Broadcasting live from ESPN’s studios in Bristol, Connecticut, SportsCenter’s Scott Van Pelt moderates on a set built by Mystic Scenic Studios.
Based in New England, the 30-year-old company has combined custom millwork services for high-end restaurants with broadcast and theatrical scenery builds for major TV studios, including CBS, CNN, ESPN and FOX.
Most recently, a completed set for Bloomberg in Dubai made its way through the Mystic Scenic Studios shop. The team of 128 receives the blueprints from a design firm, then takes the drawings to the shop floor — complete with CNC machines and four spray booths, as well as metal fabricators, woodworkers and finishers. From high-gloss automotive finishes, to blackened raw steel, to pieces theatrically painted to look like reclaimed wood, the capabilities of Mystic Scenic Studios’ finish and scenic paint departments need to be extensive.
With such intricate scenery design comes a need for high-quality finishing equipment. A pair of decade-old Open Face Spray Booths from Global Finishing Solutions (GFS) was not cutting it for the company, so Mystic Scenic Studios started looking into enclosed spray booths with an added heat option.
“With an Open Face Booth, you get too many particles in your product and in the finish,” says Alex Quartarone, head of the finish department. “Additionally, being based in New England, we are faced with cold temperatures, as well as heat and humidity. It doesn’t really work when you’re trying to cure paint.”
In order to keep up with the quality demands in the industry, Mystic Scenic Studios purchased a pressurized crossdraft General Purpose Paint Booth from GFS and their local distributor, Norris-Wiener. Two features that sold the company on their GFS booth were the spray booth working height that is taller than other spray booths on the market, as well as the Air Make-Up Unit (AMU).
“The Air Make-Up Unit on our new General Purpose Paint Booth will help us combat the crazy New England weather and make our finishes even more beautiful,” says Allie Gillaspie-Williams, project management assistant
Mystic Scenic Studios is looking forward to putting out more quality products, faster, for their customers and businesses.
“The turnaround time is so much greater with our new General Purpose Paint Booth. We were sitting around waiting for things to flash off and get dust-free. Now, with the heated AMU, production costs and time is where we are really going to gain,” Quartarone says.
