Timothy A. Samuelson
Active Member
Ok, so I just got home from a 46 hour work day. I have done a load out, a load in, and a lot of work on our new space. The load out went great. Super fast, and I had a prison crew to help. Everything got packed, downstairs, and loaded into the truck in about an hour. Granted, cables weren't coiled correctly, and most everything got packed in the wrong box, but I was going straight to another venue to load out the exact same rig for a different show. Keep in mind, this was a small rig. By small, I mean 3 4 channel dimmers, 8 Par 56s, 4 Source 4s, 6 K9 Pups, and my booth equipment. This was Friday morning. We arrived at the next venue, a local high school, to load out the rig and set it up for another show. Here's where things started to get hairy...
Because of the improper packing at the load out, my computers ended up riding in the back seat of my truck. No biggie. While we were on site, one of my techs left the truck unlocked and someone stole my second monitor. The tech felt really bad about it and asked me to take the cost of a new monitor out of his check. I'm not going to do that as he is one of my best guys and accidents happen.
From this point forward, loading in was simple. Trees went up, cables were run, and lights focused. Next was patching and programming in ChamSys. We had to leave the venue for a few hours as there was a class being held in the space. Great opportunity to grab lunch. We covered the booth with a black sheet when we left, just to ward off wandering hands. BIG MISTAKE. When we got back, EVERY cord had been unplugged from the back of the computer and someone walked off with my wireless Apple keyboard. I'm INFURIATED!!
This show is for a non-profit, so the company is doing it at no cost, like always, but now I have to replace several hundred dollars of equipment. I run a small business. Even $100 is a lot of money to us right now.
Am I overreacting? After all, it's just a monitor and keyboard. On the other hand, they are vital parts of my setup that has now been pushed back a day because I need to get new equipment tomorrow. (Easter Sunday...this should be fun)
How would you react? I can tell you, this show hasn't been the greatest of experiences since the beginning and I will probably never work at this school again.
Because of the improper packing at the load out, my computers ended up riding in the back seat of my truck. No biggie. While we were on site, one of my techs left the truck unlocked and someone stole my second monitor. The tech felt really bad about it and asked me to take the cost of a new monitor out of his check. I'm not going to do that as he is one of my best guys and accidents happen.
From this point forward, loading in was simple. Trees went up, cables were run, and lights focused. Next was patching and programming in ChamSys. We had to leave the venue for a few hours as there was a class being held in the space. Great opportunity to grab lunch. We covered the booth with a black sheet when we left, just to ward off wandering hands. BIG MISTAKE. When we got back, EVERY cord had been unplugged from the back of the computer and someone walked off with my wireless Apple keyboard. I'm INFURIATED!!
This show is for a non-profit, so the company is doing it at no cost, like always, but now I have to replace several hundred dollars of equipment. I run a small business. Even $100 is a lot of money to us right now.
Am I overreacting? After all, it's just a monitor and keyboard. On the other hand, they are vital parts of my setup that has now been pushed back a day because I need to get new equipment tomorrow. (Easter Sunday...this should be fun)
How would you react? I can tell you, this show hasn't been the greatest of experiences since the beginning and I will probably never work at this school again.