Lights, Camera, Action

The Film and TV production world is home for us. This is where our company roots started back in 1990. The industry was quite young back then and ripe for talented people with initiative. It wasn't long before Hooked On Power was born from the need of specialised equipment for our film customers.

The brief from one of our first customers was simple- they wanted a generator that was

• Mobile – so they could relocate quickly, several time a day

• Powerful – enough output for the job in hand

• Looks good – it’s all about the look say the film wankers

• Reliable- shooting in the forest at midnight and the generator stops- What!

• Easy to use – we are artists not mechanics

• Safe – electricity is the silent killer you know

But most important it has to be Quiet – very quiet – so quite you can’t hear the generator running!

Hooked On Power – The silent mobile Generator Company how it all started........

We started with 1 x truck mounted super silent generator, then 3 were needed. Then 4 then 5…getting quieter every time

One day a unit manager said

"why not build me a trailer mounted generator that I can tow behind my truck. But it has to be quiet so we don’t wake the neighbors".We can do that - So we built one - "hey we like that, can I have one two?"So we built 2, then 3 - getting better all the time!

Then came - Light towers, Light towers with extra power outlets, 4 wheel drive generators, 4 wheel drive generator with a light tower and a winch.

What’s next…?

Hooked On Air…

Spartacus- Pacific Renaissance latest production series was how Hooked On Air came about. Karl Smith (Studio Manager and close friend of HOP) was discussing the issues with studio temperatures and venting the complaints he was getting from the cast and crew of the production over a beer at our workshop.

Karl said apparently one day they had 350 extras turn up in bare feet and no jackets. Only ½ returned the next day.

Conventional types of heating where just not working. The diesel heaters were noisy and robbed valuable oxygen from the limited air available in the studios and they stunk!

Karl put his beer down and checked out our large load bank we use to load test our generators- (basically a huge electric heater and fan) and asked if he could use it as a replacement, that’s until we turned it on. No way said Karl- ‘that’s far too noisy!’ Not a problem we said- ‘we can fix that.’

Hooked On Air was born and we went to work building specialised air handlers and fan-less heaters for Spartacus. They featured remote control with viable air speeds, adjustable outlet temperature and best of all-no noise. The air handlers where mounted up in the apex of the roof of the studio, well away from the shooting area and pumped the air down to the mobile heaters.

These units are great said Karl- ‘I can push these heaters right up beside the camera and pump nice hot air onto the actors, even when they are in the bath’

Then summertime came around and the situation changed- ‘now we getting to hot said the crew’ bitching at Karl

Again, Hooked On Air came to the rescue and developed and modified industrial sized HVAC units and extractor systems to suck out the hot air and replace it with nice cooled fresh air.

State of the art electronic control systems with remote stop and start digital temp control and automatic start up where some of the features we specially design for Spartacus.

We even developed a stand-by mode controlled by the ‘Red Light Shooting Now’ system used at the studios so that the AD’s could control the whole AC system with a single button.

A special thank you to Karl and the Spartacus production team for all the support they gave us while we developed Hooked On Air- we couldn’t have done it without them.