Adlib

ADLIB’S NEW FACILITY

ADLIB’S NEW FACILITY

Following a long search for a new Liverpool premises, Adlib opened the doors of its new HQ for a housewarming party on 29-30 January. TPi’s Jacob Waite braved the snow to see how things are done ‘the Adlib way’.

During an unusually snow-stricken week in late January, TPi, along with hundreds of students, engineers and technicians, made the trip to Knowsley Business Park to spend two days at Adlib’s new facility to get an insight into the company’s latest audio, lighting, rigging and video offerings. With over 83,600sq ft to play with, including a large preproduction space, WYSIWYG and programming studio, training suite, showroom, dedicated service facilities and a huge open plan office it is a fantastic investment within the continual development of Adlib.

The first day was tailored towards the education market, enabling students, tutors, and educational institutions to get hands on with product, meet the manufacturers, and attend seminars on emerging technologies. L-Acoustics presented demos of the L-ISA hyperreal sound concept, and Sennheiser showed the possibilities and future of the Ambeo VR mic audio capture system and their 3D immersive audio experience. Adlib’s sales, installation and rental teams were on hand and two panel sessions were hosted by the PSA’s Andy Lenthall to discuss how to get into the industry, career pathways and Adlib’s proven apprenticeship scheme. Adlib’s crew bookers were also available to discuss possible work experience and register opportunities for future work.

The second day was focussed on business and the industry, featuring all of the manufacturers, seminars and demos from the educational day plus giving a relaxed environment for clients, technicians and engineers to reacquaint themselves or really get to know the Adlib team. It was a good opportunity for people to explore the new facilities network and discuss any upcoming projects. For people looking to get hands on, there were many opportunities to try out Adlib’s most recent investments such as grandMA3 consoles, Robe RoboSpots, or even have a go at programming some video looks into a Green Hippo Karst+ system. All with expert advice from their in-house technical team.

The event was supported by many of Adlib’s leading partner brands including – on the audio side – L-Acoustics, CODA Audio, DiGiCo, Allen & Heath, Midas, Soundcraft, DPA, Shure, Sennheiser and Yamaha Commercial

Audio, with lighting and video represented by Avolites, Astera LED, Chauvet, Martin by Harman, Ayrton, Robe, Panasonic plus Canford and many more.

A spectacular lighting and visual show illustrated some of Adlib’s creative visual technology and capabilities, created by a collaboration of their in-house team of lighting and visual designers. This showed off several different lighting fixtures and the scope of the ever-growing video rental department and some of its recent acquisitions including Unilumin LED screen and a variety of media servers.

The new warehouse space has 11m of headroom and several industrial cranes. The general ‘shop floor’ workflow steps into a new dimension of efficiency. This includes designated areas for audio, lighting, rigging and video kit, plus drapes, set and soft goods, specialist rooms for projectors, mics and radio systems, networking and control and a purpose-built stock room.

A massive central prep area is at the hub of the operation, enabling large touring systems to be fully prepped and set up in ‘pre-production’ configurations, while a controlled checking area ensures that all elements from each discipline for the project will leave the warehouse together. The front of the building has over 200 car parking spaces and the loading bays at the back can accommodate Adlib’s ever-growing fleet of vehicles which includes their own artics, 26-tonners, transits and smaller run-around vans.

The new facility is well worth checking out but how did Adlib become the company that it is today and who are the team behind it?

34 YEARS IN THE MAKING Time has flown by since Andy Dockerty established the company in 1984, taking the first steps in building a brand that would grow steadily and diversify to provide technical and production solutions in the UK and across the globe.

Dockerty has brought together a team of people who have built up a

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Adlib Directors: Andy Dockerty, Phil Stoker, Dave Jones, John Hughes, Dave Kay.

formidable reputation as one of the country’s leading rental houses. Some of those key team members include Dave Jones, Phil Stoker, Dave Kay and Roger Kirby - who joined in the ‘90s and have since gone on to become directors and shareholders of Adlib. The addition of John Hughes in 2006 added the essential commercial and strategic edge that provided direction and focus for the future. Some senior management experience was also added recently to provide additional assistance above and beyond the original directors in the shape of Rich Rowley and the next generation of client managers include Tom Edwards, Richy Nicholson and Dave Eldridge potentially providing succession for another generation.

Despite its growth; Adlib is still driven by that same dedication with which Dockerty built the company on. He stated: “Our ethos of people first, still carries after all these years and the team reflect the nucleus of what we’re all about.”

In addition to its origins in audio rental, Adlib now boasts lighting, rigging, video, sales, manufacturing and installation departments, a Scottish operation and a burgeoning service department to support the growing customer base. In addition to specialising in the nuts and bolts of live touring production, Adlib have recently diversified into specialised installation projects and all disciplines are supported by their in-house design division.

“In our expansion, I’d like to think we’ve retained our identity within what and how we do things,” asserted Dockerty. “I believe that is because our team all share our original ethos and it isn’t ‘all about me’ any more, the key members of the team have developed their areas of specialties far further than I could have imagined.”

Key to Adlib’s continued success is its focus on fostering and nurturing talent through in-house training and apprenticeships. Dockerty explained: “We run an in-house mentoring program to ensure that those coming through have a more senior technician to look up to for guidance. Another one of the original team, Marc Peers, has been a key part of this and brought many engineers up through the ranks.

“The occasional recruit may know more about tech than we do.

However, it’s about showing them ‘this is how a gig works’ and ‘this is the hierarchy of people that you need to be aware of’.” He outlined: “Ideally, we take the purism and enthusiasm of recruits, which is fantastic, and teach them the conventions and structure of the business.”

DIRECTORS CUT Phil Stoker and Dave Jones have spent over two decades at Adlib managing, motivating and training the audio team, in what can be a challenging working environment. Stoker said: “Over 10 years ago, Andy had the vision to put a board of directors together who at the time, were pretty young. Andy pulled us into a room and said ‘I want there to be a future for you guys’ and that’s really coming home to roost now.

“The current board of directors is really strong, we have all grown in business together and complement each other well. Hats off to Andy for bringing everyone in and having the belief and foresight to get it together.” On the topic of the new HQ, Jones said: “The building has been perfect for us, there’s nothing huge that we’ve done to change the infrastructure as it’s such a high spec building. It will certainly set us up for the next 10-15 years easy with plenty of space to grow.”

Before moving to Knowsley, Adlib was headquartered in a considerably smaller premises. If you have visited the Fleming Road site over the last couple of years you may have noticed that it was bulging at the seams, boxed off by myriad of mezzanines.

Stoker reflected: “At our old site it was taking us up to 45 minutes to get a truck in and out because of how busy and small the old carpark was. Now it’s just straight in and out.” He continued: “The Knowsley demo rooms are brilliant, and our fantastic new facility allows people to come and witness the kit in action. From a manufacturers point of view, their products will be represented in the highest possible way.”

Despite the astronomic growth, Stoker reflected that very little had changed within the company: “To me, it doesn’t feel any different to when we were eight guys stood outside a small industrial unit. We’re just operating on a bigger scale and we’re still making it up as we go along,”

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he smirked. “When we first came to view this place, we thought it was out of our league and it would never happen and then with a little bit of determination and luck, we ended up pushing it through.”

Jones conceded: “The new place is a great selling point. It reflects our image as a professional company. For a long time, we’ve been considered professional for our work at shows, festivals and stadiums etc. However, if you’d have visited us at our old place – I’d envisage you’d be underwhelmed.”

Director Dave Kay started at Adlib in 1994 on the back of an Electronics and Communications Degree at Liverpool University and working all hours in the student’s union. After cutting his teeth as an audio engineer with Adlib, he now oversees the systems that make Adlib tick and keeps up to date with all of the accreditation that is necessary, “The new site has been an exciting challenge, it took a few months to get the building systems back on line and up to spec after it being vacant for a few years but it is working really well for us now.”

When asked about how Adlib has developed: “The whole Adlib strategy is reinvestment,” he began. “We invest every year in new products and technologies to cater for different markets and diversify our services, this helps us to even out the seasonal variations.” Although, Kay admitted sometimes it’s also about having the confidence to “take a punt”.

He delineated: “Anyone can own and operate equipment but for us it’s about the service we deliver and the people that represent us. We’re proud of everyone that works for us. It’s them that make Adlib what it is.”

Since joining Adlib in 2006, John Hughes’ strategic approach and business acumen led him to quickly join the team of directors aged 29. He continues to oversee the rapid growth of sales and installations, develop Adlib’s business across the board, as well as overseeing operations in HR

and finance. “It’s very much a people-based company and it’s important for us to keep that,” he began.

“It’s difficult when you have over 160 employees, but I think we’re managing. The new site gives us much more transparency and allows us to really focus on efficiencies and driving the company forward. We are re-organising and simplifying the workflows and company structure which was never possible at the old site. Now that the team can work much more efficiently, we can increase our capacity.

“As a board of Directors, we all have different skills which complement each other, we like to focus on the bits we can improve rather than sitting on our laurels and we will continue to create a mix of the right characters to drive forward and maintain the values that Andy has instilled.”

Hughes denoted the company’s culture of nurturing and developing talent commenting how numerous Adlib apprentices have gone on to become lighting designers, engineers or system techs. Hughes stated: “Everyone started coming in at entry level with huge opportunity to grow into whatever role you want, and we try to foster that mentality. It depends on the path they choose, and we try to guide and assist as much as possible by working with mentors and senior engineers.”

ADLIB VISIONARIES The lighting and video departments are headed up jointly by Rich Rowley and Tom Edwards. Rowley has witnessed Adlib go from a small, one-unit complex on Woodend Avenue, Liverpool to its latest state-of-the-art facility. Rowley picked up the story: “It’s such a young, enthusiastic and dynamic team that feels like a family. We don’t have any corporate handcuffs here, there’s the passion, drive and determination partnered with the youth and spirit and that’s what makes it special...”

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Tom Edwards joins Rowley in Adlib’s flourishing visual department. “Rich has been a key person in pushing the lighting and video departments forward and reinforcing professionalism. He’s been hugely influential in such a short period of time.”

Edwards recounted the department’s modus operandi. “There’s a lot of synergy between our departments and the engineers work across all disciplines. Audio has a huge reputation and heritage, so the challenge has been to grow the visual side of the business while retaining the ethos and values refined over 34 years of business.” Despite being in its formative stages, Adlib’s visual department has enjoyed a packed summer calendar. “It’s been by far the busiest period both the lighting and video departments at Adlib have ever had,” said Edwards. “The highlights for me are BBC’s Radio 1’s Biggest Weekend and Rewind Festivals where we handled full production across the three sites. We also worked on the Liverpool’s World Cup Fanzone event, where we had 24 hours’ notice to pull together an event for 10,000 people in the city centre.”

The new space couldn’t be ‘more perfect’ according to Edwards: “The pre-production space has been a particular success. So far, we’ve hosted Deacon Blue and the Kaiser Chiefs supporting them anything from looming up floor packages to a significant amount of programming both live and in our programming/WYG suite. Anything we can do to support and increase efficiency on site is of paramount importance to us. We’ve made improvements across the board in de-prep processes from video walls to intelligent lights. Overall, it allows us to do what we love most. Take a step back; evaluate and improve – a process we never stop.”

Rowley rounded up by stating that it was, “the Adlib ethos” that makes

the company stand out. A sentiment which was echoed by Edwards: “We call it the Adlib Way which is something which Andy has bred into the business for over 30 years. It’s something he looks for in every member of staff at any level.

“There’s professionalism and a way of working that is expected which goes way beyond knowing how equipment works. All of our Account Managers get personally invested into every project. Many ‘clients’ end up as friends – it’s about relationship and an old school way of doing business that we hold close to our hearts. It flows all the way through the company” continued Edwards.

He summed up: “Our engineers are approachable regardless of what discipline they are working for. It is for this reason many of our clients not only like dealing with a particular Account Manager; but also, a particular technician(s). It’s always a fun balancing act, but as always, we do our best!”

THE ADLIB WAY Dockerty has the last word. He concluded: “None of this would happen if we didn’t have the right people. If all the departments were working to a different script, we wouldn’t be here today. As we grow, our objective is to keep our people-based ethos throughout.”

And despite leaving Adlib one wing mirror fewer due to a losing battle the Merseyside snow (that’s a story for another time), you can’t argue with Dockerty’s sentiments… TPi Photos: Adlib, Louise Stickland & Steve Sroka www.adlib.co.uk

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