I landed my biggest hire job to date, a dry hire for the next month. Full PA including DSP and graphics and insertable outboard, and send and return of FX and 4 aux sends in a rolling rack, speakers, mics, mixer - the works. In short, something a bit more convoluted than a couple of Eons on stands.
It went without saying that I would be responsible for installing it. That's done all good. The venue is a public access lane way converted into a bar for the Fringe festival. I've chained the foh together, (will chain up the foldbacks too in time but they're a lot more beat up looking, and passive, and I hope, much less likely to be taken. The problem starts with the rack and desk because they get packed up at night. In a situation like this, is it common place to hire out the gear on the condition of there being a house tech? Or streamline the equipment so bar staff can put it back together?
I feel strongly that if I had been in possession of a rack mountable desk that would have seriously reduced the amount of stuff that needs to be plugged in and that if they had gone to a more established hire house, that is what they would have gotten.
So, I have been trying to compensate by teaching them how to plug the DJ mixer output and foh send into the rack by themselves for days when there is no band (3 times and they don't have it yet). And the client has offered to pay me to come in on band days to oversee everything going together (insurance essentially) but I feel super awkward about that because it feels like a hidden cost.
In this instance, I'm going to install a patch bay for the foh and aux and try and make myself redundant because none of this came up in conversation when we were discussing a price and I feel like it's a massive conflict of interest. But for future reference, what's the standard here? Are these questions the client should be asking? (Based on previous years, I was expecting the desk and outboard to be in a more secure area and staying up for the month). Do hire houses try and go the extra mile to either make the complicated thing more simple or communicate to the client beforehand that a full rig is going to be more complex than the bar staff can handle and they might need some kind of house tech?
In my experience, the only venues I've worked in where everything gets disassembled like that, one place the hirer insisted there be a house tech, and in the other, everything lives in a rack.
Feedback much appreciated. You live and you learn but this is a big deal client and I wish I'd been more prepared/thought everything out. It's been ropey! Quite the learning curve.
It went without saying that I would be responsible for installing it. That's done all good. The venue is a public access lane way converted into a bar for the Fringe festival. I've chained the foh together, (will chain up the foldbacks too in time but they're a lot more beat up looking, and passive, and I hope, much less likely to be taken. The problem starts with the rack and desk because they get packed up at night. In a situation like this, is it common place to hire out the gear on the condition of there being a house tech? Or streamline the equipment so bar staff can put it back together?
I feel strongly that if I had been in possession of a rack mountable desk that would have seriously reduced the amount of stuff that needs to be plugged in and that if they had gone to a more established hire house, that is what they would have gotten.
So, I have been trying to compensate by teaching them how to plug the DJ mixer output and foh send into the rack by themselves for days when there is no band (3 times and they don't have it yet). And the client has offered to pay me to come in on band days to oversee everything going together (insurance essentially) but I feel super awkward about that because it feels like a hidden cost.
In this instance, I'm going to install a patch bay for the foh and aux and try and make myself redundant because none of this came up in conversation when we were discussing a price and I feel like it's a massive conflict of interest. But for future reference, what's the standard here? Are these questions the client should be asking? (Based on previous years, I was expecting the desk and outboard to be in a more secure area and staying up for the month). Do hire houses try and go the extra mile to either make the complicated thing more simple or communicate to the client beforehand that a full rig is going to be more complex than the bar staff can handle and they might need some kind of house tech?
In my experience, the only venues I've worked in where everything gets disassembled like that, one place the hirer insisted there be a house tech, and in the other, everything lives in a rack.
Feedback much appreciated. You live and you learn but this is a big deal client and I wish I'd been more prepared/thought everything out. It's been ropey! Quite the learning curve.
