The world is their oyster: with LED products currently on tour with Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pink, and Michael Bublé, SACO is a technology company that continually pushes the envelope to meet the needs of the designers and artists they work with. Live Design touches base with Jonathan Labbee, executive vice-president and COO of this Montreal-based firm, on their innovative approach and global reach.
1. What was your career path (in a nutshell) to your current position at SACO?
I started my career working with outdoor billboard company Viacom (formerly Mediacom). In 1996, I headed up the original sales team that developed the North American market for the SMARTVISION LED video display products. Later, I founded JL Consulting Inc., a successful creative consulting firm that specialized in the use of immersive media. In 2001, I rejoined SACO to head up business development, and help re-direct the focus of the company. In 2006, under my direction, SACO successfully merged with LSI Industries, where I served as vice-president of Business Development and Custom Applications until the original founders and myself had the opportunity to purchase the company back from LSI. Today, I lead the SACO team as executive vice-president and COO.
2. What fascinates you about new technology and pushing the boundaries of what's possible?
SACO has built a reputation for making the impossible possible, and we create unique and innovative media solutions mainly in LED video displays and video lighting. The ride started off in 1997 when we created the very first LED video screen in the market for U2’s PopMart Tour. We consider ourselves explorers of our industry who love to discover the limit of solid-state technology. When we do find the limit, we throttle back a little to create breakthrough products and services that are reliable and sustainable. I believe that the nice thing about limits is that we get to push them a little farther each time. This keeps SACO in a constant exploration of how to best utilize new technology to accomplish the designers’ and artists’ visions. We like to think of ourselves as a visual megaphone that artists and designers can deploy to help communicate their vision.
3. What is the most challenging project you ever did and what made it so, challenges and solutions from a technology point of view?
Each project presents its challenges. Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s design, and sometimes it’s scale. In each case, we use our experience and expertise to overcome the challenge. This combination of achievements and experience allows SACO to push further for our clients and open up opportunities to create even more challenging and unique projects.
One of our more well-known projects that gained a lot of attention is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, where we designed and installed 28km of SACO Shockwave V-Sticks and created the tallest LED screen on the planet. Emaar Properties Dubai, the premiere real estate developer in the UAE, created an initiative to light up the east façade of the iconic 828-metre-tall tower and give it high-resolution video capability across the entire height of the tower. Emaar tasked SACO to design and create a system that would seamlessly integrate within the architecture of the building. Burj Khalifa has a very interesting geometry, and viewing angles needed to be carefully calculated to provide the best view from around the building, but at the same time needed to not be disruptive to the residents and hotel guests of the building. In order to address this challenge, SACO designed six different carrier angles for its V-Stick. The result is a clean, non-disruptive installation that will achieve its mission for the years to come. The LED screen established three Guinness World Records for the largest light and sound show on a single building in 2018, the largest LED-illuminated façade in 2019 and the tallest LED-illuminated façade, also in 2019.
4. How does SACO collaborate with designers, and what are your main areas of application?
SACO’s philosophy is to create toolsets for designers, and therefore, our collaboration with the designer is paramount. It is the collaboration with artists and designers like LeRoy Bennett, Stufish, Marcela Sardi, Lozano Hemmer, and others who comes up with incredible designs that challenge what is possible. This pushes SACO to continuously evolve our technology and solutions to accomplish their vision. Technology should be there to serve the intent, not the other way around. Our main areas of application are tours, architecture, and interactive art installations. Tours currently using SACO's LED video screens include Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pink, and Michael Bublé, to name a few. We service these tours via our touring partner Solotech. When we work on permanent installations, SACO has a network of partners that are local to the project. This has provided us with incredible global reach.
5. What does the future hold in terms of technological advances? What will be the hot new things in the next five to 10 years?
Ten years is a long time in our industry; however, in our opinion, the methods used to integrate technology in projects will evolve to the point where you will no longer feel or see the technology, you will only feel or see the effect the technology is meant to create. This will free the user to fully experience what the designer intended without encumbrance.