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My biggest lesson though was the work required to set up the sound system. I don't mean the actually mixing. I mean the lugging of the equipment putting everything together. The 2.5 hours setup and tear-down + the renting the equipment loading the car etc. etc.

I have performed many times prior to this, but it had always been simply, guitar and amp into car, unload guitar and amp, re-load guitar and amp, drive home!



I do work for a company called 'Portable Church Industries' as a trainer for A/V systems they sell. Their full systems are nicely integrated and get that setup and teardown time down to about as short a time as possible. Most of these systems are sold to churches that are meeting in schools, VFW halls and the like. Rental time is expensive to them so quick setup and teardown is absolutely critical to these churches.

Depending on how often you plan to do gigs like this, you may want to check out their stuff. I don't get a commission from them - I'm just a hired gun when they get overloaded doing delivery of systems across the country. Their website is www.portablechurch.com At their Blog, there are lots of photos for how they have optimized their systems for quick setup and teardown, load in/ load out.

The system is not necessarily 'space' efficient. It is designed for speed and quality of A/V, not so much space. So, for example, in a case, there is a shelf specifically for 15' instrument cables, a separate shelf for 15' xlr cables, another shelf for a different kind of cable, etc. All of these could be thrown into one box that would take up 1/3 of the space - but you'd have to sort them out the next time you setup - which eats time and costs money. With the PCI system, as long as you have some discipline putting things away where they were designed to be put away, you can significantly cut down your load in/out time and your system setup and teardown time.

I did one delivery in Florida where one of the A/V crew from the church was used to doing local audio support for a rental Audio company that supported touring national acts. This church was actually using some of that equipment and cases. The cases were big 6'x6'x2' tall open top cases on casters that they chucked all their cables into. Pretty space efficient, but you needed a proper loading dock to make use of the cases. The guy was complaining about how much space the PCI stuff required. The difference is that his company mainly uses lots of people to be quick at a gig. PCI uses the concept of everything having it's own place for speed and all cases being able to fit into doorways approved for wheelchair use. Once I pointed that out, he seemed to get it and actually pitched in and helped.

Last edited by rockstar_not; 07/14/09 10:57 AM.
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