Mark Brown invests in Nocturnal
Published: MEA
UAE: Dubai-based rental company, Nocturnal has a new investor in the form of Eclipse chairman Mark Brown. Formally known as Redeye, Nocturnal is run by Nick Chapman and the investment has allowed the production house to dramatically increase its inventory and headcount.
The investment was for power distribution, lighting and sound. ‘What we started with was upgrading our Nexo equipment by making it into a full system, and some lighting using some of Eclipse’s less used stock,’ noted Mr Chapman. ‘There was some new lighting control with Grand MAs and DiGiCo desks for the audio. It’s basically doubled the size of everything. We’ve doubled our inventory with Mark’s investment.'
Nocturnal’s inventory now includes DiGiCo SD9 and SD11 desks, Nexo 1210 and 1230 cabinets, as well as PS10 and PS15 speakers and CD18 and LS18 subs. Added this is equipment from Electro-Voice, Allen & Heath, Peavey, ARX, Klark Teknik, Denon, Sonifex, TC Electronic, Shure, Telex and a large collection of Motorola radios.
Another of the major new additions is a K-Array Concert Series PA. ‘K-Array is an interesting investment, it’s a new technology and a new perception,’ said Mr Chapman. ‘We’re going through our own research now for all the different applications it could be used for and it’s really interesting.’ Nocturnal’s system consists of 12 KH4s with 12 of the KS4 subwoofers. Added to this are four KO40 single 21-inch subs and a further four KO70 double 21s.
The investment wasn’t just for new equipment, but to also bolster the company in terms of key staff. As such, Nocturnal has employed three new department heads to help run the business.
Mr Brown is keen to point out that this is a personal investment, rather than one from Eclipse. ‘We got together again about a year ago and started talking about the investment from me into Nocturnal,’ he recalled. ‘My view was, how much bigger could Eclipse get? I still have a passion for the audio-visual business, so my thinking was I need to go out there and invest in other opportunities.’
The investment has seen Mr Brown become a shareholder in Nocturnal, and the two companies will now work more closely together. ‘The original plan was that Nick was going to be able to use Eclipse for some of his jobs, and it would give him the ability to have access to Eclipse’s big warehouse, and we thought that’s how it would work,’ explains Mr Brown. ‘It’s actually worked out that Eclipse hires off Nocturnal as much as Nocturnal hires off Eclipse. It seems to be a bit the other way around at the moment, but it seems to work.
‘It doesn’t compete with Eclipse, but it adds a string to both our bows. Nocturnal has totally different customers from Eclipse,’ noted Mr Brown. ‘It’s two different companies and we’re hoping to work closer together. It’s a resource for Nick and it’s a resource for Eclipse. When we first talked about it, I never saw it as being a resource for Eclipse, but as time has gone on it has proved me totally wrong.’
‘We have completely different clientele and the way we are geared up is completely different,’ concluded Mr Chapman. ‘That was the thing that got us together, how different we are. We’re in the same industry but there are many different markets now.’