These are comments by John Silk only and the views conatined within are not the views of the compnay or persons employed by Juice.
Engineers and Engineering.
So you think you know what your doing, do you? Well if you really do you would be one of a minority! I am amazed by the total level of incompetence in this industry, of people who know so little and yet doing such a lot.....of damage. My theory is they get by on specmanship and what I mean by this is the technical rider they issue for the act they are working for which in most cases bears no resemblance to the acts requirements. There is a direct law of inverse ratios, the less they know the larger and more rigid the specification. Some tech specs are issued with product that when supplied, we then have to show the guy how to use it! Come on people you cant bullshit, we all know, the more you stomp your little feet and get upset the less you know that is obvious to everyone else. The best type of guy is not the know it all either, the best approach is to learn from the expereince of the people you are working with, no matter what level, all information is good information and a good engineer will glean as much information as possible to then make an assessment bearing in mind the level of the event, size of the audience etc. He will check what equipment is being supplied well before the event, on equipment he doesn't know such as microphones, desks etc he will use the resources readily available such as books, catalogues, discussion with colleagues and the internet which is becoming one of the best resource libraries available today for our industry where companies can list the details of their specialised equipment. The good engineer will take all of this and then coupled with his own expereince he will perform the best job he can, if it's not good enough then be proud enough to admit to it and take the information that you learnt and use it to do a better job next time. It's no good getting upset, it's no good blaming the tools you have been provided with, unless they don't work that is. A promoter at a small club won't hire an Xl4 for you but similar a large show say 5,000 or more should be able to provide high end equipment on the same note you won't hear the quality in a 200 capacity sound system if you had an XL4 but a cheaper desk on large system will sound cheap. A specification is flexible, it's variable and takes into account realistically your needs, the acts needs and the most important thing ....the venues needs.
So I am often asked what is the worst mistake of a so called engineer, well it's gain structure and not understanding it's nature with cause and effect with everything within the sound chain. Go to Gain Structure in Technical to read more
BY the way to any one who feels he has a right to make life difficult for the technical staff, treat others in the way you wish to be treated. It's a small industry, everyone meets each other again at some point.
Pricing.
A subject of discussion even after all these years with modern management training and accountancy available at all levels of schooling in these modern days, why do we still have this problem of pricing of equipment and events? Surely with a stock of similar equipment similar companies quoting for the same job must be around the same price after all we have the same over heads don't we? So if someone is cheaper then they are not providing something. Whatever this is it will affect the supply, it has to. The guy who works from his kitchen at home cannot provide teh same service as the guy who has warehouse space with workshops etc and can maintain his equipment, test it and certify it. Certainly if trucking is involved there is a reason here as transport costs no matter what, trucks these days are expensive to keep and maintain to comply with the regulations and the law so if they are cheap you know they are not complying and it can be your event that is the one to suffer.
The reason is that this is still the easiest industry to get into without the need for qualifications, training and proving what you can or have done. It is still a business filled with myth to the person outside this industry with everyone who claims to be part of it held in awe as an expert. This is echoed by the insurer who still believes that drugs and alcohol are rife and therefore all music based personal are high risks. Whereas it is now common practice to ban alcohol and/or drugs for employers. Indeed drug taking is frowned upon and we won't employ drug users although tea and coffee can be argued as drugs they don't affect us in the same way or the effects are minimal against the guy who uses several tins of Red Bull Which can be argued as a product that can alter your perception. This is a person who I would worry about their ability to function properly through the day. We minimise our risks to the point that they are so low that I would rather be sat on one of my supported truss's 24 feet up than driving on our roads or even walking down the high street at night, it's one of the safest industries in this country and yet we are charged for it by the insurers. To the new boy insurance is not required, he doesn't care, doesn't know or doesn't have the correct cover even if he has tried to get some, even some of the long-term players don't have correct cover as we have made this business so safe some see no reason to.
Pricing is a problem, we have the new kid on the block, there are several of these each year. They try, they buy, and give us a run for our money. Without realistically investigating their market place they see what they think is a fortune being charged for a production and without getting into reasoning behind the infrastructure believe they can do the same and make lots of money out of it. After a year or two they find that they are ending their leases or Hire Purchase and have no investment money left to buy new because they only made enough to pay their wage and the lease/HP. They may have to start an office because Mom doesn't like the house being used anymore as an office and may even have to arrange a large garage to put some gear in or a corner of another companies warehouse, their costs go up. They get by with the minimal maintenance until the gear falls apart and then they sell up or become "proper" and their prices go up to show for it. In the meantime they have put the rest of us stalwarts back another 5 years in the pricing field. That is those of us who have proper warehousing, with offices for staff to work comfortably, complying with the factories act, workshops where welding, cutting, general maintenance, recones even SMT soldering and component level testing is done. We can raise Health & Safety documents covering many areas without copying the last Government website or paperwork we stole from a professional. We can quote and discuss jobs from experience, around the world. Our training, YES! that is training happens here in house, so that we can continue to provide a quality of service that is not only of a high level in it's supply but safe and from experience and training.
So what can we do about these guys, nothing I guess. The electrical industry is trying to get rid of these "cowboys" why can't we. Why do I carry tens of thousands of pounds worth of insurance when no one asks for me to prove it. Local authority work carries double indemnity and yet Joe Bloggs in his Sprinter van who does the Town Hall for half of my price has no insurance, no training and no safety. Yet he is booked because he can "make sound" it might be noisy, it might even sound good. You buy D&B and you don't have to know sound or how to use it as it is built in by the manufacturer, just point it in the general direction and it works.
We often quote for jobs where we are told we are too expensive, generally only because someone has supplied a cheaper price, otherwise how would the client know? when I ask for the specification of that system sometimes I get it and invariably it is because it is a cheaper system. But because of our industries myth's, to the client a desk is a desk, "It's got Midas on it" the fact that it cost 10k against our 56k desk has no weight with the client, a speaker is a speaker and with regards to training, they don't know or don't care because the bottom line appeals more than the quality of the job. I recently quoted for a quality world music act and was told it was too much against a competitor. When I checked the competitors spec it came nowhere near the artistes needs, the cost of my FoH desk alone exceeded the total amount of this guys equipment and yet the client didn't want to know, to him it was the cost and only the cost the artiste would have to "work round it".
A recent string of classical music festivals were brought to a halt for us because the client had spoken to a known cheapskate promoter who promised he could do it for less. The stage turned out to be the same price but a cash price so no VAT, in fact it was all done no VAT so 20% cheaper already. It was an orbit against a our square box stage so the Orchestra were put off by the reflected sounds from the arch. There was insufficient lighting that didn't clamp to the structure and since they had not checked they had brought no other system to mount so they hung it on with wire safeties, the promoter didn't care and the client didn't know. There was no safety or standby lighting for the stage, the stage steps or stage front were not marked with maintained signs or floodlighting backstage for the artistes to see by. The power went straight back to the generator and they relied on all power to come off of the generators buss bars with only overall protection rather than individual circuit protection. The PA system was stacked on risers the same level of the stage this is in comparison to us as we fly on lifting towers eight meters up and removed from the stage. There was no crew rest area, the crew were just enough to cover each area, one sound, one stage, one lights. Illness and fatigue were not thought of. No subsistence, no catering, not even a kettle for the crew were provided. Whereas we provide a seated catering marquee with tea and coffee urns fro all of our outdoor events. The show happened by the skin of it's teeth, off of the goodwill earned by the production manager with the Local Authority on previous shows where it had been done right. It was lucky there happened to be a local cafe otherwise the crew would have starved. They even ran out of microphone cable and stands, they were so prepared......probably in their non existent warehouse.
Yet this was considered a success by the client.
Our industry is to bitty and to backbiting to improve on this situation and will never really move on until this part is solved. Perhaps self regulation will prevail where we can get together and form an organisation that will only allow persons to come in once they have taken the organsiations basic qualifications so that they can work safely with the minimum of good knowledge. This happens in other parts of the entertainment business. Through expereince and training that person can be allowed to move up through the organisiation and only when that person has achived a minimum level can he (or she) become a supplier which will then be supplied with the necessary certificates to enable them to work at recognised and insured venues who will then pay a fee that is recognised as a going rate for such a hire.