Tough gigs for tough times What a week. Like many of you, I spent the majority of the weekend trying to determine which of my clients was in danger of going belly-up. Like many of you, I quit when I realized that the only answer was "all of them." So, needless to say, when I arrived at the office this morning there was quite a group of employees who wanted to talk about the market, our clients, and protecting their 401k accounts. But mostly about our clients. Being located in one of the nation's capitals of the financial markets, many of our clients were in the news last week. I've run AV companies through a recession in the US, and one in Canada. So, while I have no answers for what our clients should do (sorry, Mr. Bernanke) I have a few thoughts on how an AV rental and staging company weathers down times. And here they are: Put the basics out front. There's an old story about a guy who leaves his neighbor to take care of his property while he's away for a month. He's only been gone a couple of days when his neighbor calls him to tell him his cat has died. The traveler breaks down over the loss of his cat, and asks his neighbor "why didn't you break it to me slowly? You could have told me the cat was sick, and then the next day told me that he was getting worse, and then finally that he had died." The neighbor thinks for a moment, and then says "By the way, your mom is sick…." The point is that, during budget conscious hard times, you avoid "sticker shock." Price the basics, secure the show, and upsell slowly. Nuthin' happens until somebody sells something. In the spring, a young man's thoughts turn to love… and in a recession, a company's thoughts turn to marketing. NOBODY can afford to slow down on their sales efforts when times turn tough – so, when you're looking at your portfolio of gigs and wondering which ones will retain their budgets, bet on those concerned with sales and marketing. Help them cut their budgets. Here's my favorite. Over the last three years, I've tripled the value of my favorite client's annual show – by helping them cut the budget. As soon as they announced the need to cut the budget of the show, we went to town helping them – we moved them from a custom-built set to a rental set, from expensive custom banners to a re-useable set of gobos, and from using an expensive outside producer to helping them train internal employees to produce their meeting visuals. Each of these things cut budget from another vendor, and added to our own. They got their budget cuts, and we got a 200% increase. If they're going to cut budgets anyway, don't try to fight it. Instead, help them cut money out of the show – as long as it's someone else's. Be the last one standing. Most important idea: if history serves us as a guide, this downturn is for a definable period. I intend to stay close to my clients, helping them through their various crises, and being the vendor that didn't attempt to desert them for greener pastures. Too many of my contemporaries have attempted to shift markets when their current clients had a downturn – moving them to a market they were less familiar with during times of uncertainty. So, basically: Have you hugged your clients today? JRR
Shure announced the company is shipping the Shure UR1M Micro-Bodypack. This offers wireless audio in an ultra-compact package that is about half the size of most standard bodypacks. It weighs three ounces with two AAA batteries, and it is designed for easy concealment and for use by actors, performers, musicians, and public speakers. This is made for use with the Shure UHF-R wireless microphone system. The system, says Shure, uses the latest version of the Shure Wireless Workbench software. The subminiature device uses Shure's Audio Reference Companding technology for clear audio and a 60-75 MHz tuning range (region dependent), which Shure says is twice that of any other bodypack on the market. This is tunable in 25 kHz increments, and provides a total of up to 3,000 selectable frequencies. In addition, the UR1M offers selectable 10mW or 50mW RF power, up to nine hours of battery life, audio level metering and a backlit LCD display. The UR1M has a suggested retail price of $3,198. For more information, go to http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WirelessMicrophones/us_pro_UR1M_content YES! Submini body packs at reasonable prices that work with existing receivers. You go, Shure.
It's Raining Walls in Zaragoza How to make fluid, reconfigurable architecture? Programmable water walls could be next. An MIT-designed building with walls made entirely of water opened with the Zaragoza World Expo in Spain. High-speed computer-controlled solenoid valves generate "water walls." They can take varying shapes, display patterns, images and even text. And respond to input from sensors. Doors, for example: When you walk up to them, water walls can open, and then seamlessly close behind you. The concept of digital water is like a large scale inkjet printer: The opening and closing of valves, at high frequency, produces a curtain of falling water — a pattern of pixels created from air and water instead of illuminated points on a screen. The entire surface becomes a one-bit deep digital display that continuously scrolls downward. All of the walls of the pavilion are made of digital water, along with vertical partitions on the edge of the roof and inside it. The only solid element of the pavilion is the roof — a high-tech, 400 mm thick moveable structure covered by water. The roof rests on moveable pistons and moves up and down depending on wind conditions. It can also be flattened into the ground, at which point the building disappears altogether. Going forward, new combinations of sensor technology, embedded intelligence, networking, computer-controlled pumps and valves and other new technologies open up the exciting possibility of urban-scale, precisely controlled, highly interactive water." The building contains 3,000 digitally controlled solenoid valves, several dozen pumps, 12 hydraulic stainless steel piston and a digital control system based on open source software. For more information, go to http://www.dwp.qaop.net/?lang=en This was so cool we had to run it, even if it would be really unusual to have the budget and opportunity to use something in a show that would require re-plumbing the ballroom.
Barco Develops Two-Projector, 10-Megapixel 3D Stereo System 3D is truly gaining ground this year, faster than any other previous year, in fact. Case in point: Barco announced the company developed a 10-megapixel setup in passive 3D stereo. Barco says the company optimized the LX-5, a LCoS 10-megapixel projector introduced in 2007, for the passive 3D setup. The setup is called CADWall, a multi-projector display system with a high pixel density, a superflat high-contrast screen, mechanics, and display management hardware and software. Barco claims that requiring only two channels to create a 10 megapixel 3D stereo image is a breakthrough. The passive 3D stereo CADWall setup with two Barco LX-5 projectors debuted at Tokyo's Industrial Virtual Reality show. For more information, go to http://www.barco.com/corporate/en/pressreleases/show.asp?index=2140
I've always loved 3D. No matter how difficult it is to do on a staging basis, the look always wows. Although CADwall isn't a staging product, this shows Barco's reach in 3D really well. Barco Announces Expanded Portfolio for Rental and Staging Barco announced an offering of video and lighting products specifically for live events and fixed staging markets. The portfolio includes digital projection, image processing, indoor and outdoor LED solutions, creative LED, plus a number of lighting and show control products — as provided via Barco's recent acquisition of High End Systems. Barco says the company will establish a dedicated worldwide network of system integrators to serve the fixed installations market. These system integrators will provide local services for the entire range of Barco's video and lighting products. A Partner Program will be established to provide system integrators with comprehensive product training together with product support infrastructure. Barco's most recent project in this market segment is "The Comcast Experience", located in Philadelphia's Comcast Center. As the world's largest four millimeter indoor LED wall, The Comcast Experience is comprised of 6,771 Barco NX-4 LED modules, plus two award-winning Barco image processing products: Encore and DX-700. It is the first time first time that display technology on this scale and of this quality has been incorporated into the architecture of a building, says Barco. Barco says the intention is to present a unified organization to the company's rental partners and to improve the way those partners can work with the company. We've all wondered how the Barco distribution structure would change after the acquisition of High End Systems. Obviously, this is a start at the required unification. I'm truly eager to see what kind of hybrid staging products come from this union, Barco already has quite an array of things that are category leaders in the staging market. Da-Lite Demonstrates 3D on New Virtual Grey Screen, New HD Screen Technology At CEDIA, Da-Lite did a similar 3D in-theater presentation as the company did at InfoComm, but this time it was done using the new 3D Virtual Grey front projection screen as opposed to rear projection. And even though the InfoComm demo film was excellent, this was even better. The images (using stereoscopic projection technology and Da-Lite's polar retention technologies) were quite clear and appeared very close when appearing to be one's nose, and provided lots of depth in 3D scenes.
Well, that's it for this edition of rAVe! Thank you for spending time with me as we muse the industry's happenings. To continue getting my newsletter, or to sign up a friend, click the link below. To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter – instead, write to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial, to Editor-in-Chief Denise Harrison at denise@ravepubs.com rAVe Rental [and Staging] contains the opinions of the authors only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. Copyright 2008 – rAVe Publications – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact Kayye Consulting, 510 Meadowmont Village Circle, Suite 376 – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – 919/969-7501. Email: denise@ravepubs.com |