Premium Members Peter Abraham Posted February 5, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I've a sad bit of news to pass along and it reaches far beyond the New York City area. For those of us who work in live television, we frequently work in front of mammoth and incredibly precisely designed and mounted video projection systems. These video walls and immense panels become an integral part of our shot composition and we frequently get to make good use of them in our moves. There are but a few very very fine designers and implementers of high end video projection systems. The leader of that pack has died. His name was Dale Cihi and he died suddenly on Sunday night of as-yet unknown causes. I've known him since 1986, when I would hike up to Connecticut to pick up BetaCam packages at his rental house. Once that business collapsed, he got into the high-end video IMAG and projection business. His company is called VideoFilm Systems. He was the go-to for the Republican and Democratic Conventions. For Election Nights. For concerts, for any and all live events. His design work, choices of gear and presentations were remarkable. He was a kindly fellow, intense and just brilliant. Because he knew the impact that very good projection ( fore and rear ) has on events, he was generous with his skills. He personally drove a truck out to Scranton, PA for two different yearly performances of the Ballet Theater of Scranton. My wife gaffed those jobs, and worked with Dale for many years on gigs. He showed up, mounted the best gear he had, and left- without a penny changing hands. Because he knew it would HELP, and it wasn't always about the paycheck. He was- when he ran his video rental house- reknown in the New York / Connecticut area as being the biggest fan of both Brother P-Touch labellers AND Velcro of anyone we knew. And- coming from a Steadicam Operator- that was something. He collumated his own broadcast video lenses. Such was the level of his engineering acumen. ( He was also the ONLY rental engineer I ever met who put Shock Alarms onto the lens, body and deck of a BetaCam. Smart ! ) Dale worked all over North America and into Canada. He may have done overseas work as well, I don't know. A tip of the rig and a moment of silence for a superb technician and gentle caring human being, gone from our midst and from the countless crews he was a member of. Miss you, Dale. Best to all, Peter Abraham, S.O.C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Rob Vuona SOC Posted February 5, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Sorry to hear of his passing Peter, sounds like a great guy that the industry is for sure going to miss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mike Germond SOC Posted February 5, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I and all my technical colleagues at NBC Sports in Orlando are bummed to hear of his passing. He built some of the craziest projector mirror rigs in our studios, and we still use them every day. He built us a 27ft diagonal rear projection system with an erector set of mirrors and rigging to blend 3 Christie projectors...all so we could play golf on Live TV. He's told me many stories about his career, most can't be repeated in a public forum. What a character! Here's one piece of his work being destroyed during a taping. We keep having to rebuild it, and Dale had a good story to tell other clients: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Sanchez Posted February 28, 2014 Report Share Posted February 28, 2014 Sorry for your loss, thoughts and prayers go out to you and his family and friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Gentile Posted October 13, 2019 Report Share Posted October 13, 2019 Peter Five years later I find myself reading this for the second time in an attempt to rent some projection equipment from who I assume took over Dale's company, his son Justin. No response from a text with his voice and his mailbox is full. It is a sad reminder of what a wonderful, kind human being Dale was. I rented countless systems from Dale but moreover, he was a friend. One of a kind, always willing to help and always putting his heart in everything he did. I think of him often, specially when 'I am in a bind and need a creative solution to a production situation that borders on the impossible. I have always wondered about his cause of death as it was so sudden. If you know where I can contact Justin, please reply to this thread. Thank you, Mark Gentile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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