonio ($40,708). Furniture
and furnishings for the complex include items such as desks, chairs,
bookstacks, rugs and carpets, files, library furniture, platforms and
podiums, tables, concert chairs, teaching stations, and a book security system. Bids were rejected for movable shelving and wood casework and will be re-advertised later.

Skirpan Lighting Control Corporation announced that their patent
infringement suit against Electronics Diversified Inc. (EDI), the New
York Shakespeare Festival, producers of A Chorus Line, and Four
Star Stage Lighting Inc. has been settled.
The suit was based on the claim by Skirpan that Electronics Diversified Inc. had infringed Skirpan's basic AUTOCUE patent with the
production of their LS-8 computer-based lighting control system.
This system was supplied by EDI to Four Star Stage Lighting Inc., and
subsequently was used in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line.
The defendants have acknowledged the validity of the Skirpan
patent, and their infringement of it. EDI has been enjoined from
further production or sale of the LS-8 system.
The Skirpan AUTOCUE lighting control system, which is in use at
all three commercial television networks, was the first U.S. system to
use a general purpose computer for the control of stage and studio
lighting. The AUTOCUE was also the first system to utilize a television
display for the playback of stored lighting control information.

Announcement from Thorn Lighting
Thorn Lighting Inc. has announced that Capron Lighting Company,
Inc. (278 West Street; Needham Heights, Massachusetts 02194;
[617]444-8850) is now an authorized stocking distributor of Thorn's
line of studio, theatre, and television tungsten halogen lamps, projector lamps, and compact iodide lamps.
Thorn is the U.S. subsidiary of Thorn Electrical Industries, a diversified fifty-year-old British-based company with annual sales of $2.5
billion. It is a leading manufacturer of lighting products, appliances,
and electronics and employs 85,000 persons in eighty factories, operating in more than 100 countries.

United States Institute for Theatre Technology
presents the

DIRECTORY OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS
IN THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

* information on specific MA/MFA programs at institutions in the U.S.
* data on 90% of institutions offering degrees with a design/technical emphasis.
* descriptive entries of 92 programs offering more than 12 hours in specific content course
areas.
* data on academic program, technical facilities and theatre plants.
* information on budget for and number of productions, both main stage and studio, and
an indication of frequency with which students design productions.
Mail $7.50 with your order to USITTI1501 Broadway/N.Y., N.Y. 10036

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1978