The Grant was presented on November 12 at a special ceremony at the LDI exhibition in Orlando. Martin US vice president of sales and marketing, Eric Loader, commented, "Once again this year there were a large number of applicants with very strong packages which were submitted for consideration. We are very pleased to award this year's Grant to New York City College of Technology. Their Entertainment Technology program which is cutting edge and targeted to the core of our industry will certainly benefit from the award but they will also utilise the grant in a way which will affect a large number of students in a key area of the market."
The Entertainment Technology Department at New York City College of Technology offers a degree programme featuring a Bachelor of Technology. Located in Brooklyn Heights, the college is central to the largest entertainment industry centre in the country. The Entertainment Technology programme trains students for careers as scenery, lighting and sound technicians, technical managers, equipment marketing representatives and personnel for distributors and rental houses in the entertainment industry.
The programme offers additional career options for technicians in the allied fields of film and television production, architectural lighting, display design and construction, trade show exhibition, club, casino and theme park operations, and all related performing arts production.
Charles "Chip" Scott, Professor in the Entertainment Technology Department, said, "The students and faculty at City Tech are absolutely thrilled that Martin chose our college for this year's grant. This next generation of equipment provided by Martin Professional will allow the addition of a course in lighting maintenance and troubleshooting. We have excellent courses for programming, for design, and the intro level, but we are missing the step where students learn the day-to-day, sometimes minute-to-minute, details on how to get the rig up and keep it there, and then make it work the way the client wants it to look."
The Martin Intelligent Lighting Technology Grant is valued at $50,000 and consists of a variety of Martin fixtures and control products. Martin also provides technical training and support for the winning college or university, as well as quarterly seminar's on emerging technologies and application discussions. Each runner up school will receive a Martin ShowDesigner Gold Network software design package.
(Jim Evans)
