ETC

The birth of a company

Christmas eve, 1975 an 18-year-old college student pitched the idea of a state-of-the-art lighting console to his college professor.  "We're going to make a lighting console and sell it to the Met!"

With this statement of determination, ETC was born. 

One year later, on Christmas day, Fred Foster, his brother Bill Foster, and two friends, James Bradley, and Gary Bewick, revealed the Mega Cue - the lighting console that started it all.

Twenty years later in 1996, Foster's dream was realized when ETC sold a lighting console to the Metropolitan Opera House (the Met.)    

All grown up 

Christmas Eve 2020 marked ETC's 45^th anniversary, and there's no denying we've come a long way. Now a global leader in the manufacturing of lighting and rigging technology, ETC employs over 1000 people across 10 countries, in 11 corporate, and several home offices.  ETC is proud of its industry reputation for unmatched technical and customer service, 24/7/365. And with a family of over 300 authorized service centers throughout the world, staffed by hundreds of certified technicians, customers are never far from an ETC resource with a face and a name. 

We develop professional tools and make them accessible to everyone. Our products can be found in small and large venues worldwide, such as theatres, churches, restaurants, hotels, schools, television studios, casinos, theme parks, and opera houses.

Foster always said "We have the best people. And when you have the best people, you can never stop growing." ETC's employees constantly keep an eye on technology trends, always asking, 'how does this benefit our customers and how can we improve on it?' We strive to be a resource to our customers with live training sessions, workshops, online classes, forums, videos, news articles, and more.