How Will You Respond?

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ahoustondj

ahoustondj

Mac Daddy DJ
Aug 13, 2007
20,235
3,465
Texas
Lets suppose, you arrive at a Gig. They promised you two separate AC Circuits but there is only one available. There are other vendors who are also using AC, Caterer Photobooth etc. To make matters worse the Voltmeter shows that you are getting less than 100V. and you have not even started playing as yet. Eliminating the subs and amp to run full range is not an option because the mains just won't cut it by themselves in full range. What would you do? BTW you are about 50 miles away from home and it is Sunday afternoon and everything is closed for Rental of Generator. What would you do?
 
Is Mix with me or not?
 
Nothing you can do besides move the stuff off that line and hope for more voltage, run a 10 gauge cord to another outlet and measure voltage again, or not play at all. I can't even picture running on 100V...it just won't work.
 
USDJ said:
Nothing you can do besides move the stuff off that line and hope for more voltage, run a 10 gauge cord to another outlet and measure voltage again, or not play at all. I can't even picture running on 100V...it just won't work.
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It will if you carry a voltage regulator. To answer canute's question, I'd handle it just like I do every other time I walk into a situation like this. I adjust to the circumstance, do the gig, then go home. The client never knows there was a problem and that's the way I like it.

The only time I pull the threat of a no-play is when a venue is jerking me around. I never do it with the client. Had one last year at a restaurant where the venue told me I had to pull 150 feet of extension cord, thru a pouring rain (the outlet had water dripping off it). I smiled, acted as if it was the client's fault (to the venue guy) and said "Oh well, I can just no-play it and go home." He kicked into high gear and found me a plug inside (out of the rain) and was easy to deal with the rest of the evening. The client never had a clue.
 
It is called "Awareness" Rick! You may not expect your client to solve the problem but the least you should do is make them aware that there was a particular problem but you handled it. Keeps them and whoever was responsible fromr making the same mistake again. You might even get an extra tip for "saving the day"! I know you like extra Moolah, eh? ;)
 
ahoustondj said:
Lets suppose, you arrive at a Gig. They promised you two separate AC Circuits but there is only one available. ....What would you do?
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A system run off 2 ciruits? I don't understand. Does not compute. :tribiggrin:

Houston, you were just ragging on RickRyan....in your site visit you should have noticed the limited supply of outlets, and knowing the event generals, could imagine the coffee pot, photo booth, etc would be sharing power. With this quick look around the room, you should have already seen this problem in the making and arranged for a distro to be tied into the panel utilizing unused circuits and providing additional outlets. duh. You can't play the village idiot half time...it's full time or nothing.
 
ahoustondj said:
It is called "Awareness" Rick! You may not expect your client to solve the problem but the least you should do is make them aware that there was a particular problem but you handled it. Keeps them and whoever was responsible fromr making the same mistake again. You might even get an extra tip for "saving the day"! I know you like extra Moolah, eh? ;)
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I make them aware of it if it benefits me, PR-wise (i.e. something they might include in an online review). If there's no benefit to be had, I'll keep it to myself. In your case where you're doing repeat customers, education obviously plays a part. In my world of one-offs, there's nothing to be gained by "training" a bride in what she did wrong. It's more likely to cause her to bad-mouth you as a "complainer, know-it-all".
 
Valerie Hicks said:
A system run off 2 ciruits? I don't understand. Does not compute. :tribiggrin:

Houston, you were just ragging on RickRyan....in your site visit you should have noticed the limited supply of outlets, and knowing the event generals, could imagine the coffee pot, photo booth, etc would be sharing power. With this quick look around the room, you should have already seen this problem in the making and arranged for a distro to be tied into the panel utilizing unused circuits and providing additional outlets. duh. You can't play the village idiot half time...it's full time or nothing.
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I'm curious as to why you guys are even mentioning a Photobooth? Power requirements for mine are less than 100 watts. It's a non-issue on calculating line load, IMHO.
 
rickryan.com said:
I'm curious as to why you guys are even mentioning a Photobooth? Power requirements for mine are less than 100 watts. It's a non-issue on calculating line load, IMHO.
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I mentioned it cuz that was in Houstons example. And it can be an issue...we typically run 2 20A circuits in addition to our 50A of 220v. We often can not share that circuit, even with a photobooth. Our lines are carefully calculated.
 
Valerie Hicks said:
A system run off 2 ciruits? I don't understand. Does not compute. :tribiggrin:

Houston, you were just ragging on RickRyan....in your site visit you should have noticed the limited supply of outlets, and knowing the event generals, could imagine the coffee pot, photo booth, etc would be sharing power. With this quick look around the room, you should have already seen this problem in the making and arranged for a distro to be tied into the panel utilizing unused circuits and providing additional outlets. duh. You can't play the village idiot half time...it's full time or nothing.
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I had this actually happen to me at a Hotel. I was shown two circuits one on each end of the Stage area, that they said would be mine to use. One for Lighting and the other for My Sound System. When I got there, they had two huge Christmas Trees plugged into one of the outlets. (The One I was going to use for the Sound System) They then wanted me to run an extension cord from where I was to the kitchen through an open door. I asked them one simple question. "Which would you prefer, to have the plug in the kitchen accidentally pulled out and stop all the music for your guests or have the Christmas Tree Lights go off for a moment?" The matter was solved. I got the Circuit for my Sound System and they had to find an extension cord and run it to power the Christmas Trees.
 
ahoustondj said:
I had this actually happen to me at a Hotel. I was shown two circuits one on each end of the Stage area, that they said would be mine to use. One for Lighting and the other for My Sound System. When I got there, they had two huge Christmas Trees plugged into one of the outlets. (The One I was going to use for the Sound System) They then wanted me to run an extension cord from where I was to the kitchen through an open door. I asked them one simple question. "Which would you prefer, to have the plug in the kitchen accidentally pulled out and stop all the music for your guests or have the Christmas Tree Lights go off for a moment?" The matter was solved. I got the Circuit for my Sound System and they had to find an extension cord and run it to power the Christmas Trees.
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So you're saying you had to adapt? Why didn't you find this out when you did your site survey? Did you not feel it was patently professional behavior to educate the client on power beforehand so you could have avoided this situation at setup? Sometimes I just can't believe how amateur some of you guys are..............;)

(Way to handle the situation, bro. Good call.)
 
rickryan.com said:
So you're saying you had to adapt? Why didn't you find this out when you did your site survey? Did you not feel it was patently professional behavior to educate the client on power beforehand so you could have avoided this situation at setup? Sometimes I just can't believe how amateur some of you guys are..............;)

(Way to handle the situation, bro. Good call.)
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Did you not read the previous Posts? No, I did not have to adapt, they unplugged the Christmas Trees and let me have the Circuit as was agreed. There was no adaptation. I was not about to run an extension into the kitchen and run the risk of someone accidentally unplugging/switching off my system while it was playing.
 
ahoustondj said:
Did you not read the previous Posts? No, I did not have to adapt, they unplugged the Christmas Trees and let me have the Circuit as was agreed. There was no adaptation. I was not about to run an extension into the kitchen and run the risk of someone accidentally unplugging/switching off my system while it was playing.
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Don't get yer panties in a wad. You did read the sarcasm, right? My point was, you arrived on site, found conditions that you didn't expect and you dealt with it. You handled the situation great.
 
BTW The Original question Post #1 was a hypothetical. As far as Val's question Post #8 and my answer Post #12, this was in reference to an actual situation I had with just the available AC Power Outlets/circuits.
 
Rick Ryan why do you consider many of your events one offs? I dont get that mentality honestly. Canute you had to adapt even after doing your site survey I get Ricks point. He had every right to rail you on your own railing comments earlier today.
 
Jon Tuck said:
Rick Ryan why do you consider many of your events one offs? I dont get that mentality honestly. Canute you had to adapt even after doing your site survey I get Ricks point. He had every right to rail you on your own railing comments earlier today.
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I consider most of my events as one-offs (weddings). Some do end up referring other clients to me but the vast majority are the case where the person contacts me, hires me, I do the job, and that's the last I ever hear from them (or about them). You feel differently?
 
we rely heavily on return business even if it isnt just a pool of future weddings but birthdays, anniversarys,coprporate connections we do have a pretty nice referral incentive award as well.
 
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