Every tour was a new situation. Touring crews contributed and thought up innovative ideas to make something bigger, better, and faster to set up and tear down. The manufacturers kept up with the demand too, not only creating easier to manage and safer equipment, but interviewing road personnel to help them develop new products. The trend of using rock tours to develop and test equipment was the way it was done. 

What follows are some of the early pioneers and their lighting companies, somewhat in a chronological order, or the best that the authors can ascertain as the very first entrepreneurs (or steered by blind faith), to recognize that a new and exciting market

had opened and they wanted to be a part of it. Most everyone we knew starting out in lighting were young, some in their teens and enthusiastic. There was no foundation, nor right or wrong because it had never been done before.