{{< GalleryComponent id="showco-transportation" >}} In 1978 we decided to purchase a fleet of 16 Ford CL 9000 cab over diesel tractors and twenty 44 foot Matlock air ride trailers and offer trucking services to our clients. Jack Calmes thought Showco should offer all the services of sound, lighting, rigging, staging and set building, lasers, trucking, crew transportation, audio recording and video projection to our clients and sell all-in package deals whenever possible. We purchased the trucks and setup a new division named Showco Transportation.

{{< StoryImage id="showco-regal-row-10-rr-trux" title="Ford CL-9000 and Matlock trailer" caption="Ford CL-9000 Tractor and Matlock 44 foot air ride trailer." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-regal-row-7-rr-trux" title="Crew bus and rented tractor" caption="A rented tractor from ABC Rentals and Showhound the Showco crew bus." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-regal-row-1-rr-trux" title="Crew vans" caption="Custom made crew vans with sleeping bunks. We moved to renting crew buses because the crews did not like these vans." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-4-texas-stadium-trux" title="Showco truck fleet" caption="Half of the Showco 16 truck fleet in a marketing photo." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}}

## Creation of Showco Manufacturing 1976-1978 {{< MultiGalleryComponent galleries="2-products, round-table-dr, 1978-mfg-slide-show, products" >}} In 1976 we formed a new division named Showco Manufacturing Corp that targeted the discotheque market. By the late 70s the U.S. had a thriving Disco scene fueled in part by the popularity of the movie “Saturday Night Fever” and the Bee Gees’ smash hit soundtrack album of the same name. Ron Fox, Jim Bornhorst, John Rea, George Wheatley, Bill Mc Pherson and other Showco staff were assigned to develop and build the audio products that were to be offered for sale in that market rather than for rental. Separate space was acquired where products were developed and produced near the home offices on Governors Row. Fox focused on speaker design, Bornhorst on electronics and George and Bill ran the production shop with Ron. The operation was managed by Gary Sawyer of the Showco Accounting group. Ron first developed a line of full-range speaker cabinets using his patented Pyramid loading technique. The Pyramid 1000 was a 4-way cabinet designed for bi-amplification that approximated a 30 inch cube and weighed 150 lbs. The 18” FerroFluid filled woofer pounded out the bass while the pyramid-mounted four 5” cone mids, five 3” cone highs and four piezo tweets produced a nicely dispersed field. It was our flagship speaker product which sold briskly. The Pyramid 900, 1500 and 1800 were derivatives designed for lower cost or improver response. For smaller clubs and theaters Ron designed the wall mounted 250-S Surround, a full range cabinet with a 15” woofer gap-filled with FerroFluid. The highs were produced with an array of eight 3” cone speakers crossed over at 2200Hz. The cabinet was rated for 100 Watts RMS continuous and had a sensitivity of 94dB SPL (1 Watt pink noise @ 1 meter.) The Model 1100 Full Range Speaker was an improved wall mount 3-way design using a 15” FerroFluid woofer, two 5” cone mid drivers plus two Piezo tweeters. The 1100 could handle 125 Watts RMS continuous and was more efficient at 97dB SPL. The Model 1100 was used in several movie premiers including “Superman” at the Kennedy Center theater and Robert Stigwood’s “Sargent Pepper’s…” with Peter Frampton at Rockefeller Center. For large clubs and venues Ron came up with the massive 250 lb. Model 1700 Low Frequency Speaker and its complement the Model 1405 Mid-High Speaker. Two sets of this pair would certainly rattle your teeth in a club. All of these speaker products were expertly built with quality components including very low-loss crossover inductors and capacitors. The cabinets were all made in the Manufacturing wood shop using laminated MDF or particle board panels with 90º partial miter cuts at the edges. When the mitered edges were folded together and joined to form the boxes the uncut exterior laminate was intact leaving a very clean looking continuous edge. Ron engineered all the tooling and jigs to accurately produce the cabinets efficiently and quickly. Bornhorst’s first task was to develop a highly efficient audio power amplifier utilizing the emerging technology of high frequency switched power. Conventional class AB audio power amps dissipate a significant amount of power as heat during operation, especially at medium power levels. Their linear DC power supplies are designed to output a continuous voltage necessary to produce their maximum rated power. At lower acoustic levels this excess voltage across the output transistors causes high dissipation within the amp. Jim’s scheme was to quickly modulate the supply voltage in time with the power demand on the amp. A 20kHz switching supply could pump up the voltage quickly as the music demanded thereby keeping only the needed voltage across the output transistors and minimizing power dissipation. Bornhorst worked for several months on the concept and learned that the switching technology at that time was not adequate to pump up the voltage fast enough to reproduce a snare pop or other fast transients. This caused undesirable distortion. The project was a failure and was discontinued. However, the learned technology was aptly applied later in the Vari-Lite development of switch-mode arc lamp and low voltage tungsten power supplies that fed a constant load. Bornhorst then turned to familiar signal level electronics as was applied in Showco’s professional rental equipment including mixers and electronic crossovers. The Model S-2500 Stereo Mixer Preamplifier was designed for discos with two high quality magnetic phono amplifiers, a tape deck and auxiliary line level input plus a balanced DJ microphone channel. The Mic channel had a Talk-Over button that smoothly dipped the main program by 10dB allowing the DJ to speak over the music. A 4-band program equalizer and a Lo/Hi Mic EQ gave the DJ good control over his sound which could be monitored with the headphone jack. The stylish walnut grain desk-like enclosure that held the slanting front panel was designed using Ron’s speaker fabrication techniques. The mixer was designed for low production costs and ease of assembly. We sold literally thousands of these mixers to go along with the matching Pyramid Speakers. Jim also developed a line of crossovers or electronic frequency dividing networks to work with Ron’s 2,3 and 4-way multi-amplified speaker systems. The Model S-2501 was a simple plug-and-play 2-way crossover that fit in a one-U EIA rack space. The 2505/2 and /3 were similar in size and function but with plug-in replaceable, custom 2 and 3-way frequency band networks. The 2506 product line provided front panel control of up to four frequency band outputs along with a SPI (signal present indicator) LED. The 2506 utilized the same modular custom frequency band cards as the 2505. A low cost mixer option came next with the S-1600 rack mount Disco Mixer/Preamplifier. This 7” all-metal rack mount mixer featured two Phono inputs, one line level Tape/Aux input and a Mic channel. Cue switches allowed the DJ to preview channels on headphones before including them in the mix. A 4-band graphic equalizer and balance slider, Mic-Over button and two lighted VU meters completed the front panel. The single PCB design was economical for us to manufacture and provided great reliability. These also sold well. Ron and Jim collaborated again on an exceptional product for yet a different market, a home hi-fidelity speaker. Ron did all of the speaker and passive crossover design work and Jim did the testing, both with his ears and his electronic instruments.The beautiful hand-rubbed tung-oiled walnut Pyramid S-200 full-range cabinet employed Ron’s pyramid speaker loading for both the bass and mis-bass bands. The 12” woofer was a down-firing pyramid-loaded sealed enclosure accurately reproducing the 28-200 Hz band within ±3dB. The mid-bass was a rear entry type enclosure with an 8” pyramid loaded cone. The sound was folded forward and expanded by a forward facing pyramid that opened the sound like a horn. Mounted in the mid-bass forward pyramid facets were two midrange cone drivers and two domed tweeters. The system had excellent dispersion and horizontal coverage. A pair of S-200s produced a hologram-like acoustic image in the listener’s mind indicating that the phase response of the system was intact. They were fairly efficient at 91.5 dB (1 Watt @m 1 meter) covering the 28-18kHz spectrum within ±3dB. Rated at 100W RMS continuous these babies could rock your living room. Bornhorst still has a pair of these speakers that are a thrill to listen to. Unfortunately the home Hi Fi business is a swamp of puffery and false claims. Despite a significant marketing effort and excellent performance, including a showing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Atlanta, we were never capable of breaking into profit territory with this product. For promotional purposes we gave many of our sound clients pairs of the S-200s for personal use. Everyone was pleased with the speakers and many hounded George Wheatly for years looking for replacement parts. Many Showco employees also bought the speakers at discounted prices. The Showco Manufacturing sales staff must also be recognized as a remarkable group who worked with the engineers to specify and develop our product line. Duncan Tompkins led the group with two assisting salesmen including Ralph Carabetta, a customer who came to Dallas from NYC to join the sales group. The lovely Becky Bedsole was sales coordinator who dealt with all of our dealers and reps scattered across the country. (Jim and Becky married in 1981 and produce two wonderful children). Production staff included Curtis Hartung who managed purchasing. John Rea, an experienced Showco system engineer, managed the electronics production where a young Doug Hall got his start. Sandy Murrell managed the accounting and kept us all on our toes. Bornhorst and new hire John Covington collaborated on Manufacturing’s two final products in early 1979. John is a multi-talented analog developer that immediately formed a bond with Bornhorst when in 1978 he walked unannounced through the door looking for a job. Becky steered him to Jim. Over BBQ and beer Jim asked John what his favorite op-amp was and his immediate response was “the Texas Instruments TL072 bi-FET”. He was hired on the spot. The Showco M-2510 Master Panel/Crossover was a professional level audio design in a 3 1/2” rack mount unit with 4 frequency bands of controlled output. It could be used as a single ended or balanced device and output a true +24dBm, 20-30kHz. The user-specified crossover bands were set by user-replaceable plug-in cards accessible through the back of the unit. John implemented dual horizontal bar graph VU meters for each of the 4 bands. The top bar graph showed instantaneous peak response and the bottom the 0.25 second averaging response. There were front panel mounted sliders for each band, 4 lighted mute buttons and a rotary Master Output level control. We made only one of the units for marketing purposes. The Model S-2525 Mixer/Preamplifier was a compact 7” rack mount professional quality mixer incorporating advanced features such as two stereo mixing busses serving 6 inputs, a headphone monitoring system combining stereo signals allowing beat matching between the output and any input selected for preview. A two channel LED VU “Miracle Meter” displaying both peak and average levels overlaid. Two LED rows in peak mode could monitor two busses for beat matching by eye. A 3-band Equalizer and Cross Fade slider were among other front panel features. The single board design was by far the most complex either John or Jim had laid out. A single prototype was built and shown at Disco Forum trade show in early 1979 where orders were taken. Showco Manufacturing was closed shortly thereafter as financial pressures mounted and production stopped. Most Manufacturing employees were transferred back to the rental company to help prepare for the upcoming Bee Gees’ “Spirits Having Flown” tour beginning in June of 1979. Excess inventory was liquidated.

{{< StoryImage id="showco-002-showco-mfg-products" title="Manufacturing product line" caption="Showco Manufacturing products including Pyramid 1000 four-way speaker, Model 2500 Mixer, Model 1600 Mixer, and a range of electronic crossovers." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-006-pyramid-1800-speaker" title="Pyramid speaker cutaway" caption="Showco Pyramid 1000 four-way speaker cutaway." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-018-pyramid-hifi-speaker" title="Pyramid HiFi" caption="Showco Pyramid HiFi four-way speaker." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="medium" >}}

Showco History