LAS VEGAS—The Parnelli Awards Board of Directors announces that Richard Belliveau will receive the Parnelli Visionary Innovator Award acknowledging his astonishing career in the live entertainment industry.
Belliveau is a prolific inventor and designer, holds over 100 patents, and continues to design and develop products for High End Systems, a member of the Barco Group. So far his portfolio includes the Laser Chorus, Dataflash, Intellabeam, Emulator, Cyberlight, Studio Color, Trackspot, Technobeam, x.Spot, DL.1 through DL.3, Showgun, Showpix and more.
“He is a true visionary because he pretty much single-handedly changed the industry by building an automated light that was among the first to be sold instead of rented which was accepted and embraced by the touring industry,” says PLSN editor Richard Cadena.
Belliveau grew up as the son of a military man and spent time in many places including England, though he eventually landed in Austin, Texas where he graduated from high school. Belliveau would meet Lowell Fowler when the latter owned Blackstone Audio-Visual, a company that installed audio, video, and lighting systems all over the country. With Bob Schacherl, the three would partner to form what would eventually become High End Systems (HES).
During that evolution, Belliveau would take products they distributed and improve upon them, which lead to creating original products. He first experimented with five-milliwatt lasers, which led to the creation of one of his earliest products of note, the Laser Chorus. It was an instant success. Cutting-edge experiments with the xenon flash lamp led to the Dataflash.
In 1990 he was inspired to create a new automated moving mirror fixture. In an astounding eight months, HES was shipping the Intellabeam, and concert touring would be forever changed. The first major act to take them out on the road would be Dire Straits 1991 “On Every Street” tour. The LD willing to take a chance on the new technology was Chas Herington. Herington was flown to Austin to see the product first hand just prior to that tour.
“What intrigued me was the speed of the mirror,” Herington says. “We ended up taking 70 out on the tour.” Herington also offer insight into what it’s like to work with the man: “I do remember coming out of every meeting with [Belliveau] with my head hurting,” he laughs. “He has this extremely intelligent mind that is married with inspiring artistic vision, which is very rare indeed.”
“Quality of the install and the equipment used was always a first priority,” Belliveau says. “After all how else are you going to get repeat business? In order to make this happen I was fortunate to surround myself with a team of very competent coworkers. I hired many of our first technicians after standing for hours at Radio Shack just waiting for local electronic hobbyist to come into the store so I could ask them if they might like to work in entertainment electronics.”
The DL.1 was another paradigm-shifting product. Touring professionals were suddenly able to take images from DVDs, videos, and other types of media and display them onto a stage, wall, prop, screen, or a set – with complete control over image size and shape.
“Richard’s ideas have always been visionary, and his passion made him persuasive and very focused,” says Fowler. “He just really cares about making products that make people go, ‘Wow.’ Fowler adds with a laugh that Belliveau never developed a liking for “focus groups.” “Richard always thought that was B.S. He didn’t care of people what people thought they needed now – he was always building things that people would need. He is always looking to the future.”
Belliveau’s philosophy has been simple: “We never start from technical specifications in designing new products; they are never designed because we need this color temperature or this or that. No, the only question that matters is ‘What does it take on a stage to cause excitement and to get people motivated?’ If you build that, then the lighting designers will come.”
His interests go far behind just lighting: He’s equally passionate about audio, and the one-time DJ has been acclaimed for the professional audio speakers he’s built in addition to the personal sound systems he’s designed. Also, he has had and rebuilt a dazzling array of classic cars, and his 1960s Corvette wins almost every top car show award it’s entered in. Today Belliveau continues to consult and create products for HES Barco, in addition pursuing other projects.
“Richard is the most incredibly focused and driven person I’ve ever met,” adds Cadena. “When he decided to build the first automated light made by HES, you could see the determination in his face. After six month of the most intense R&D and hard work you can imagine, the first units were built. When Richard makes up his mind to do something, thy will be done.”
Belliveau will receive his Parnelli Award at a gala dinner on November 20 in Orlando. For more information on the Parnellis, go to www.parnelliawards.com.
