Many equipment vendors across the world offer what gear they excel at best. Some offer just lighting, some offer just audio etc. But nowadays it’s become more common for companies to become all service vendors. This is usually due to the fact that clients that normally come to a company for lights might add in a “Hey, while I have you on the phone, where can I source an LED wall for this show?” Or they may ask for some set risers, soft goods fabricated or perhaps a few “speakers on a stick” or some special effects.
For the past few years, the Upstaging team has been easing their way into providing in house video solutions to their clients, but they sure have not been talking about it much. Their gambit of playing their cards close to their vest has not prevented word from getting out, however. In fact, as account executive John Bahnick puts it, “We are already in sold-out mode through September.”
A Gradual Shift
Head honcho John Huddleston explains just how the company got to that point.
“It was a general shift. A lot of clients had inquired if we would do it. Some were massive arena tours. We weren’t going to dive in on that level. We got a few clients on a smaller arena level and that’s where we decided to jump in. It’s a discipline like everything else. You have to learn it, understand it and package it and make sure you know what you are doing. We did not want to bite off more than we can chew. Now, Lorde is good sized arena tour and it’s been a flawless tour for us. We started providing video services a few years ago, but weren’t really talking about it. It was essential to fly it under the radar.”
During that time, Huddleston recalls, “there was some craziness in the industry, with companies just battling each other for video work. It was brutal, as we saw companies’ beating each other brains out just to get the work. We did not want to get in the middle of that. We wanted to offer a quality option, rather than a price option. That being said, we slowly started building really good quality systems with crews.”
The clients were looking for the same good quality video service with solid preparation Upstaging is known for in its lighting systems.
“Good clients who appreciate our attention to detail asked if we could apply those same principals to video,” says Huddleston. “Like everything we do, we started slow and made sure we could cover it by purchasing and renting a lot of LED panels. Some shows we were doing not only high-resolution LED walls behind the stage and off to the sides for I-Mag, but what I like to call the artistic LED, which is low- res systems, like on risers and set pieces.”
Very soon, Upstaging was asked to provide cameras, engineering, technicians and video directors. The company now owns a couple of full engineering packages with control, robocam systems and switching. Currently, Lorde is carrying a complete full production video package with a dedicated video crew.
“It has enabled us to compete with VER and PRG, who actually own video companies,” says Bahnick. “It was something we needed to do, to be able to do some of these tours. It’s been good for us. I can’t say we’re doing 30 tours, like we are on the lighting side, but we are growing with a good reputation and quality gear, because we are packaging for value.”
The Tours
Current tours out carrying Upstaging Video packages include Bob Seger, Lorde, Thomas Rhett, alt-J (see PLSN, June 2018, page 30) and Jack White (June 2018 issue, page 36). Rhett and alt-J are carrying the ROE MC-7 LED tiles and the ROE Vanish 25 tile. alt-J has two LED systems; a large one specifically built for Coachella and festivals. The panels usually travel in festival carts with the panels built into them. The smaller one from which the Coachella system morphed is their touring package.
“We probably had the opportunity to do a lot more video earlier on tours; we just did not have all the people and product in place. We were only able to take what we could handle, making sure we’re covered by not biting more off than we can chew,” says Huddleston.
“Basically, we moved into video as an added value for us, and our customers,” says Bahnick, the account exec for Thomas Rhett and Lorde, among many others. “Some of the tours we were doing had asked about smaller video systems,” he adds. “Instead of sending them in the direction of video company or some of our competitors who do lighting and video, we opted to upgrade our older Martin video panels to something that was more modern and could compete with some of the other video company’s products.”
“It really has helped us out, quite honestly,” continues Bahnick. “On Jack White, we have one tech who handles the lighting and video because it all hangs on one structure.”
The structures Bahnick is referring to are three individual panels measuring approximately eight feet wide by 22 feet high. One side of the panel has LED tiles and the other has torms of automated lighting. Automation to rotate the panels was built by Atlanta Rigging System (ARS).
Three electric 8 rpm motors with a “slew bearing” manage the rotators, which hang inside a 40-foot run of 30-by-20.5-inch truss. Each rotator has a 4,000-pound capacity. Slew bearings are commonly used in any industrial heavy equipment manufacturing that needs to spin in a circle.
A Collaborative Effort
“We were looking for a touring product,” Huddleston says. “One that, when we needed more we could easily get our hands on, not some obscure Far East offering that, six months later, you can’t get the same product. We were looking also for a good solid touring frame. There was a period when people were buying LED and then having a third party build their frames.
“ROE Visual seemed to be a solid company and fit the bill.” Huddleston adds. “We started to see good frames come out with the video product, with quality engineered carts and packaging. They weren’t a company that we had any fears wouldn’t be around next time we ordered.”
Huddleston figured that ROE to be a good quality option, based on their general acceptance in the market. As his team delved further into research, they did not find anybody who expressed qualms about ROE’s video walls. “Even better news,” says Huddleston, “is the fact they are investing and continuing to improve their product, their frames and their walls.”
Perhaps most importantly ROE was willing to build Brompton chips into their panels. “That sealed the deal. We think it is the gold standard of processing. When we got into video, nobody was using Brompton processing. They were using whatever obscure processors came with the LED panel.”
Even though Brompton was considerably more expensive, the Upstaging team felt that Brompton was the future, and they were pretty insistent that any panels they bought needed Brompton processors. Though the processor does increase the price of the tile, Upstaging and ROE are clearly reaping the benefits.
Built for Speed, Safety and Ease
Upstaging’s relationship with Scott Almand goes back even further than the co-design of the HUD truss. “We’ve always known Scott Almand as a good designer of trussing products,” said Huddleston, “so we were eager to hear him out when he called and said he wanted to share some ideas and bounce them off us.” Sure enough, Almand had something of interest. After some suggestions from Upstaging’s knowledgeable touring crew chiefs, Almand returned to his shop to make some refinements.
“He came back with what we think is a solid product,” Huddleston states. “Again, that kind of collaboration is what you need in our business. We understand what it’s like on the road. The manufacturers understand how to build it, but not necessarily tour it. It was a good collaboration, which gave us solutions on a few tours to some challenges we had. We’re happy to have it out there”
The truss (fabricated by Tiffin Scenic Studios), designed for ease of hanging video walls is called V-Lock and currently it’s on tour with Thomas Rhett. Brian Carico, who worked with Almand on designing the truss, is the video director for Rhett. These prototypes are the first models of an upcoming line to test it to make sure no additions or remodels were requested. Rhett has a full back wall of ROE’s Vanish 25 panels. The new truss comes with a center bar to hang the LED wall header and eye bolts that can be easily moved and locked into position on the truss.
Aaron Cass is a veteran production and stage manager who retired from the road to “create products designed by roadies for roadies that make their life easier on the road.” The mission of his company, ACASS-Systems, is to integrate video, staging and automation.
Manufacturing custom pieces has long been a service available in Upstaging’s shop. However, for the Lorde project, ACASS was brought on to build the framing, automation and tracking that holds the ROE MC7 LED panels
“We got a napkin sketch that I believe Lorde drew herself,” recalls Cass, “and we gave her production proof of concept working drawings less than 48 hours later.”
Upstaging and ACASS-Systems have been working together for several years, Cass adds, and “we have handled a lot of LED integration for them.” Moving panels left to right and raising them on variable hoists is nothing new. But what if the artist wanted to rake her panels at sideway angles? That requires serious thought and engineering and ACASS stepped up to the plate in grand style.
The Techs and Peripherals
Although Upstaging has been working as a lighting vendor for a longer span of time than it has with video production, by no means is Upstaging wading into unfamiliar ground. They have long had a video component involving Green Hippo media servers and their Saber product (dual lines of LED strips permanently mounted in metal bars), which features Brompton processing.
“We have guys here who know the technology,” says Huddleston. “Distribution, well, we knew that very well also. As far as control signal, whether you are running fiber to the backbone of a lighting system or to a video component, it’s still in our wheelhouse.”
Huddleston adds that “where the real training came in was with cameras, switching, shading and all the components that go into engineering a video system. We hired some really good people, trained some other people. Like everything else, we did it slowly, methodically, and built some very good systems.”
Bahnick adds, “We have a great group of technicians that we go back to time and time again; these techs have the good fortune to roll from one tour to another with the system. A good example is last summer’s Weezer/Panic at the Disco tour, which became ‘Panic at the Disco,’ which rolled into Bob Seger, which rolled into Lorde.”
Tony Thompson, who has been with Upstaging for 15 years, oversees “anything video related,” such as media servers and media walls. His knowledge and expertise now extend to the camera packages and video switchers.
“From the media standpoint, WWE is our biggest video client,” says Thompson, who just spent two weeks with the production in Saudi Arabia. “We have 20 Green Hippo servers on their current productions. On the server end, we are truly client-driven. I will look at the spec and look at a system. We do full system design to achieve what the client wants to do. The problem we run into is, most companies don’t buy a ‘boatload’ of servers. There are not a lot of partners on the server end, especially the ancillary gear that servers require — the peripherals to function for the particular job they are doing — just as a moving light is not a standalone item. As far as inventory goes,” Thompson adds, “I work closely with the two inventory guys, who both know where every piece of gear we own is at any one point in time. We figure out what we need to buy to keep a handle on our purchasing but still provide the client what they need and ultimately what they want, to keep them coming back to us to get it.” He notes that Upstaging supplies disguise and Catalyst media servers as well.
Thompson’s other main duty is support. “We try not to pass our clients off to the manufacturers; we like to be the first line of support. As much as I don’t enjoy calls at 11:30 at night, it’s the other part of my job, and an essential piece of our service.”
For more information, please visit www.upstaging.com, www.acass-systems.com, www.roevisual.com and www.green-hippo.com.
