As much as Eric Olson likes to talk about where Sonic Equipment Company is headed in the movie industry, he’s just as eager to remember where the company has been and where it is today.
Sonic — builder, supplier and partner of hundreds of cinemas and theaters across 21 states — has developed a niche within the movie industry, helping build or refurbish theaters and make them capable of providing the most advanced “movie magic” on the market.
Through it all, the company’s focus has been remaining an active member within the Iola area, as well as in dozens of other communities throughout its market.
“When we moved out here in 2007, that became our focus, our goal,” said Olson, Sonic’s director of operations. “We wanted to make sure that those little towns that we serviced had the same opportunity that New York, L.A. and Chicago had.”
Doing so meant bucking the industry trend of focusing on large population centers to the detriment of Middle America.
“The adage is that 80 percent of the movie industry’s revenue comes from 20 percent of the screens,” Olson said.
As long as the studios catered to that “80 percent,” they had little concern about serving the rest of the country, he explained.
That stuck in the craw of Sonic leaders, who were insistent new equipment could be developed, and less-expensively so, than devices built for huge movie screens found in big cities, “so Mom and Pop could be able to afford it,” Olson said.
“We had to have something that fit this market,” Olson said. “Fortunately, we were out there in front, and we were selling their equipment,” giving Sonic more leverage in the decision to cater to the Midwest.
Those relationships also allowed Sonic to push for smaller, less-expensive technology.
“I don’t want to say we were the ones instigating this, but we certainly were a voice in that process,” Olson said, as more affordable digital projectors were introduced into the marketplace, and state-of-the-art equipment became accessible to movie theaters in towns such as Iola, Fort Scott and Chanute.
The next step into the 21st century comes within the next month.
Iola’s Sterling Six Cinemas, owned by B & B Theatres, will be equipped with a satellite delivery system certain to transform the entertainment package available at the local moviehouse. The Bagby family, owners of B & B Theatres, also owns Sonic Equipment.
With satellite technology, movies can be “delivered” to the cinema through a digital signal, which is then downloaded onto a library management system — the electronic “brains” of the projector room. From there, movies, previews and any other digital displays can be programmed and sent to any or all of the six projectors with a few touches of a button.
Even more noteworthy, Sterling Six is nearing an agreement with Microspace, a global provider of video, audio and data to theaters around the world, to begin showing live broadcasts of sporting events and other performances.
