The stage technology department of New York City Technical College recently received a $780,000, four-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, funding that is being matched by industry support of over $500,00. The grant is being used to create five labs: moving light, sound, entertainment control systems (including show control), scenic motion control, and video systems and projection. The moving light and sound labs are already up and running; the entertainment control systems lab will be online by fall; the motion control lab should be complete around the spring of 2000; and the video systems and projection lab is planned for 2001.
The labs are to be used for the training of undergraduate stage technology students, for continuing education of union and non-union stage technicians in the New York area, for industry workshops, and, in the future, for research and testing. The four-year-old stage technology department now has over 75 students and four full-time faculty: department chair Charles Scott (lighting); John Huntington (entertainment control and sound); James Packard (scenic technology); and Dr. David B. Smith (sound). A fifth full-time faculty member will be added in 2000.