Tales from the World of Production
SoCal Interview with Jacob Smith and Austin Strom
You never expect everything to go precisely as planned on a show, but what do you do when nothing goes as planned? Recently Tim Hunten and Brad Williams, executives at SoCal Rentals, spoke with the lead Audio and Intercom engineers on a show where this was exactly the case.
Jacob Smith, lead Audio Engineer, and Austin Storms, lead Intercom Engineer, arrived on a recent show to find the facilities completely incompatible with the vast scope of the show. We asked Austin what his expectations were versus what he found and he replied, “the original expectation when I was booked to do intercom on [this show] was to make whatever the facility had work. Within the first five minutes of asking the Chief Engineer at the facility what he had, it was pretty clear that there was no infrastructure to do a show that satisfied even those basic expectations. It was a large show. It required some sophisticated intercom solutions. It was bad.” Jacob added, “you expect that the producers and managers get you the information that you need and, so, I don’t know a good way to say it, but the ball was definitely dropped in areas for this particular show.” So, basically, outdated technology and lacking communication. One of these is bad enough, but what happens when you have both? Usually, disaster.
This was a big show, a three-day live-streaming event accommodating twelve local talents, two stages, ten remote guests, video playback, graphics, XPression, delays, audio cues, intercoms, and virtual and augmented reality moments. So when you get unusable equipment and no prior knowledge of that, what’s the solution? For Jacob and Austin, it was to call SoCal Rentals. Austin: “Well, the solution was immediate. I had a plan: I hoped that SoCal had a huge amount of Riedel sitting in their warehouse right now because this is what it’s going to take. So, at 9:00 a.m. I call, we start ordering the gear, and it starts being built at SoCal. I think the first delivery was around 2:30. We were 90% installed by 7:00 P.M. It was actually really impressive. I guess I was proud of myself, but it wasn’t really something I could have done without SoCal's cooperation.” So, the show didn’t need to just add equipment, it needed to do a complete bypass. Austin was able to override their system and install an entire intercom system with no previous plan in just six hours. Amazing.
Jacob, too, was a quick thinker. “It’s gonna be more cost effective and efficient, especially in the limited time that we had, just to bring in a full package from [SoCal]. I’m really used to spec’ing shows like this so I was able to design a system really quickly, one that’s similar to what I usually use and then, of course, we reached out to SoCal to source the equipment.” SoCal got his emergency call, an hour later we had a complete gear list, and a couple hours later he got delivery. All this with reduced staff due to the COVID pandemic.
When asked why they chose SoCal Rentals for their solutions, both Jacob and Austin had similar responses. Jacob: “To be honest, it’s what I come to expect from SoCal. A few times a year I find myself in a situation like this. We find ourselves in need of a tremendous amount of equipment and, really, engineering experience from you, Tim, and your team because the one thing I love about working with SoCal Rentals is I know I don’t have to translate every single detail.
You guys really understand how to put [equipment] together and, so, I trust you know when we’re communicating about a show it means that you’re also thinking ahead and figuring out how things rack and where they can be. And it’s just a great relationship.” Austin: “What made this moment super magical was the degree of focus and efficiency that you guys were able to employ without any warning. It’s like the ultimate boutique experience.”
We, at SoCal Rentals, love to be the solution. Austin and Jacob are great people and geniuses in their field. We appreciate them partnering with us. We really believe in integrity. We really believe we can do things the right way. We believe the good guys win. Happily, for all of us, this show, which was headed towards disaster, turned out to be a win.
About SoCal Rentals - SoCal Rentals is a full service audio and video rental house with offices in Los Angeles and Atlanta. We offer equipment rentals, expert technical advice, production consulting, and more. All of your audio and video equipment needs are under one roof! Your success is our business.
