In Profile: LANG

IN PROFILE

LANG

IN PROFILE: LANG

Nestled in the quaint German town of Lindlar is an LED, projection and image processing company; which, for 40 years, has serviced the production industry by providing a backbone of stock for rental houses across Europe. TPi paid a visit to its HQ to talk about the future...

The name Lang will be very familiar to many in Pro AV. For 40 years, the ethos of this company has been to remain out of the limelight. From humble beginnings - in the living room of founders Paul Detlef and Gabriele Lang – when the company originally specialised in slide projectors, the pair realised there was another niche to be filled... Instead of competing for rental jobs, the team opted to become a mass stockist of AV products and became the one-stop shop which promises to fill the needs of any rider requests rental houses may have.

The company, still very much in the hands of the family, now boasts Paul and Gabriele’s son, Tobias Lang, who stepped up as CEO back in 2008. Both the stock offering and staff quantities have grown steadily over the years, while remaining, miraculously, one of the industry’s best-kept secrets. Ian Woodall, Managing Director of Lang’s UK office, picked TPi up from Cologne airport to give us a tour of the facility and an insight into the world of Lang.

“The reach of Lang is truly incredible,” began Woodall, our host as we sat in the company café. “I would say 9 out of 10 of Europe’s biggest shows will almost without a doubt have a piece of Lang gear featured on the rider. However, for 40 years we have remained relatively under the radar, only been known by a selection of top tier suppliers.” This ‘behind the scenes’ operation has been the centre ethos of the company for some time. “Our customers need to know we always have the stock available to add to their own inventory for those big shows,” stated Woodall. “At the same time, they need to know we are discreet in our dealings. They don’t need to worry about us bunny-hopping them on a quote for a show.” The guarded approach was plain to see while walking around the Lindlar facility. Among rows upon rows of grey flight cases containing the latest LED, projector and image processing technology, you won’t find a single rental house logo or artist tour scrawled onto any of the boxes. “It’s all numbers and barcodes here,” joked Woodall. “This means we can have clients visit the warehouse without fear of supplying intel on their competition.”

For the uninitiated, there are several arms of Lang’s business model;

rental, sales, servicing, sales of ex-rental, development of bespoke products, and education. Nina Chen, LED Product Specialist, discussed the finer points of the company’s business. “When Lang decides to invest in a certain product, the industry as a whole takes notice,” she began. “However, our decision regarding what products and brands to invest in involves a long process of comparing what is new in the market - a process which very much involves our customers.” One of Chen’s responsibilities is the organisation of the company shoot-outs, during which various LED brands are pitted against each other. “During the shoot-outs, we keep all the brands under wraps until the end. No manufactures are present while the customers are studying the products, which enables a true blind test without the usual trade show pressure.”

Following this, customers feedback via a response form, which is distributed to both manufactures and those who attended. Lang then takes this data and, from the responses, determines what will be the next line of products to fill the warehouse floor.

“These shoot-outs have also fed into the development arm of Lang,” chimed in Woodall. “There will be times when a product will do really well in customer responses in terms of performance but will fall short in other areas such as mechanics. This has led to us doing joint ventures with various companies where we will have moded versions of the product with a few extra features.” One example of this was the INFiLED s1.8 LE (LE standing for Lang Edition). “The product itself is fantastic but for customers looking for a slightly more premium product, the LE edition really is the next step-up.”

These developments go further than updating existing products and also create Lang’s own smart solutions. Under the brand SOLUTIONS4AV, a selection of Lang employees create innovative solutions for the AV market including bespoke display products and connectors. “One of SOLUTION4AV’s main draws is their ability to create any blackbox connector you could dream of,” stated Woodall, as he pulled one such example with the ability to connect discontinued camera connector to

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a modern mixer from a drawer. “Often manufacturers would not put the resources into creating bespoke connectors. So, customers can come to us and we’ll put the team on it.” This arm of Lang provides more than intuitive small solutions. Moving to another area of the warehouse TPi got to see some of the cutting edge technology the company creates. It really wouldn’t be out of place in Tony Stark’s office. Take the Tangible Object Recognition (TOR) system, for example; it creates a smart surface where objects are picked up by the LED table and can create real time effects on the surface depending on the markers position - the future is here, folks! As well as pulling inspiration from Sci-Fi, Lang has also made a significant investment in other more practical creations, including their bespoke LED flight cases. Designed to provide the best protection for the product, the cases also have a drawer system which gives customers the ability to test the screen before even leaving the box.

GROWTH OF THE COMPANY Over the decades, Lang has grown its HQ to cover 29,000sqm. However, this is all about to change, the Lang team explained as we sat in the large meeting room looking out over the surrounding Lindlar valley. “One of Lang’s most successful products is the projector frame,” stated Woodall, “Every Panasonic and Epson projector sold uses our frames.” Such is the demand for the company’s metal work, Lang has decided to begin the rapid expansion of the site with a new 35,000sqm facility, almost exclusively for this side of the business.

But it’s not just the expansion of the German facility. The last two years have also seen the development of two new branches of the business in Switzerland and the UK. “Speaking on behalf of the UK office, we have opened the door to a whole list of clients who, prior to the new branch, would not have been on Lang’s radar due to distance. But now with a footprint in the UK we can offer them all the stock and the ability to look at bigger jobs without the headache of sub-hiring another rental house.”

Despite the two new physical locations, Lang is keen to keep the company under one metaphorical roof. “Our entire stock system is connected to the German office,” stated Woodall. “This means we are able to get the entire picture of what is available to our customers, so we can give a quote immediately.”

THE FUTURE One thing struck TPi while walking through the vast expanse of Lang’s main office; The diversity of the staff base. People of all ages and genders were going about their day to day business. “I’m glad you picked up on that,” smiled Chen. “One thing Lang pushes is education.” Chen is actually one of the graduates who went on to become a full time employee at Lang. “During the later end of my studies I specialised in LED aging. Like the other students we have on board I was allowed to move around the warehouse and speak to all the experts to widen my knowledge base.” Although having trainees in a company’s warehouse is not unusual in this industry, what really separates Lang is how pivotal those studying are to the ecosystem within the company. For example, while walking through the testing area for projectors, Chen pointed towards a specially designed sensor board which was able to test the output across a projection beam. This particular product is the result of a student project and is now distributed across the Lang network.

In line with this leaning towards education, part of the company’s offering since 2010 has been the Lang Academy. Since its inception, the Academy has developed and organised seminars to meet the increased demand for continuous training and hosts casual presentations of the latest technology for events and media installations of all kinds. The seminar program addresses technicians of the AV industry and covers the understanding and operation of professional video technology.

40 YEARS STRONG As Lang now enters its 40s, the company shows no signs of slowing down. Just last year it passed the milestone of having employed 200 people - and with the number of students working their way up the ranks, it seems this number is only rising. “But with growth it’s important to remember that employee number one still works at the company,” commented Woodall, alluding to the family nature of the organisation. So, with a fond Auf Wiedersehen, TPi left the Lang HQ happy to have gone behind the scenes of this Pro AV industry backbone. TPi Photos: TPi & Lang www.lang-ag.com

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