We are very happy to announce that we
will now be supporting trade shows, meetings and other
presentations by providing quality 55″ LG LCD LED televisions for
rental.
This 55″ television features an ultra
slim panel depth, a 1920 x 1080p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate,
100,000 / 1 contrast ratio and accepts; HDMI, USB, RF (Cable),
component video, VGA, and 1/8″ audio input.
Rent
this unit now with a standard base, or add our rolling adjustable
height television cart.
We were able to help out with the celebration for the 1420 Bengali New Year this May 11, working together with the Marlborough Community Association.
We set up four light trees, with each tree having its own four lights. With these sixteen lights, it seemed a great opportunity to exercise creative liberties.
We alternated DMX addresses when daisy-chaining the lights – for a total of seven unique addresses. Though the DMX mixing board we used had 16 channels, there were two specific lights we’d used in which the colour red was assigned to the first fader (as opposed to the fourth, which was usual with the other lights). So, we couldn’t just easily work in increments of 16 when assigning DMX addresses. To resolve this, we added four to the addresses on both of the side-fill lights to match the code of the other lights – allowing for more control to the individual mixing the event.
Also, as requested by the client who would be tech’ing the event, we assigned the O-Beast light to the sound-activated function.
(Long-exposure [2 second] shot of the O-Beast’s range of lighting.)
As there were a lot of attendees, we had to also ensure that equipment and gear was safely covered, and wouldn’t pose a tripping a hazard. After sharing gaff tape with the organizers, it ran out pretty quickly. One of the organizers was nice enough to find us a whole roll while we were still setting up for the event, allowing for us to continue taping down the cords and cables, as well as the legs for the lighting stand tripods.
All in all, it was an excellent event. We were kindly offered some spicy food during the event clean up, which was lovely.
Happy New Year!
Last Saturday, we worked with Urban Audio to set up for Toyota Scion’s presentation at the Driven 2013 car show.
Congratulations are in order for their Best in Show awards – both Interior for their 2011 Scion TC and also Commercial Display which we’d helped to coordinate.
2011 Scion TC – Best in Show – Interior – Mike Boldt/Stampede Scion
2011 Scion TC – Best in Show – Interior – Mike Boldt/Stampede Scion
Best in Show – Commercial Display – Stampede Scion
We ran 10 Chauvet SlimPAR 64 LED lights across a 32′ horizontal lighting truss and six uplights at the bases of each section of vertical truss. When the lights are aimed right the truss illuminates the vehicles and keeps the audience’s focus on this display.
After setting the most accessible light to serve as the Master, the other lights followed suit for a steady lighting fade and gradient into various themed colours.
Working with One Night Band and the Clear Water Academy for their 16th annual Go Fish! gala, we were very excited to bring both visual and audio elements to the event.
We ran four Mac 250 moving heads on a lighting truss, adding a water ripple effect for visual ambience to suit the theme of the evening. This was complimented by two illuminating lighting trees, adding eight PAR 64 lights which were hooked up by the band leader to American DJ’s " mydmx " and a tablet. This added digital technology made lighting scenes easier to configure and incorporate.
A novel element to the show was a silent auction which offered the winner to join the band in singing a tune. The winner was understandably shy, so the band went ahead and performed the song.
All in all, the show was well received! We enjoyed helping to create a dynamic live show and embracing challenges that new technology presents.
Over the weekend, we mixed for Lashkara 2013 - a fundraiser for the Children’s Wish Foundation which raised more than $14,000 for the foundation!
Elisha Jackson, pictured left, is a fundraising coordinator for the Children’s Wish Foundation. She says, “This is the first event like this that the Children’s Wish Foundation has been a part of in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.”
The audio was a bit tricky to deal with for this event, as there were a few people switching microphones and there were so many bodies in the room. Considering this challenge, our on-site sound technician says this vocals are always the toughest.
“You can only add so much gain,” James says. So we’d tested the threshold during soundcheck to see what may cause future feedback – such as the microphones being too close to the monitors, the gain being too high, or having to scoop out certain higher frequencies.
We were also able to mic a few other instruments – such as a harmonium, pakhawaj, and a few other percussion instruments.
The challenge with mic’ing instruments like the pakhawaj is that the attack of the instrument is so strong, but there are also the resonating low-to-mid frequencies. So we’d scooped out the high-to-mid frequencies, yet were careful to include the booming lower frequencies.
We’d also stopped to interview a young videographer, 12-year-old Simran Ghotra, who was controlling the centre-stage videocamera at times. He’d politely asked us if he could run audio from our mixer, which we were certainly able to help out with. Their power cable was two feet shy of reaching the wall in a high traffic area, so we’d also provided two power bars we’d had handy to reach the outlet – then used gaff tape to hold them down, with red tape on top to bring attention to it as a potential hazard. Nobody tripped, and we were able to hide the power cord under people’s seats as well.
Asking him if there was any song that sent shivers down his spine, he’d responded with one of the toughest answers I’d heard yet. “There is no song that sends shivers down my spine,” Simran says.
Another challenge we’d faced was balancing the intensity of the lights – there’s certainly a fine line between allowing folks in the audience to see, and burning the retinas of the performers. After a few songs, we’d realized that with the equipment specified for the event wasn’t ideal – so worked with the coordinators to get side lights turned on. We could then lower the intensity of the lights on the performers, and the audience in the back was able to see.
Overall, it was a great event with plenty of dancing and donating. We were proud to be a part of the success of the event, and wish the best to Children’s Wish Foundation and the hard-working organizers who put it all together.
Behind the Scene Podcast – Episode 57
Sarah Erickson is a busy entrepeneur.
Photo courtesy of Glenn Kelly.
Not only is she the event coordinator with her own Sparrow Tree Productions, she also started the event-and-eco-friendly Green Calgary.
Sparrow Tree Productions works with artists, musicians and does special event production and publicity in town, which Erickson describes as, “an everchanging project that started about a year and a half ago over coffee.”
She’s recently been putting on shows out of her own home – about two concerts a month – which started as a housewarming party. In fact, they’d just celebrated their first birthday with the Cliff House!
She says the main difference is between hosting events at third-party locations and her own house is “the amount of connection and energy you put into the event.”
At an alternate venue, she says you bring yourself and things you do to the venue, whereas when you put on an event from home you have the opportunity to share your space with other people. She says that you also have to work a bit with your neighbourhood – including acknowledging their concerns, and even look to include them.
“The main focus of what I’m doing is making sure everybody has the opportunity to contribute,” says Erickson.
“There’s something in each of us that attaches to the sound. I cannot tell you exactly what it is that allows me to connect with music, because it hasn’t always been that way. Whether it’s from your soul, or your heart or your imagination or somewhere else – I’m not sure where that connection lies.”
Erickson also started the Green Team, inspired by her work with the Calgary Folk Music Festival.
“The fondest memories come from meeting the people that I have [at the Calgary Folk Music Festival] – they’ve become some of my dearest friends and inspirations.”
“It’s a dirty job, it’s a tough job – you’re working with trash all day. The best part of it is that you’re educating people on their (environmental) impact… Talking to people about their garbage is actually quite fascinating, because a lot of people don’t understand.”
With her current project, she plans to “inject as much love into it while we can, and while it’s ours,” and says her most important goal right now is “acquiring a really solid group of people who support what [she's] doing, and are willing to devote time or energy… without really knowing what the payoff is supposed to be.”
We had the utmost pleasure in working with Digital Lifestyles and the Rainbow Society of Alberta for this year’s Rockin’ the Rainbow fundraiser.
Pairing up with KLM Backline and Urban Audio, we had set up and mixed roughly 25 speakers and more than 30 lights across the stage and suspended light truss – co-operatively sharing equipment and (at times) working on-the-fly to ensure that the show progressed smoothly.
We mixed about 18 channels of the board’s 24 channel capability. In order to direct sound to ensure that the event’s videographers had post-production content/channels to work with, we’d labelled and organized each instrument to their channel from the split snake.
Once everything is labelled and put to the board, there’s no real issue with managing that many channels.
Between silent and live auctions, a pinball tournament, raffles and surprise prizes were bands Some Girls (a Rolling Stones tribute band) then Phil X and the Drills, featuring Phil X – who has performed with Bon Jovi and Tommy Lee.
Urban Audio contributed to the lighting production off of the stage and truss. They’d run gradient themes, moving heads and isolated lights from the mixing board.
Podcast 56: Digital Lifestyles Party includes interviews with Debbie Van Camp, Regional Manager for Southern Division of the Rainbow Society of Alberta – about the Rainbow Society and its community contributions; with Ryan Meyer, a DJ of RPM Studios Ltd. – about genre bending to fine-tune your beats to your audience; and Mike Dummer, President of Digital Lifestyles – to understand the merits of community growth by giving back.
We sat down with Caitlind Brown on her tree-made bench on her balcony to discuss Wreck City.
For houses that are likely more than 100 years old, Caitlind says, ”It’s really interesting to connect with these spaces for one last time before they’re demolished…
“It’s not just an episode for 809, it’s sort of like a eulogy for a whole block of buildings.”
Kenna Burima sat down with us in a park, across the street from the event, and discussed how heartening it is to see the community involvement with this event.
“To see each of these houses are little galleries/venues for an entire week – it just makes me feel good to be a Calgarian!”
To hear interviews with these artists and community activists, listen here…
Behind the Scene Podcast – Episode 54
… and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.
Happy listening!
5 Tips for Successful Event Planning
1. Benefit the community, and you will benefit together
Calgary Winter Skyline courtesy of Randy Peters/Flickr.com.
Often, the warmest and strongest event resources can be found right in your home community.
Relationships, mutually beneficial arrangements and strong friendships strengthen the neighbourhood bonds and community connections – but you shouldn’t always expect the quid pro quo.
There’s intrinsic worth in cooperating with the local professionals, emerging amateurs and local businesses.
These are the young specialists and growing businesses with personal talent and resources. These are the entrepreneurs emerging out of passion and innovative spark.
By providing your specialized resources where you’re able – your time, labor, or possibly audio/video set-up for events – you contribute back, and develop new relationships with these impassioned individuals.
Some people and businesses choose to provide their work’s services, or look to cooperatively share resources. Others may be able to lend a hand and a few hours. Some have merited the experience to offer valuable insight and advice, or others can help to spread a message with their friends.
Think about those in your social circle. Consider the skilled workers, studious academics, and welcoming businesses in the area.
Stop for a second, and consider how you can contribute back using your own resources.
When hosting an event, there are many opportunities to work cooperatively alongside friendly network connections.
Consider…
1. Providing a local business or agency with advertising
2. Holding an auction or fundraiser for community organizations
3. Sharing what you can back into the community
Of course, there are other ways to reach out to a mass audience…
2. Use social media to publicize your event.
Social Media Landscape courtesy of fredcavazza/Flickr.com.
It’s 2013, and maintaining a strong social media presence is as crucial as ever. Most of all, there are always awesome and innovative ways to embrace this digital mediascape.
Get creative. Figure out ways to tap into social media, and get people involved. You can host competitions, getting people to get their friends involved for best stories/photos. You can post regular trivia questions. You can release press releases, or produce teaser videos.
The trick is to be creative, and consider which media best fits your event.
Realize, also, that the online world offers a two-way conversation. Not only can you sell tickets or make your event information accessible, you can create community discourse Try blogging, being sure to ask questions and create dialogue. When combined with a humble interest to improve, this communication can also be a great way to personally address and understand audiences and their expectations. Consider streaming your event – for fans, collaborators, or even investors.
Simply having an online presence gives audiences a comfortable environment to discuss events. Photo galleries tend to be one of the more visited parts of websites, and luckily, most social media allow for free uploading. Post stills on Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook – motivating more of an audience to join in each time, stirring the hype. If you’re looking to get readers to actively engage, a lot of websites allow users to post replies. Depending on the size of your event, consider hosting a message board for users to create and discuss their own topics. You can learn a surprising bit about your audience.
As far as Internet etiquette goes, it’s a good idea to consciously consider how you are representing yourself and your affiliates. Keep it classy, and stay professional – but be sure to add just a spit of your own charm and style.
When hosting an event, there are many opportunities to engage audiences and generate hype and communication across the mediascape.
Consider…
1. Hosting online competitions, contests and events beforehand
2. Increase accessibility for both ticket sales and community dialogue
3. Generate social media buzz in your professional and social circles
3. Consult with the professionals.
Photo by Kris Benoit/Calgary Sound Rentals.
As the old saying goes, nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something. That is, shed the pride and ask a professional.
Sometimes our experience in one area makes us too proud to seek help in others. In fact, there’s a term – the Dunning-Kruger effect – for those who are only vaguely aware of a subject, but assume competence and specialization with something because they aren’t aware of how much they don’t know.
This assumption can be more than unprofessional. This can be dangerous.
You may wire electricity or other utilities unsafely, not get the appropriate legal permits for your event, budget or organize haphazardly, or simply not host an event with lasting energy.
There is a reason why we don’t do everything ourselves.
Professionals like us can ensure that your event goes off without a hitch. We have planned, organized and mixed hundreds of events and have practice troubleshooting in a variety of anomalous scenarios.
Even if you choose not to hire a professional, simply consulting an expert points out easily overlooked follies. It will help you and those attendees to have a seamless evening where the focus isn’t on getting equipment to work properly; rather, the focus will be on exactly what you’d intended the event to be for.
Sometimes we aren’t aware of how much we don’t know. Consulting the professionals helps to ensure that…
1. The event has acquired the proper permits within local jurisdiction
2. There are back-up plans in place in foreseeing potential issues
3. You’ll get what you need, and more, to host the event that gets people talking
With situational experience, professionals know the right questions to ask. They can provide realistic timeframes and a better cost-estimate to pull off certain elements of your event.
4. Establish and follow a timeline & budget
Photo courtesy of rmkoske/Flickr.com.
Event production is fast-paced and demanding.
Your budget-influenced timeline is the quintessential tool for keeping on track and on time. Your timeline should include every possible date; when the flowers are ready, when they are going to be picked up, when they are going to be delivered, when the photo booth deposit needs to be in by, what time the photo booth is set up by, when you have to email to confirm power considerations for the photo booth, etc.
These are the aspects of your event that, when structured and followed, allow every element to come together cohesively – with a specific time allowance and monetary budget for each component.
Document every event and timeframe – and throw in some time cushion in-between event details for any unprojected hang-ups. Be sure to honour these time commitments.
Let’s say, you’re hosting a larger event that involves rental and set-up for audio/visual equipment, professional event catering, a live band, and setting down.
Each of these participating groups needs time to make your event clean and professional, so be sure to discuss timeframes. The audio/visual company will have to run their speakers, cables and lights. The catering company will need time to prepare each dish and place, with diet and food restrictions. The band will need time for a sound-check after the audio/visual equipment has been set-up, and likely before the general audience arrives. Naturally, each group will have to work around each other for setting down, which ranges dependent on the intricacy of your event.
It should also be expected that you, as the event coordinator, pull some of the longest hours. In overseeing the larger spectrum of event planning, you’ll likely be the first on-site, and the last to leave.
Keep your timeline digital, in a binder or somewhere handy at all times. This way, if a group or service has to reschedule or make minor timeline changes, you’re able to note them or assess the plausibility of how well the rest of the evening will go with a delay.
1. Discuss and uphold timeframes with each company and service
2. Document every given and projected time frame
3. Ask each company to provide a realistic estimate for their services, and decide whether or not each provided service is necessary
To best coordinate your event, you’ll have to be available and communicative to all groups involved in facilitating your event.
Which brings us full circle to…
5. Establish an organized contact list
Sometimes, smack-dab in the middle of an event production, you never know who you may have to get a hold of – and fast!
Your contact list should be in the same document cluster as your timeline and budget. It should be accessible, navigable and organized. That is, you can’t mess around trying to find a number, or getting somebody’s name wrong when you’re hosting a professional event.
So, when somebody hands you their card or contact information, take the time to properly add it to your list of contacts – and, unless you expect this contact to be reoccurring, try to categorize this contact specific to that event. This is to ensure that this contact can be easily reached – with no confusion over which number to call, or whom it belongs to.
The contact list needs to have absolutely every person involved in the event – from the volunteer coordinator to the business contact that donated a silent auction item. I would encourage you to keep Twitter handles, emails and cell phones – you never know when you’ll have to contact a specific person with a critical role in the event.
You can use spreadsheets, folders, or even your own phone to professionally and efficiently organize the mountain of contact information that you will no doubt be dealing with. With evolving technology, it’s getting easier to maintain that list of clients, contacts and coordinators.
One of the most forgotten steps may just be, as long as you have these individuals or agencies’ contacts, to thank them once the event is done. Usually, it’s been a long day, and people like feeling appreciated for their talents and services. This basic cordiality will preserve longstanding relationships with the people, professionals, and community that helps to provide such inspiring and powerful events that keep Calgary as strong a city as it is.
Following these five tips will help to make you and your event the talk of the town, and hopefully you’ll be able to contribute back to the community that helped ensure your event flowed beautifully and professionally.
