Tag: installations

Stage set up from the In-House AV company, RTR Productions at at Encore St Kilda

AV company In-house in a venue Pros and Cons

Benefits and disadvantages of using an  In-house av company in a venue

3 nights ago I bumped into my old friend Claudio in a restaurant in Hoi An, Vietnam. (Yes, I’m on holiday and I love Vietnam and the Vietnamese people!)

After all the standard catching up questions, “how is your mum”, “is your daughter going to school”, how old is your wife.. (what? Claudio said, she looks sooo much younger than you!!!.. Yes thanks Claudio!!) Claudio asked me a question about In-house AV companies in Venues.

Claudio owns a small AV production company in Milan, Italy.

So Cris, what do you think about the pros and cons of In-house AV companies in hotels, function centres and Wedding venues?

I had to think about it for a couple of minutes as I wasn’t 100% sure.

Here is more or less what I came up with.

The benefit for the venue is that they deal with a company they know very well and because of that, they can trust that company to set up and meet all the venue standards and requirement without need of any of the venue staff to spend time answering questions and overlooking the setup.

Another benefit for the venue is that the In-house AV company has normally an account manager that deals with all the questions related to the event and knows the venue very well.

There could also be some financial benefit for the venue, but let’s overlook this point.

As per the final client, the benefits would be first of all to have one supplier to deal with (or at least 2 suppliers that are on the same page) instead of two suppliers with no affiliations to each other. Another benefit could be that the standard package set up meets the requirements for the client and that means less time spent organizing where projectors, stage and speakers would be best set up for the event.

As per the cons what I can think of, is that to achieve a great and flexible set up in a venue could be very costly for the In-house AV company and they will rely on the venue to “sell” their services to their clients. As per the venue they want to make sure that they choose a professional AV company that does not only do in-house event but also event productions so at any time they would be able to satisfy any request from the client for custom set-ups, extra last-minute gear or a totally different set up from what is on offer as a standard in-house package as they will have stock and knowledge on how to set up and run a successful event outside of that particular venue.

As per the client, the cons could be a more expensive option as the cost of labour will increase. (be aware that this may not be true in some venues, so do your own research).

Another downside could be that if the client hires a “Non-professional” company the venue could be very frustrated with issues like Test and Tag etc etc and the event could suffer, but this is also true for every event in and out from venues.

 

In conclusion, I think you have to do your research and weigh the pros and cons but one thing is clear, make sure you employ a professional AV company as your event depends on it…

 

By the way, this conversation with my friend Claudio was in Italian, so I may have missed or suggested something a little different to him but that’s ok I’m sure he got the idea.

 

Here is an example of RTR In-house AV venue, Encore St Kilda a premier venue on St Kilda Beach.

https://encorestkilda.com.au/

BMW launch
RTR Productions the In-House AV company at Encore St Kilda helps BMW launch the latest cars

And here is another read with regards to stage and sound systems, if you have a spare 5 minutes:

http://staging4.rtrproductions.com.au/speakers-facing-band

 

At RTR Productions we can help with your event or venue set up. For over 15 years we have supplied staging, audio, visual and lighting to the entertainment industry.

 

Claudio, thanks for dinner, was great seeing you again…. and BTW my wife is 1 year and 1 month older than me!!!

Truss built . Draping and staging

RTR specialty rigging g at Dulux Colour Awards

Creative Ways to Build

The 8th of May saw a creatively spectacular event put on by The Valentina Group Agency at the National Gallery of Victoria.  RTR Production assisted with the production for the first time this year.  Custom and specialty rigging is a cornerstone of the services that RTR provides to its clients.

RTR specialty rigging
Adnate’s beautiful portrait hanging from RTR’s custom double arch

Amazing and immersive events that always surpass any of the attendees’ expectations are what The Valentina Group Agency is known for.  This year’s Dulux Colour Awards at NGV’s Great Hall were even bigger.  This was in thanks to amazing event design and a HUGE mural by famed Australian muralist Adnate painted onsite.

 

The NGV Production department and The Valentina Group asked RTR Productions to provide specialty rigging that would form a giant easel.  Adnate specialises in very large-form fine art portraits carried out as murals on the sides of buildings.  He actually has created the tallest mural in the Southern Hemisphere on the Wellington Street flats in Collingwood, Victoria.  For the Dulux Colour Awards, he created a 7.6m x 4.8m portrait live during the actual award presentation.

 

RTR Provides Specialty Rigging for Artwork

RTR Productions used Euro Truss 300mm box truss to create a double truss arch to support the massive painting.  Their riggers put together a 9m tall structure, with additional bracing. Then, this structure framed a custom aluminium tube grid, which in turn held the giant painting.  The experienced riggers than mounted individual panels to become a composite structure.  Adnate actually had to paint from a scissor lift to reach the whole painting it was so large.

 

One of the most amazing feats of the evening was that the NGV’s Great Hall was open to the public until noon that day.  The crew unpacked the entire structure and built it in just a few hours.  This had to happen to allow time to rig the individual panels on the custom grid.  RTR chose to paint this custom grid Dulux Duramax Gloss Hot Lips red to match the design of the event. Giant red velvet drapes framed the event space and a very creative custom stage as well.

The Valentina Group’s Marisa Sabljak said:

“To have that structure up so quickly and to have it look so spectacular was an incredible feat. The client and the artist were extremely happy with the finished product.”

Check out some more of Adnate’s amazing work here:  https://www.adnate.com.au/

Things I’ve learnt working at RTR #1 – Withered Flowers

Working at RTR Productions is great, you get to see a lot of innovative technology solutions being used to solve adhoc problems for clients. This is mostly with audio video and lighting systems but also includes control systems, media streaming, staging and… well almost anything, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say “we don’t do that”.

There is a lot of planning that goes into production projects and in most cases, RTR stages a full run down of the equipment used at the Melbourne warehouse. This is why RTR has such good flow when bumping in on site.

Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the RTR Installation team that is headed up by Matthew Withey. Similar to the Productions team, the Installation team work on adhoc, custom solutions which require careful planning and attention to detail. They are also similar to the production team in that they get to work at some pretty amazing buildings around Melbourne. This is what I’d like to mention in this post.

I’ve been completely blown away by some of the architecture and venues we’ve been installing equipment in. The one venue I’d like to highlight this month is from the Melbourne University. I had the absolute pleasure of working with the guys from Soundcorp who installed a face recognition camera in one of the main lecture theatres, the camera identifies the lecturer and automatically follows them on stage, the video feed is then projected onto large screens behind the lectern and around the theatre, it’s pretty amazing to see working. The theater is massive in size and hosts seats for about 500 students.

The thing that really caught my eye was the wall paper which is a beautiful piece of art by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel called Withered Flowers. Together, Job and Nynke created a handful of eccentric and quirky wallpapers, The Withered Flowers pieces is by far my favorite. It was exciting to see Melbourne University using some high tech which was beautifully camouflaged by the Withered Flowers wall paper.

Job and Nynke created seven pieces in total which you can see here.

New Product Review: Electronic Whiteboards

RTR Productions are now stocking Panasonic Electronic Whiteboards for Hire and Sale.

Do you want your staff and guests to get the most from meetings and increase productivity, then a simple addition to your office or meeting can help. Electronic Whiteboards or EWB.

Panasonic’s latest electronic whiteboards let you digitally record (USB) or print your notes and drawing that are written on the screen surface. With EWB technology you no longer need to take notes. In meetings where EWBs are used your staff can concentrate on the discussion in stead of writting notes.

At the end of your meeting all of the important details can be shared digitally or printed directly. Using digital sharing you can do you part towards achieving a paperless office.

Contact our team on 03 9331 6522 to discuss your requirements and choose from the latest technology whiteboards and printers.