Colin Mitchell

Colin Mitchell (Videowall Sales Engineer)

Colin wins the prize for the biggest career change between "then" and "now" !

Following a Marconi Communications apprenticeship, Colin became an electronics engineer in the 1980s. He worked for some years in the sound and lighting entertainment business, and in Feb 1988, went to work for Cameron Video Systems as a Sales Engineer for their Memotech Videowall. Colin got in touch after seeing the Videowall pages on the website and has provided lots of interesting information about his involvement with Cameron/Memotech Videowalls.

Colin describes his involvement with Videowall below . . . . . .

"We competed with the more expensive Electrosonic product and I was responsible for introducing the Videowall product into the entertainment industry where I had many contacts. Sales escalated and [the] venues as you mention, [including the] Hammersmith Palais, were my introductions.

Until my arrival at Cameron, they had been targeting retail outlets for their product but I introduced them to the entertainment industry that was looking for a product that would replace the laser, which was getting tired, and the Videowall coincided with the launch of MTV in Europe in 1987 and the growing popularity of the “music video”.   I was responsible for switching Cameron Video Systems choice of CRT monitor from Hantarex, which were cheap and unreliable, to Barco. This increased the price of the product, but was rewarded with greater reliability and performance.

I proposed the concept of a simpler control panel that would also be more rugged in the nightclub environment and commissioned my colleague Mick Hannaford at Lightfactor/Lightprocessor in Greenford to design a 19” 3U control panel which I named the “Reflex Touch Controller” (I chose the name because the previous keyboard entered commands were slow but the use of a touch panel interface would be “reflex” quick, and more suitable for use by DJs and Lighting Jockeys in nightclubs)."

"I devised the concept in 1989 and used Mick Hannaford's sister company, Rossula Ltd to manufacture the controller. I used Mark Jennings at IDC Ltd to design the artwork for the screen printing of the panel (Industrial Design Consultants)."

"When my sales were running at an all time high (several million per annum), overnight Geoff Boyd announced to Chris Cameron that he was removing their rights for sole distribution of his products*. Cameron offered me an alternative role selling video telephone/teleconferencing equipment but this was not of interest to me and so I resigned and went to work for Memotech directly."

[*Ed. Geoff himself knows that this was an error of judgment and contributed to the demise of the Memotech Videowall business - see my Videowall Overview page for more details.]

Colin was responsible for the Videowall press releases to Lighting & Sound International magazine that I have posted on my miscellaneous Memotech articles page and also recruited Chris Vlassopulos (mentioned in L&SI magazine issue 75) to bolster the Memotech Videowall sales team.  Colin recalls that they avoided the long drive to Whitney every day by working out of an attic room at his house in Shepperton.

In 1990, Colin had a contractual dispute with Memotech and subsequently resigned, Memotech's Videowall sales then started to decline.

After he left Memotech, Colin continued to work in the entertainment industry while he qualified as a commercial pilot. Following  this radical career change, Colin held a number of positions in the airline industry, working for British Airways for over 20 years, until he retired as a Boeing 787 captain in 2023. As I said earlier - definitely the biggest career difference between the Memotech days and now!