TRANSCRIPTION Okay, so since I’m here I wanted to take this time to talk about site surveys. It’s also called a walk through, a site visit, whatever you want to call it it. Basically is just visiting your venue, checking out the space, looking at the specifics, There’s s a lot that goes into it depending on the size of your event. But whether it’s a big or small event you should always do a site survey. So let’s talk a little bit about what I bring being in the a/v field. I always carry my iPad, this is where I take notes. I’ve got the iPad pro with the pencil. The iPad is where I write in my measurements, I take notes, as well as pictures. Speaking of measurements, I always carry a laser measure or laser tape. With this laser I can measure any venue of any size. I think this thing goes up to 300 feet or something like that. It’s really simple you turn it on, point, and you hit this button here. From this point forward if you point the laser to the ceiling, hit the button and it tells you exactly how high the ceilings are.It’s a really cool piece of equipment. I think it cost like 30 bucks on Amazon. The iPad was a little more pricey as I’m sure you guys know. I also I carry my laptop sometimes, well I always carry my laptop wherever I go but it’s not necessary. And thats about it, I used to carry a notebook but that was before the iPad. I used to carry a tape measurer before the laser measure, and my phone for photos of course, photos and videos, that’s what I’m using now to record this video. So let’s get into some specifics. One of the first things I like to go over as I do a site survey is how am I getting inside the space. Within us AV companies have got all this big, heavy equipment and all of those things are typically not allowed in regular passenger elevator, so most event spaces have what they call a service elevator or a freight elevator. The Freight is usually beat up from all the deliveries and companies that come and go. So in this space it’s like a 200-foot walking path from the street to the service elevator and then once you come up from the elevators its like another 50 feet to the venue space. Venues they don’t want there nice passenger elevators getting all beat up with equipment that we have, Its all in cases with wheels so you roll them in there sometimes they bang into the walls so its understandable. So yeah here it is, Here’s the service elevator. So this one has like pads and everything to protect the elevator walls etc. I mean its really simple. The second thing I like to look at is power. If it’s a bigger event you’re going to need a lot of electrical power. This particular event we have an LED video wall and a lot of lighting it looks like we’re going to need a lot of juice. This venue luckily provides a what they call a power drop and provide Cam-Loks. Cam-Loks are not like your basic plug that you have in your house, let me just show you because it’s easier to explain visually. So these are your Cam-Loks this venue has them coming out of the floor at several locations. You connect them to your own set of cables which then run to a power distribution unit. This Power Distro here takes all that juice that will kill you if you touch it and it distributes it to all these connectors and special plugs. You got some of the ones you guys are used to at home and you’ve got some special twist locks and some Socapex. And then from there you take that power and it gets distributed to all of your equipment. Then I like to look at the layout of the space and how it would look finally. Sometimes your plans have to change. In this particular venue we wanted to do the setup one way and we realize that that may not work because we were here doing a site survey. It’s one thing to look at the layout of a space on paper and it’s another to actually be there. So that’s essentially it, to recap a site survey gives you the opportunity to physically go into the space and see if what you’re planning on paper makes sense. It allows you to see different elements that you can’t see just by looking at the photos of the venue online or looking at the floor plans. Things like if the actual ceiling height is what they say it is. A lot of times these venues list what their ceiling height is to the highest point in the space but what they don’t give you is the height of actual useable space. I don’t have that problem in this space because I think we’ve got 25 foot ceilings or something like that.But yeah you want to visit your space because you don’t want there to be any surprises when you get there on event day. Site surveys allow you to see if your floor plan, your seating, your chairs, the tables all make sense in the space; your lighting, how much noise is coming off the street, how much ambient light there is. This space with all these big windows is super bright. Some of the photos you may see online don’t always tell the full story of a venue so it’s super important to do a site survey whether you’re on the event planning side or you’re on the AV side like I am. So that was really broad, There was a lot that I didn’t cover. There’s also a lot more tools that you can bring along like a level see how level your floor is. a frequency scanner to see what your wireless environment is like, and testing your Wi-Fi. There’s just so much but it’s all based on the event itself; how many guests you’ve got coming, how many seats you’ll have to fill, do you need security, the Wi-Fi the wireless environment for the microphones, if you got projectors how far they are from the screen, where are you going to place them, what kind of lenses to bring. There’s so much that goes into it so I just wanted to make mention of that as I stroll through these palm trees flexing a little bit while you guys are in New York with all that snow.
