“We are busting at the seams,” says Doug Murray, who founded the Pottstown, PA-based Upstage Video in 2005.
To better serve its growing roster of clients, the company is expanding on three fronts. Along with the move from its current 8,000-square-foot home base to a 50,000 square foot building in the Philadelphia area later this year — “that should hold us for another year or two,” Murray laughs — the company recently expanded into a 10,000-square-foot facility in Boulder, CO, near Denver, and also acquired Los Angeles-based JumboScreen Co. (JSC) in April. Operations there will soon move from Thousand Oaks, CA to a 10,000-square-foot warehouse just 10 blocks from Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.A Bit of History
Murray’s relationship with the stage began as a touring musician. When the rock dream died, entrepreneurial fervor filled the void. He launched a successful start-up that brought digital signage into doctor’s waiting rooms. On the hunt for plasma screens at InfoComm 2004, he saw even greater potential for mobile LED units, sold his interest in the digital signage company, and started Upstage Video with one mobile unit and a screen from Daktronics.
“The first year was hectic and eye-opening,” Murray says. “We quickly purchased additional mobile units to meet demand and added modular screens to our inventory.” The Rocky Mountain office, headed by “Wavy Dave” Mandlowitz, followed in 2008, with “more and more LED inventory” along with upgraded camera flypacks quickly filling the new warehouse’s expanded space.
Upstage Video had worked with JSC owner David Mann for several years prior to his untimely death from an accident at an event last August. “They helped serve our national clients when they needed service on the West Coast, and we reciprocated for them here on the East Coast,” Murray notes. “David built a loyal client base by pursuing a similar mission as ours — ‘provide your clients with the best technology, and service with a smile…and always put their show at the top of your priority list.”
Along with the commitment to pick up “where David and his team left off,” Murray sees the westward expansion as another way to meet client needs. “With Los Angeles, Boulder and Philadelphia, we can follow our clients wherever they go,” not just with token offices in multiple cities, but with “real warehouses, with real gear and live technical staff in all of our locations.”
Serving Client Needs
Upstage Video has handled big events across the U.S. and beyond, ranging from large-scale concerts to college graduations, PGA Tour events, auto shows, the Bassmaster Classic fishing competition and political events including President’s Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.
The company’s growing roster of clients include the Philadelphia Phillies and concert organizers staging productions featuring Coldplay, the Black Eyed Peas, Tim McGraw and Jay Z, among others. “In addition to all that, we handle corporate events like a recent one for Kimberly-Clark, and large marketing events like the premiere of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie.”
With the addition of JSC’s inventory, Upstage Video’s fleet of mobile screens has expanded to nine, and as it responds to customer needs, the company has evolved, not just from mobile to indoor screen rentals, but to a wide array of video-related services,
“We like to bring turnkey solutions to our clients,” Murray says. “We’ll write software for clients. We’ll develop content, shoot it, and set up signal distribution on the site. We have multi camera fly packs and production trucks. We have wireless signal distribution. We can build the whole show.”
On the PGA Tour events, for example, Upstage Video builds numerous modular screens and sets them up all over the course. “We also have a full production package to provide all of the content to those screens, and we interface with the Tour’s scoring database and create dynamic content for each screen.”
Another case in point was Upstage Video’s visual support for a triathlon. The organizers wanted to simultaneously show the action on screens and broadcast it on the web. “We did a package where we had two motorcycles — one in front of the women in the race and one in front of the men. The camera operators on those shot their signal up to a helicopter, which bounced it back to us. We did that for over 115 miles and the whole thing came together and we streamed it.”
In 2010, Upstage Video helped stage the reveal of a new private jet. They provided a screen as large as the jet itself — 117 feet long, 27 feet high. “That was an outdoor modular screen, and we still haven’t seen anybody do anything like that,” Murray says. “There are plenty of screen surfaces larger, but this was a hard surface, not mesh. After loading it out, I knew that anybody could throw us anything and we could handle it.”
Today, “those are the clients we go for. Someone to challenge us, take us out of our comfort level,” says Murray. “We have built this business by committing our efforts and talents to the success of our clients shows.”
Indoor Events, Too
Upstage Video offers Daktronics video products for their outdoor shows, predominantly that company’s PST-12 HD screens. “There are higher resolution products out there, but none as bright, or that offer as effective contrast,” Murray says, noting the need to cut through sunlight for events staged in broad daylight.
Clients are turning to Upstage Video for indoor events as well, Murray says, and this year, Upstage Video is making a substantial investment in its indoor business. “It’s nice not having to fight the elements all the time,” he laughs.
Indoors or out, the choice of gear can have a big impact on a growing video rental company’s profitability. Upstage Video works to fit purchases in a three-year cycle, seeking out products that are easy for techs to use, and made by a manufacturer who will stand behind what they sell.
“We’ve hit a few on the head, and when you hit it on the head, it’s a lot easier to find new clients,” Murray says. “We have learned to not to be the first one out of the gate with a product,” he adds. “And there are some manufacturers that really do their research, and others just build something because it’s the next thing to build.”
Murray says the company is waiting for the right opportunity to enter the touring market “We actually service a lot of touring bands all the time, but getting to that next step involves a lot of networking. I don’t hunt for it right now because it’s a little different business model then the one we’re currently following.”
Challenges and Rewards
So far, the biggest challenge is scheduling and logistics, particularly in the busy summer season. On any given weekend, Upstage Video might have more than 20 trucks on the road, with more than 100 staff in the field. “One little change in that show schedule and there is a huge domino effect in who and what you deploy,” Murray notes. “Its not just people and trucks — there are a million details…Which tech is best suited for the challenges of this job? Where is he the day before? Can the gear we had scheduled for job B make it to job C if we do an overnight team drive? …It’s a delicate balancing act, between being flexible and being realistic.”
But if the pace is hectic and the challenges can loom large, there’s a big payoff. “When you put in an extreme amount of effort on a show, months of pre-production, insane production schedules, impossible last-minute requests from the client, and it all comes off without a hitch — those are the good times. That’s why I am in this business.”
