promoting my lighting and sound company

[gashead]

Kai ora,
however I got the heads up about 5 years ago ( from one of new zealands most experenced engineers, who also loves lighting) sound first lights second.

Ooooh, do tell ?!?!

I worked in the NZ / Aussie production industry (Theatre, Touring Shows, 'Raves') for well over 15 years, so I'm bound to know em'...

Sounds like a typical soundboy to me tho.. Lighting rules!

Lighting however is subjective, for instance in Theatre you know as a lighting designer you're doing a good job.. if no one mentions the lighting... (with some exceptions)

In other genres, Lighting effects (inc Lasers) are generally used to create an atmosphere, I've not been to many clubs where the houselights created "partytime" no matter how good your sound renforcement is!

At the end of the day, I recon both work hand in hand to create a perfect environment for the production itself.. best sound system I ever heard was in shed 11 in the Wellington waterfront.. was a quadrophonic PA, and the guys running it had some pretty interesting ways of panning the sound around you, sounded beautiful (apart from the building rear wall vibrating at various freq's.. did I say vibrate, I mean rattle! loudly!)

Cheers!

Nige.

[Law99]

Hey Ollie,

Good to see such enthuiasm and excitement! I'm going to be the bad cynic here and just chime in with a few points to think of it you want to start promoting yourself as a company doing lighting gigs...

1. PLI - Make sure you have PLI to a reasonable amount, alot of kit (some of it heavy) flown and drunk idiots can lead to bad times!

2. Kit insurance - Get your kit insured, I've spent many an hour cleaning out lights / replacing parts where they get give a drink by a kind punter

3. Safety - Just looking at the pictures you have a little bit to learn about it! Saftey chains, electrics etc... If you want to start doing this professionally 13a multiways arent generally considered the norm (or accepted). Also what distros is this coming from (do they have the relevent RCB / MCB / RCCBO etc etc).

4. Reliability - Just think before buying lots of chinese equipment, what happens if you need spares quickly? Do you take spares to a gig - How do you explain to the client why a light or two arent working and you dont have any spares?

I could go on, theres lots of things (and I mean alotttt) to consider and take into account... Its great you want to do it but I just have seen too many accidents and people loose alot of money from not understanding / taking the relevent steps into some of the things listed above!

As for the chamsys, amazing bit of kit, its the same as what we use on large desks (MQ200 / 300 etc). I personally am I hog3 man and use one day in day out, but they all work in a very similar way! I do however also have freestyler, amazing for beginnning on and learning, although dont dismiss MagicQ yet!

Anyway, not trying to have a dig, just hoping to help

I tried the same thing but ended up just going freelance, you get alot more and alot larger toys to play with on a tour (also not your personal money you're investing!).

All the best,
Law