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Thread: What is an acceptable level of backup for suppliers?

  1. #1
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default What is an acceptable level of backup for suppliers?

    Inspired by the high jinks between Benny and his tog friend. We were taking Good Gig, Bad Gig too far off topic there, so let's have a new thread. It's not restricted to our good friends the Photographers, it encompasses all suppliers at all functions.

    Let's have your tales of when the wheels fell off, and we can discuss what constitutes adequate backup.

    I had an " interesting " gig once with a rodeo bull included. The Bull was installed, plugged in, switched on, and all the power went off in our part of the venue!! I'm fairly sure it was an earth leakage fault tripping the system.

    The client was not a happy bunny, and the night was going downhill fast, but the Bull Handlers had backup. Off they went for a generator, brought it back, fired it up outside, and ran a cable in. Crisis averted. Only way they could have done better would have been to have the genny in the van before they left for the gig.

    Over to you folks, what have you seen?
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  2. #2

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    Singer who had a dodgy xlr lead - and no spare.
    He was using a passive setup, jack leads etc so couldn't even 'steal' one from anywhere else.
    Venue didn't have one, but I had about 6 spare in total in the van. As he was a bit of a and thought he was the be all and end all to the wedding, I made him sweat until a few minutes before he started till one 'appeared'.

    Did I get a thank you and some paper with the queens head on, gracing my hand afterward ? - nope, he just dumped the lead in a corner.

    Almost as bad a when there was a DJ in a different room to me who asked to borrow a mic because he never brings one and was amazed at the groom asking for one to make a speech. Had a cheapo I lent him, didn't realise he finished an hour before me and had disappeared with said microphone by the time I finished
    Semi-Retired Multi Award Winning DJ

    www.ultimateweddingdj.co.uk

  3. #3

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    I remember doing a joint 40th birthday party when an exasperated photobooth operator came in to ask me to see if anyone had a DSLR with them. I quirked 'oh what happened to your backup camera?' only to be met with a death stare from him. They ended up giving the customer a full refund.

    My own backup has only ever needed to be brought into action once & resulted in only a very slight loss in music. The main playout locked up in an audio loop during 'Get Lucky' (therefore nobody was dancing) & the backup brought quickly in. I wouldn't care but it was a gig where Mike from Phase One was there as a guest with his family. I dunno if anybody even noticed cos it was during buffet time I think. That Micron booth doesn't lend itself to hosting two laptops

  4. #4
    Daryll's Avatar
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    we had a singer at my local club , well a singer minus microphone , I had a night off , so I offered for a lift back to my place ( only half a mile), a SM58 (wired) and a 10m XLR , she of course agreed , got a few pints out of it , but I thought it common sense to bring a back up mic , if I had not have been there , there would have been a deathly silence.....

    Daryll
    darylldj.co.uk , serving hampshire , Surrey and sussex

  5. #5

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    My attitude towards backup has been "if this failed, can the party continue".

    So, for example, I have 2 x Evox 8. That means, if one fails, the other continues. There's still music. Plus, if I'm doing an all-day wedding, I also have a pair of Maui 5 with me. If I had a passive system, I'd be taking a second amp with me.

    My mixer is probably the biggest "risk" as everything runs through that. So I have a small usb soundcard that has a mic input on it, that can get me through the night if need be.

    I also take 2 x wired mics and 2 x playout laptops (I even have the backup laptop playing the first dance at the same time as the main one, just in case).

    Lighting is less important. As I have 2 of each fixture, if one fails, it's not the end of the world.

    Equally, any cables can be easily swapped, as I carry plenty of spare XLRs and IEC cables. I also have some spare 4 ways and extension cables.

    On reflection, one thing I don't have is a second *very long* extension cable (50m).

    One thing I've considered, is a battery powered speaker to leave in the van. In the highly unlikely event of a complete power cut, I'd get a good 3 hours off the laptop battery, and I've got battery powered uplighters that I can set to sound to light. How much of a hero would I be to also have a battery powered speaker ready to go...

    But the logistics (ensuring it's charged etc) along with the very slim risk of this happening means I've not yet executed this. Probably something I should consider for marquee weddings, when the power is at greater risk of failing...

  6. #6
    Imagine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    My attitude towards backup has been "if this failed, can the party continue".
    My attitude exactly (which incidentally is why I purchased the Maui 28s over and above the new DB system which is a single point of failure)

    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    My mixer is probably the biggest "risk" as everything runs through that. So I have a small usb soundcard that has a mic input on it, that can get me through the night if need be.
    I had this conversation a while ago. I have a Denon MC6000 in one flight case, and a VMS4.1 in another, both connected via a little Berhinger mixer into the PA. That said, now I have the Maui's with the Bluetooth capability, I'm looking into ways of doing that in an efficient way should the main laptop/mixer fail (i.e. beam the VDJ output from laptop 2 direct to Bluetooth just to keep things going).

    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post
    One thing I've considered, is a battery powered speaker to leave in the van. In the highly unlikely event of a complete power cut, I'd get a good 3 hours off the laptop battery, and I've got battery powered uplighters that I can set to sound to light. How much of a hero would I be to also have a battery powered speaker ready to go...
    Yup - me too. In fact I had one bride and groom so paranoid a little while ago about the power going that I took along a UPS battery just to keep things ticking over should the worse happen.

    And then it occurred to me....a power cut killing my output is the least of their problems in that scenario. The bar will stop functioning (electric tills and pumps)

  7. #7
    Jim - Scotland's Party DJ's Avatar
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    I've got all the main components covered so that unless there's multiple simultaneous failures, the show can go on.

    Touch wood the only time I've ever had an issue was with a first dance file that somehow became corrupted - it played but VERRRRY SLOWLY (nothing to d with the controller btw) and all distorted, it was really weird and had worked when I test ran it. Quick fade over to backup mac which was also playing it and all was fine.

    Saturday was a new one: I was meant to be off but a pal asked if I'd cover his wedding because his dad is very ill. It's 5 minutes up the road and I want to help him out so I agree.

    I get there and set up in plenty of time, they have a million different things going on including love letters, sparkly dancefloor and mood lighting so I put a smaller light rig up so as not to be OTT and head off to get changed.


    That's strange: I definitely packed my trousers.

    A quick call home to my wife and I discover they've fallen out of my bag - she doesn't drive so I ordered a taxi to bring them up. £10 down before I'd bought a can of juice

    I COULD have made light of the situation and done the gig in a shirt and jeans but, to me, that wouldn't have been acceptable even though it was just a cover gig.

    I'm trying to think of a way I could have a shirt and trousers stashed in the car incase it ever happens again because it's very rare I'm as close as I was on Saturday.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ View Post

    I'm trying to think of a way I could have a shirt and trousers stashed in the car incase it ever happens again because it's very rare I'm as close as I was on Saturday.
    I always take a second shirt with me - just in case I spill something down it.

    I probably should buy a cheapo suit of eBay (if anyone wants a cheap suite, a second hand one on eBay can be picked up for about £20-£30), and leave it in the van in a bag behind/under one of the seats, so that I've always got an "outfit" with me. I already leave a spare pair of cufflinks in the van.

    I've started getting a bit obsessed about being "perfect" and it's starting to make me quite nervous at every gig now, especially the all day ones. I hate any form of microphone signal drop out etc, even though that's often something that's out of my control. I hate the idea of anything going wrong, and spend the whole day fretting something is going to stop working. It's only the last 6 months this has really started happening, and I'm not sure what's caused it.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    My attitude exactly (which incidentally is why I purchased the Maui 28s over and above the new DB system which is a single point of failure)


    I had this conversation a while ago. I have a Denon MC6000 in one flight case, and a VMS4.1 in another, both connected via a little Berhinger mixer into the PA. That said, now I have the Maui's with the Bluetooth capability, I'm looking into ways of doing that in an efficient way should the main laptop/mixer fail (i.e. beam the VDJ output from laptop 2 direct to Bluetooth just to keep things going).



    Yup - me too. In fact I had one bride and groom so paranoid a little while ago about the power going that I took along a UPS battery just to keep things ticking over should the worse happen.

    And then it occurred to me....a power cut killing my output is the least of their problems in that scenario. The bar will stop functioning (electric tills and pumps)
    That happened one night to me. Power cut at the venue, everything went off while buffet was being eaten. Bar kept going selling bottles etc. only and manually calculating costs. Watching young bar staff working out the cost of two pints at £3.50 a pint by using the calculator on their phone's made me smile.

    The venue had a pair of battery computer speakers into which I connected my laptop and stuck a Grandmaster CD in the slot. After 2 hours there was no sign of power coming back (whole village was out) so we called it a night at 11. Venue agreed a refund and some compensation with the B&G even though it was not their fault.

    We packed away by the lights of 3 cars which we had strategically placed shining through the windows.


    One New Year's Eve I was not required by the hotel. They had decided they were having a Sinatra tribute act who would also provide music through the meal and after his spot. He travelled from Swansea, arrived at 4pm, set up and sound checked. All good so far. Come the big introduction, his mini disc player with all three backing tracks on failed, with no back up. The management panicked. He sang 3 songs without music but it was not good. Apparently someone suggested ringing me to see if I could help, but I had got a gig at a golf club 30 miles away. Had I been there I could have dashed home for my karaoke discs in which there were many Sinatra tracks. When the functions manager told the boss that I was elsewhere, he went into melt down.

    By chance I had to pass the venue on the way home and called in for a facility break. Though it was too late, they were glad to see me and made sure that I have been there every year since, with no problems I am pleased to say.

  10. #10
    Shakermaker Promotions's Avatar
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    I mentioned it on here years ago when it happened but I was doing a wedding at a large venue around 5 minutes drive away from my house when I lived in Hampshire. It was in the early days I guess and I'd only been out as a full timer for around 3 years but even back then, backup was very important to me.

    I'd been to the venue in the morning and sound checked everything and it was all fine.
    At the time, I was using a Crown XLS602 amplifier to run the full range JBL's and another Peavey amplifier to run the Peavey bass bins (yes, I know I could have linked them both together and it is something I did do but on this occasion I didn't).

    I remember returning to the venue at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start, saying hello to the Bride & Groom (they were friends of a friend) and also chatting with the Best Man (who I also knew and he'd also been a DJ in the past). I got behind the set up and firstly switched the Peavey amplifier on...... It didn't do anything!!??
    I checked the connections and all seemed ok. I swapped the power lead over and still nothing? I wasn't panicking as yet, just bemused as to what was happening.
    Then I smelt a burning smell and looked at the back of the amp and realised that it must have blown and had gone to the equipment dump in the sky.

    "No problem" I thought.... I still had the Crown amplifier and time on my hands before I started so I moved the Peavey out from under the decks and put it under a table behind me....swapped connections about and linked the JBL's to the Peavey's. It was a large venue, hence why I took 2 amplifiers but the Crown would still do the job ok on its own......or so I thought....

    When I turned the Crown on, it lit up and then went straight off again...... "Oh, come on....you're having a laugh!!!" I shouted. The Best Man stood there and asked if everything was ok..... I was getting increasingly flustered by now and had around 15 minutes before I was due to start.....

    I didn't want to take any chances so I grabbed the van keys and said to him "I'll be back in 10 minutes"........As I was on my way out, the Bride came over and asked if all was ok..... "It should be" I shouted as I tried to get out of there as quick as I could...."I think a spike in the electrics or something has blown my amplifier up.....I won't be long".

    As I said, luckily I was only a 5 minute drive to my house so I got there as quick as I could. I ran into the house and my wife wasn't expecting me "Everything ok?" she asked....."Nope!" I replied and I went to the spare room, grabbed the DB Technologies Actives and got back to the venue as soon as I could.

    Luckily, everything turned out fine although I did feel a bit silly having a large stack of speakers either side of me with the majority of them turned off. I placed the DB's on top of the JBL's and it looked like a box system. Anybody that would have known about sound and stuff would have sussed out what had happened.
    The DB's were only 400 watts each but they did the trick although I pushed them quite hard (I still have them, especially for back up).

    The Crown amplifier survived. I took it to a repairers and they told me what I'd originally thought.....the board inside had been fried due to a spike somewhere.
    The Peavey amplifier didn't make it. It was beyond repair. It was a 3000 watt amplifier (bloody heavy thing) that I'd bought second hand for £100.00 and it lasted me about 2 years.

    If I'd have had the money back then, I'd have bought 2 sets of Mackie's. That particular occasion scared the crap out of me. I think if you're going to have backup, it needs to be as good as, if not the same as what you usually use.

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