Welcome 3D . Don't be shy jump in and ask your questions and share when you have answers yourself. Our community has quite a variety of members including: students, fresh to the industry techs, old skool
road warriors, dealers, educators, and manufacturers. There's somebody here who is an expert in everything. We don't allow "selling" in the forums, unless someone directly asks for it, but you are welcome to add your company name and contact information to your signature. (Click on your user name in the upper right corner to find your
profile settings).
One of our favorite stories to tell around here is how
@Pie4Weebl 10+ years ago decided he wanted to go in the rental business himself. We spent a while here on CB debating what he needed to buy to start his company. I believe he got a loan from his grandma to start things, and off he went to work. These days his company
https://www.squeeklights.com is growing, becoming well known, sending rigs out on tours with a constantly expanding list of bigger and bigger bands. Victor has become well known and respected as an up and coming designer. It's a cool story and he's a cool guy you should get to know.
Thank you Gafftaper, (Hey any truth to what I'm hearing,
gaffer's tape is the bees knees or what?) Hearing a business success story is always good for my heart & soul. I have no intention of leasing/renting out my equipment though. We'll be doing the rigging, and running, and breakdown. I'll get some small
truss work that's flexible. Well, what
truss isn't? I want at least 2 if not 4 larger versions of typical "ADJ" free-standing adjustable
speaker/ lighting towers, if you got the skinny on a source, used would be ideal but, local pickup to NY (Tri-state region) would be a must. I'm ok with my collection of
Par Cans on the ADJ stands, but not for hanging actual old-school
Fresnel's, my
Altman's or my
Leko Zooms. They're just no robust enough.
We got temporary
power if needs be. Looking at some inverter generator sets now and discovering that paying extra for
LED fixtures or fixtures converted to
LED is more cost-effective, since the gensets can be a lot smaller and fewer needed, not to mention the noise at an outdoor/ spontaneous
venue. Also cuts down on the
gauge/ weight/ and total number of
power cables and the time/labor setting them up, not to mention the obvious
safety hazard... (I wouldn't be hauling my Altmans or
Leko Zooms in masse onto a beach unless... well... $$$) I got 2 good beads on box trucks with liftgates. Now looking at
road cases for my movers.
This part was prompted by an earlier thread about "what got you into this technical business?" --->
I got some of these ideas at my Friend Cara's wedding reception, which was held on a beach on Long Island, the generator was loud, kept crapping out, and had to be 200' away from the area we occupied... (I was told it was the DJ's, but turns out it was the bride's dad's.) Every time it would go kaput, we had to run 2 x 100' extension
cord lengths away by the time we get back it's sputtering again. The few lights and the crystal
chandelier and strings of white Christmas lights we put up above the main table couldn't be used. 5 or 6 houses on the top of a roughly 60' - 75' cliff overlooking this beach... they wouldn't
drop a
cord, because they're miffed about their houses being on the precipice of collapsing into Long Island Sound or something I'm not privy to.
So, at a subsequent party at that same beach her little brother played "DJ" and had only a couple
amateur DJ (No
mixer) karaoke machine. (Thanks but no thanks) But between his smartphone and a borrowed second one, and some 1/8" stereo phono jacks and splitters, his Bluetooth-or-aux
jack rechargeable
speaker/amp, and my Milwaukee Jobsite radios (with aux in) we put a great little, decent-sounding, and inexpensive
system together in under a day. All powered by this tiny Honda inverter generator you could not hear at all. Which could be off most of the time until something needed recharging. Unfortunately, the alcohol ran out first anyway.
I had no intention of doing anything involving audio in this business, but it seems that these go
hand in
hand, at least in everyone else's minds, since both things involve electricity. Or just falls under "technical." I want to learn all about sound boards and amps and speakers, mics, wireless and auto-tune like I want root canals. But it appears I'd lose a lot of potential clients if I don't. I cannot/ will not be a DJ though. No problem providing them some equipment, or setting up an audio
system for speaking engagements and the politicians. *
( *Provided I can wear earplugs. )