A Light in Stony Point, Family-Owned <br>Lighting Services Inc Adapts to the Times
Posted by Kerri Galgano on Thu, Jun 10, 2010 @ 02:11 PM
Wall Street Journal, Published June 7, 2010, By Demetria Gallegos
In the early heyday of television, Marvin Gelman tried to take a leave of absence from his job as lighting director of "The Tonight Show" starring Steve Allen.
"NBC told him, 'Are you crazy?' So he left," said Mr. Gelman's son, Daniel. Marvin Gelman wanted to get out of the artificially lit studio and study daytime lighting conditions. He explored the use of theatrical techniques such as color, key and fill lighting in retail stores, founding Lighting Services Inc in 1958. There, he built a reputation on store window displays, designing installations, selling the company's products and installing them himself.
Today LSI, based in Stony Point, about an hour north of the city, turns $20 million in annual sales on its track, accent and display-lighting systems, said Daniel Gelman.
Their fixtures are installed all over the world and include the overhead lamps at the Empire State Building ticket area, illuminating weary tourists in line for the ride to the top. They're also lighting galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian; the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Las Vegas and Spain; the Disney theme parks in Asia; the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.; the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn.; and the international terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport.
Mr. Gelman is proud that LSI's work is featured in so many museums, retail settings and houses of worship. "Those are the kind of things that burn our candle bright," he said.
"They're among the premier manufacturers of track in the world," said Larry French, a principal at Auerbach, Glasow, French, a San Francisco-based architectural lighting design firm that has partnered many times with LSI. "They make a very high-quality product."
He added that family-owned LSI is a "rare animal" in the lighting world today. "The relationship is personal. They do things because it's the right thing to do, not because it tallies out on a balance sheet."
Daniel Gelman, 49 years old, grew up working on the assembly line during summers. He studied some marketing and administration in college, yet had no plans to make a career with the company. But the "people side" of the business, including a chance to work with some of the talent in the lighting-design field, drew him in.
He took over as president and CEO in 2000. The company now has about 110 employees. Mr. Gelman's standard poodle, Hanna, roams the 50,000-square-foot manufacturing, shipping and warehouse facilities, and a three-foot gong rings at least a few times a week, he said-every time a $50,000 sale comes in. Although some components come from overseas, LSI's product line is manufactured and assembled domestically.
LSI's strength is designing customized solutions for architects, engineers and lighting designers. "We're not over the counter," Mr. Gelman said. "We are listeners, we understand the needs and what our customers want."
Steven Rosen, president and principal of Available Light in Boston, which worked with LSI on the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., among other projects, has seen that collaborative philosophy firsthand. "They talk personally to the people who are using the equipment and understand the needs of the specifier or designer," he said. "If I have an issue, whether it's positive or negative, I can pick up the phone and call Dan Gelman. I can't call the CEO of a conglomerate and say, 'I don't like that downlight you sent me.' "
LSI receives buyout offers "all the time," said Mr. Gelman, who used to entertain them to learn what he could. "I don't even talk about them any more because I have no inclination to sell. We have a lot of fun here. We love what we do."
Mr. Gelman welcomes the challenge of staying current in a changing field. Incandescent technology, long the foundation, is finally giving way to new sources with environmental benefits such as metal halide, compact fluorescent, and LED lighting, which until recently hasn't produced a satisfactory quality of light. Now LEDs are the best aesthetic solution in some cases, because the color temperature and intensity can be controlled, and they emit more useful amounts of "white" light, instead of the more familiar colored LEDs.
These maturing technologies make all the difference for clients, Mr. Gelman said, especially in a museum or retail setting. If the lighting isn't right, "it's going to look strange, so psychologically you may not reach in your pocket to spend money."
The firm's reputation for standing by its products was evident recently at the Oakland Museum of California, said Mr. French, when "the contractor made some field decisions that, shall we say, were improvised. It was a contractor problem, but LSI really came to the table with a fix."
For more information on Lighting Services Inc, please visit: www.LightingServicesInc.com.