Training is Expensive, but Cutting Training is Suicidal
By Joel Rollins, CTS-R As I sit here, the final month of the year about to begin, I am wondering what this year has actually done to the rental and staging industry. One thing for sure, it’s been healthy, if you look at Darwinian Selection as a healthy thing. But I suspect that depends on which of the branches of the species tree you wind up on – the ones that come to an end probably don’t think of it as healthy.
On the positive side, those of us who embraced a low fat diet learned to thrive on it. We’re leaner, and, I’m afraid, meaner. The few I know of who didn’t make adjustments are learning to say, “Would you like fries with that?”
On the positive side, a lot of great new technologies came to market, and most of us push ahead with them, although the sales job has gotten tougher. That scene is slower, but we’re still making plans to modernize our rental fleets, albeit more slowly than before, especially as most of the new technologies hit rental where they live. Forget the fancy new menus – forget the whiz-bang marketing claims. Talk to people like Midori Connolly, who is the most outspoken — an understatement, Midori 🙂 — person in the “green” revolution in staging. We’ll continue to buy these technologies, although at a slower pace, not because of features, and not because of tree huggers, either. We’ll buy them because the numbers will force us to in times like these. We’ll buy them because they’re less expensive to operate. And, truth to tell, although it’s often the first place we look to cut, that cut doesn’t last long. We can’t stop buying and renting new technologies, it's what we do. And, truth to tell, technology and equipment acquisition is not a big factor in our budgets. In every rental company I know of, including mine, equipment spending has ALWAYS been dwarfed by other costs. So let’s talk about the real economic issue that affects the future of our companies, and just buy the new projectors and get on to what the real issues will be. Lets stop re-arranging the deck chairs by acting as if not buying new equipment is an actually viable approach for a rental company in the long run. It isn’t.
The real issue, as always, will come in the form of people. My CPA, who has followed me through a couple of companies and is one of the smartest guys I know, says it bluntly. Expenses are produced by people. Long term expense cuts, which most of us are working on, involve having fewer of them, or having them cost less money. That is fine at the base level of skill. Most of the newer technologies WILL require fewer people to operate.
But at the highly-skilled level, we’ll have a problem. Those people aren’t going to cost less. Sure, we’ve cut their raises and even given them salary cuts for a while. But in the long run, even though we'll try as hard as we can to keep those salaries down, they aren’t going to cost less; they’re going to cost more. Because as we inevitably lose them, even if we keep them until retirement, there are going to be fewer of them because we’re not helping to create new ones. We’ve made the most long-term irresponsible cut of all, myself included.
The first place we always cut is travel and expenses. We still think of them as luxuries (although those of us who DO spend time on the road, Mr. Accountant, don’t see it that way). But the real issue here is the topic I’ve been on a soapbox about for 25 years.
We’ve cut training.
In the long run, this will end up producing a more expensive (if available at all) class of tech who can write their own tickets. Salaries, expenses, even if they’ll stay around for the show, strike. It happened after the last two recessions. I was once one of those guys.
But we’ve even cut it to the point that our own (for most of us) industry association, InfoComm, has stopped offering an advanced designation in rental and staging. It isn’t economically viable; not enough people come. Recently they returned to it, a little, by hiring Andre Lejeune, an incredibly talented guy. I’m one of his biggest fans. But that isn’t a program, and not having had one for several years now, isn’t catching us up.
Which I suppose must be OK with us anyway, since we cut costs and weren’t buying: InfoComm didn’t end the CTS-R program, WE did.
But that lack of investment will hurt us in the long run. I held a number of bosses over a barrel once. I can see it happening to me, just like arthritis, in just a few years.
We have to cut costs. But we can’t STOP. It will kill us in the long run, even if holding those costs down in the short run feels good.
Manufacturers, and other organizations, attempt to fill the gap. My friend Gary, who I disagree with on many subjects, I agree with here. An investment in training — albeit a careful one — is the best investment we can make in holding down our future costs. And he spends a lot of his life on the road, teaching courses for manufacturers and distributors, most of which are free. We can still get it done, even if it happens in bites rather than meals.
Training is still out there. In our next issue, I’m going to talk with several of the sources – most notably key manufacturers, and associations that are already in it or newly offering programs, and try to give a bit of a roadmap for the journey forward.
In the meantime, I know budgets are due soon. Do us all a favor, and leave a little in training expenses.
Training rental techs is expensive. Not training them is suicidal. rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS-R, is General Manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com Back to Top |
EPSON Ships Their Brightest Projector Ever The $20,000 PowerLite Pro Z8000WUNL (geez, put a dash somewhere in that model number) is now shipping — and they have told rAVe that it’s an exclusive product only available to Pro AV dealers. Spec’d at 6000 ANSI lumens, the WUXGA projector (1920×1200) offers up a 5000:1 contrast ratio, a unique liquid cooling system (something that reminds me of the early days of CRTs) and features Epson’s high-aperture 3-chip 3LCD technology.
The PowerLite Pro Z8000WUNL is great for rental as it includes a center-mounted lens design as well as +/- 70 degree vertical and +/- 20 horizontal shift.
Read all the specs at: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63085207
Once again, it’s nice to see manufacturers putting specs that matter to stagers right up front – like the available tilt angles. In the past, we’ve had to wait on the phone with manufacturers forever, only to find out we’d have to check it out ourselves, and then to be asked to tell them when we knew…
–JRR Back to Top Christie Launches DLP-based MicroTiles, a Modular Display System Calling it the “New Digital Canvas,” Christie launched their MicroTiles last week. Previously only shown in Beta privately, the MicroTiles are now an official product of Christie’s and they will certainly not only revolutionize displays with a creative system that can be as small or as large as you want (and virtually any shape or form-factor), but this may help rejuvenate a market (projection) that’s been totally decimated by price wars. Why am I so bullish on them?
Well, Christie MicroTiles are modular digital display tiles that can be stacked and clustered like building blocks to create display walls of any shape or scale, using an entirely new, advanced optical design that produces unparalleled levels of brightness, contrast and color reproduction.
The Christie MicroTiles system is very unique as it’s not a set size, resolution, format or aspect ratio display. In fact, you start with one tile (16” x 12”) and can build from there (horizontally or vertically) to build the size and resolution of the display you want. Want a giant wall? Simple – stack ‘em up! Want a small meeting room display that crosses two walls at a 90-degree angle, simple – stack ‘em up! Using an LED-lit DLP-based system that’s been around for years in all sorts of projection options, Christie is leveraging both somewhat new (LED) and proven (DLP) projection technology. LED is new (though not really to Christie, who has been putting out LED products for a year and a half), but has enormous life potential (specified at 65,000 hours). By coupling it with DLP, you get a display colorimetry that’s one of the most popular in the world and is reliable with more than 10 years of TI-based technology behind it. In addition, because the MicroTiles also feature a fairly shallow depth (10 inches) and require just 2 inches (50 mm) of minimal clearance for rear ventilation, they can be placed in a lot less space than any other rear-screen technology. But, one really cool feature (for ProAV geeks like me) is that Christie engineered the MicroTiles to be fully and easily serviced from the front, so you never have to go around the back after they are installed. And, Christie says they are “self-aware” – meaning that time-consuming and costly color calibration normally needed to keep conventional “video walls” looking uniform is automatically completed by the sensors built into the MicroTiles. And, obviously, LED-based lighting helps with uniformity too!
If you want to see this for yourself, go to: http://www.christiedigital.com/microtiles
Or, we have the exclusive link to the brochure on MicroTiles if you want to download it and pass it along
OK, this item has a lot of excitement built into the press release, I admit – but I AM excited about this product. There have been too many shows where we had to make resolution and color allowances for the use of an LED wall – even some where I missed my old Toshiba videowall cubes. I don’t have any hands-on experience with Microtiles yet – but I’m looking forward to it.
–JRR Back to Top Sanyo Debuts LCD Projectors Aimed at Digital Signage, Large Venue In a first for Sanyo, they’ve specifically targeted the DS market in the release of two new high-brightness projectors — the PLC-XM150 and the PLC-XM100. Specified at 6000 and 5000 ANSI lumens, respectively, the PLC-XM150 and the PLC-XM100 are designed with what Sanyo calls an Active Maintenance Filter which contains 10 filter rolls that change themselves automatically when needed, making for a 10,000-hour filter system in each projector. Also designed for large-venue applications (auditoriums and lecture halls), these projectors could find their way into small arenas and student unions where video projection is required and could be justified with a digital signage advertising network that pays for the system.
To learn more about each projector: http://us.sanyo.com/Projectors-by-Market-House-of-Worship-Classroom/PLC-XM150-L Filtration became REALLY important to me after I had to replace the LCDs in a Barco 9100 Light Cannon after they were clouded by hazer fluid. So bravo, Sanyo.
–JRR Back to Top Christie Digital Releases Industry's Top Digital Cinema Line At Showeast, Christie three weeks ago debuted the Solaria Series 2K and 4K-Ready Solutions, its next-generation digital cinema solution, with the launch of the Christie CP2220 digital cinema projector. Recognized as "the future of digital cinema," the projector features Texas Instruments' next generation DLP Cinema technology and an optional integrated 2K/4K media block. Christie's next-generation 4K digital cinema projectors will display 4096×2160 pixels of resolution. While maintaining support for 2K external servers, these new models allow exhibitors to easily project 2K or 4K content, giving them the widest choice in digital cinema options.
The Christie CP2220 is the first in the new series of digital cinema projectors that also includes the Christie CP2210 and the Christie CP2230. The Christie CP4220 and the Christie CP4230, introduced in June, are the Company's premium 4K projectors and among the brightest in the world. Like the 2230, the 4230 is capable of delivering over 30,000 lumens on the largest screens and delivers breathtaking 3D images. All next-generation Christie digital cinema projectors continue to utilize Christie Brilliant3D™ technology providing the ultimate 3D experience with the lowest cost of operation.
This is Christie’s first digital cinema video quality projector available to ProAV projectors to use in (not your average) staging applications.
To learn more about the new Solaria line, go to: http://www.christiedigital.com/AMEN/Products/ChristieSolariaSeries.htm
“Not your average staging application” is right. But having this kind of resolution and performance to look forward to in the rental market is nice, especially as multi-windowing processors and effects switchers grow in use, making the resolution of a 4k machine inevitably necessary…
–JRR
Back to Top Barco Launches LED-Based Rear Projection Video Wall Calling it a 24/7/365 application rear-screen projection wall, Barco launched the new LED-lit OL Series. The series has what Barco calls Sense6 — a sensor technology which co-ordinates across multiple rear-projection modules to provide brightness and color stability over time and across the entire video wall screen. According to Barco, an integrated spectrometer continuously measures brightness and color characteristics of the full visual spectrum. Sense6's algorithms monitor the outputs of these spectrometers in real time and then dynamically and automatically adjust all the projectors of the video wall to generate an image that is most suited for viewing by the human eye. Unlike factory-calibrated systems, the OL continuously measures and adjusts color and brightness in real time and therefore requires no maintenance or manual adjustments.
To learn more about the product, go to: http://www.barco.com/en/broadcasting/product/2167 Color drift has always been the bane of the multi-unit projection wall – but auto color and brightness matching is changing all that. Although not as much of a problem in Rental applications, as they tend to be short-run, it’s always a handy feature to have, and further development means we’ll see it in more and more models.
–JRR Back to Top Sanyo Launches 12K Lumen Projector Sanyo is using a two-lamp system in a projector, the PLC-XF1000, to get what they say is 12,000 lumens brightness and a 4000:1 contrast ratio. Equipped with Sanyo’s Active Maintenance Filter (AMF), which automatically changes the projector’s filter when needed, PLC-XF1000 projector is the second Sanyo model to be equipped with their proprietary QuaDrive optical engine which, on addition to three individual RGB panels, adds an additional color control device that allows the PLC-XF1000 to automatically control the amount of yellow light in the image, producing what we saw at InfoComm as higher luminosity with improved color accuracy and clarity- over traditional 3-color LCD. The PLC-XF1000 uses two high-output 330-watt lamps.
To learn more about the $25,000 WUXGA projector: http://us.sanyo.com/News/SANYO-RELEASES-NEW-TWO-LAMP-PROJECTOR-WITH-INNOVATIVE-QUADRIVETM-OPTICAL-ENGINE-FOR-IMPROVED-COLOR-REPRODUCTION
As Sanyo has refined its high-output products, we see more and more of them in Staging, where they offer an excellent price-performance ratio.
–JRR Back to Top rAVe's Founder to Speak at E4 Show in NYC; rAVe NOW to Cover Show Live Almo Professional A/V, a value-added distributor of professional audiovisual integrators, dealers and consultants, announced that its upcoming E4 AV Tour, which kicks off on December 8 in New York City, will be accessible to partners nationwide both live and on-demand. By registering, partners will have remote access to the traveling reseller training and networking event via rAVe NOW’s Twitter, video and blog updates. Session materials and product information will also be housed online after the event.
rAVe reporters will be on the show floor interviewing representatives from each exhibiting manufacturer and streaming those interviews and product demos on the rAVe NOW website, while providing instant coverage of the program with Twitter updates. In addition, E4 keynote speaker Gary Kayye will wrap up the show on the rAVe NOW blog. Information from the training sessions will also be posted on rAVe NOW after the event.
To sign up to attend Gary’s Keynote Address, go to: http://www.almoproav.com/events/e4/registration.aspx
If you can’t attend the show and want to follow it on rAVe NOW, go to: https://www.ravepubs.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1631&Itemid=221 Back to Top For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe Rental [and Staging] out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the rental and staging industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions — in this case, it’s industry-veteran Joel Rollins' opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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