Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Tourism & Gaming:

Solotech blazes a trail of economic diversification in entertainment industry

solotech

Mona Shield Payne

Pierre Leduc, head of Solotech’s Las Vegas operation, at its 30,000-square-foot warehouse on Dean Martin Drive, says small productions could benefit from its expertise.

Solotech is a perfect example of a Canadian company that came to Las Vegas as a contractor, became an important niche business and, from its Southern Nevada base, has expanded to become a big player nationally with a local address.

It’s a classic business diversification story born in the Entertainment Capital of the World.

“It’s really quite remarkable,” said Pierre Leduc, vice president and general manager of Solotech’s Las Vegas operation. “We grew from a small operation with a few customers to a platform for operations covering the western United States.”

What Solotech does is simple. It provides some of the hardware that performers need to turn a stage production into an only-in-Vegas extravaganza.

It provides audio-video equipment for sale or rent for concerts and performances. That includes amplifiers, speakers, mixers, microphones, consoles, dimmers, cameras and screens. The company also handles rigging and broadcast services.

Leduc said the only performance element Solotech doesn’t handle is pyrotechnics.

Based in Montreal, Solotech had a built-in connection with pop singer Celine Dion, so when she signed an agreement to perform at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, she opted to work with Canadian friends.

Solotech also had connections with Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil. That was all it took to get firmly established in Las Vegas.

So far, the company has designed, installed or supplied equipment for the “Ka” theater at MGM Grand, the Elvis Theater at Aria, Tabu ultralounge at MGM Grand and has retrofitted the Wynn and Encore theaters, the “Love” theater at the Mirage and The Joint at the Hard Rock.

The company opened its Las Vegas doors in 2003 and has been growing ever since. Solotech’s business office and retail outlet on Dean Martin Drive also have a 30,000-square-foot warehouse filled with all sorts of equipment and $8 million worth of inventory.

The company started selling equipment on site in October.

It recently completed a 40-by-40-by-40-foot rehearsal studio.

Although the local Solotech office has only 14 employees, its Montreal headquarters has 350 and is focused on supporting entertainment across Canada and in the eastern United States.

Leduc is optimistic that the Las Vegas office will become a platform for growth, and there are plenty of local opportunities.

Because Las Vegas is the Entertainment Capital and most of the big performances have tour stops here, there’s a steady stream of concerts and shows Solotech can supply.

“I think it was Bono who said, ‘All religions have their Mecca and musicians have Las Vegas,’ ” Leduc said.

In addition to working with festivals and events in California, Leduc sees productions for Las Vegas conventions as an opportunity. There also are some small-job opportunities — Leduc said he hopes to develop some contacts with local taverns and churches to upgrade their audio-video systems.

So far, Leduc enjoys the Las Vegas lifestyle, having lived here for about a year.

“It’s a very welcoming community,” Leduc said of Las Vegas. “It really is a city of (Canadian) expatriates, so it’s pretty easy to blend in.”

Moulin Rouge

In one of those “only-in-Vegas” stories, the state Gaming Control Board last week set the wheels in motion for gambling to return to the historic Moulin Rouge.

No, the historic hotel in West Las Vegas, the first desegregated casino in town, isn’t going to magically rise from the ashes anytime soon. The Moulin Rouge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is in horrible shape, the apparent victim of fires started by homeless squatters.

But the property on which the Moulin Rouge rests is zoned for gaming, and city laws require live gaming to occur on site to preserve that privilege.

So, on June 24, United Coin Machine Co. will open a trailer with 16 slot machines available to the public for eight hours at the site.

The Control Board recommended approval of the nonrestricted gaming license for the site, and the Nevada Gaming Commission is scheduled to consider it at its June 17 meeting.

It’s the fourth time the Moulin Rouge has requested licensing for one day of eight hours of gambling to preserve the gaming rights at that location.

The short-term licensing process has become commonplace with United Coin frequently appearing on regulators’ agendas to get permission to grandfather a gaming privilege at a specific location.

Another company, Capado Gaming Corp., sought the same privilege for a license for the Roadhouse Casino on Boulder Highway.

A representative for Capado told regulators he was going to open 17 slot machines in case there was a mechanical malfunction with one of the machines. That apparently happened the last time Capado set up a temporary casino floor, and officials had to scramble to get the faulty machine to work since 16 is the minimum that have to be open to the public to be eligible for a nonrestricted license.

Paris flights

There was great fanfare for the arrival of the first XL Airways flight from Paris to Las Vegas, but locals looking for deals to fly abroad on the small French carrier have been frustrated in their efforts to get tickets.

Make no mistake, XL is not Air France and the only airline website dedicated to ticketing the carrier directly is in French.

XL has only six jets, two of which have the range to make the Las Vegas-Paris flight. The company offers two flights a week, Thursdays and Sundays, and the seasonal service ends Sept. 23.

CEO Laurent Magnin said that his company’s primary focus is to fly French customers to Las Vegas and back and not the other way around. He suggested that if Las Vegans want to fly XL to Paris, that they book through a travel agent.

One English-language website that offers ticketing on XL flights is OneTravel.com, which last week offered a $1,105 round-trip ticket to Paris, which is $1 more than Continental Airlines’ least expensive one-stop trip to Paris by way of Houston and $5 more than a multiple-airline alliance trip by way of London’s Heathrow International Airport, which means that at least part of the trip is on British Airways’ new Las Vegas-London nonstop.

VEGAS.com baggage free

Baggage fees, one of the new air-travel aggravations, have taken a jab from a local travel website.

VEGAS.com — a sister company of In Business Las Vegas — is offering a baggage fee rebate for flights to Las Vegas booked on the site through June 21 for stay dates through Aug. 31.

Customers must book a qualifying air and hotel package on VEGAS.com to get a rebate check of up to $25 per bag and $50 per order.

Now if only other websites would match the deal the way airlines match ticket prices and promotional offers so that Las Vegas travelers could enjoy a fee-free benefit …

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy