I don't know about you all but I am kinda happy that the Super Bowl is finally here. We have been working 6 or 7 days a week ever since New Years and I am ready for a little R&R.

Why do people sit on proposals for weeks or months and then finally contact you and say you have the job if it can be in by the Super Bowl?

I don't want to act like I am complaining about being busy but sometimes when you are as rushed you don't do your best work. I would rather it be slow and steady and not so hectic. Too much pressure for me with all the deadlines.

How about you all? Are you all ready for a cruise?

Good luck,

Dave T

Cruise nothin'. The Olympics are breathing down my neck. 3 weeks without a day off, averaging 80 hours. Sick and wrong. I'm not even a sports fan (although I'm looking forward to Shawn White smokin' the Euro-tr@$h in the halfpipe event).

I hear ya! This week is nice & light, no pressure, just full schedule. Last 3 weeks, pressure, pressure, pressure!

Dave, If I tell you about my Super Bowl day, yesterday... you might think I'm kidding...

Dave... I hear ya... I just had the most horrible CI-related experience-I've ever had...(Super Bowl Related)... There were times when I was almost pinching myself to see if I was dreaming...
I did a Golf Course Country Club retaurant A/V install a few years ago...Background Audio / Denon & Sonance, plus a few plasmas... The usual...

Last week the Owner calls me... Hey!!! We're in the Super Bowl!!
(Seattle)... I've got a great promo idea for you... So I obliged... "I want you to set up some really big screens and run things." Hmmm. what a pain, but O.K.
I built (custom) 8 projection screens & hung them... 8(custom) projector mounts, scraped together 8 projectors. The place is 20,000 square feet... 5 different large rooms. After I figured out how to create these mounts, what materias I'd need, and how far each one needed to be dropped, and distance back from the screen, the owner changed his mind, on locations, and I had to re-design everthing, plus I realised
I had to run Video Feeds to all 8 locations (from the attic), and tie into 4 Audio Systems. And find a place to get a video distribution amp on a Friday night.
I sarted on Friday @7:00 pm... worked til 1:30 AM. Saturday, started @ 6:30 AM, until 2:30 AM!!! a 20 hour day). Sunday...started at 7:30, and had a TON of stuff to do... and figured I could get it done by 3:00... game started at 3:30... BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Drunk guys stared rolling in @8:00 AM, to reserve their places!!!! We tried turning them away... and that was a mistake!
By 9:00 they were all bitchin' about no audio or video!!!
Also, about this time I realised (my mistake I guess), that I had to go back and fish Line-Level audio from the Satellite Receivers to all Amplifier Locations! Because the owner said that was already there... It wasn't...
So I am totally stressin' the owners are freaking out, cause I'm not done... The Drunken crowd is growing in size(about 500) and bad-attitude (still about 6 hours before kick-off)!!! I still haven't had time to mount ANY projectors or screens!!! 20 foot ceilings dropped tile type...
The owner tries to make crowd happy by cutting their
drink prices!!! Now they're REALLY getting drunker and angrier!!! I finally start getting things terminated, and hooked up, about 3 hours before Kick-Off... The place is standing room only with about 850 half drunk Fans all standing shoulder to shoulder all yelling and going nuts... I had to turn the amps up almost to max, just so you could barely hear the broadcast & even then it was hard... So I get all the projectors running, and all audio zones running --- temporary cables and wires hanging all over hell, some duct taped to the walls... It's the loudest thing I've ever been around... But finally they are sort of happy... I was literally RUNNING trying to get sh#t done... RUNNING down the hallways etc... From Banquet Room to Banquet Room. I was totally stressed. I sat down to take a five minute breather...with my glass of water, when a waitress comes up in a panic!!! Sh$#T!!! The sound quit in room 2!!! (Amp went into protection), everbody is yelling and screaming...Then zone 1 dies... Right about then the Projector in the biggest room goes out... The Lamp died!!! Everybody is going nuts, the Fans , the owners and wait-staff!!!
They're throwing empty drink cups and crap at the screen, and trying to crowd into the other rooms that WERE working, and those guests get pissed, because they had reserved tables!!! Then they started calling me "genious & video boy"...
Then, another amp and projector crash!!! By know I am so tired, and stressed I can't even remember from one minute to the next, what problem I should address first, and cannot even reason things out very well... Plus a housekeeper tossed a cardboard box full of my hand tools, and toner in the dumpster...(I tracked it down).
I go outside take a few deep breaths... It is almost total chaos, as these guys are REALLY drunk, and REALLY pissed, I'm exhausted, out of ideas or clues, can't think straight and afraid they're going to start trashing the place... I look over in the parking lot and see gorups of guys guzzling straight from bottles of cheap bourban (stolen from one of the bars) & passing around herbal smoke.
I race over to BB & buy a handful of cheap receivers hoping my DEBIT card will go through, swing by my house and grab a couple funky old really dim & pixellated projectors I had sitting in the basement, from years ago... and don't ask me how, cause it was a blurr... but managed to get everything duct-taped and chewing gummed together, and working about 2 minutes to kick off... Granted the old projectors looked really bad, but it quieted down the drunks... Everything was kinda OK, although I had people saying it was either too loud, or TURN IT UP DUDE, or HEY, it's too washed out looking... (no black-out shades in one room)... So we sent busboys out to Home Depot to buy carts full of black plastic and Duct tape to darken the room, meanwhile, a couple of the replacement amps started shutting off, and I lost one more projector!!! Then when Seattle looked like it was going to lose the game, the crowd started getting really ugly,almost to the riotus level... But, things mellowed out , the game ended, and it took me all night to tear everything down... I've gone on too long already, but it sucked, and I'm ready for some time off...

Just as I was leaving late that night I looked over, and there was my untouched glass of water.

If you ever get hooked into doing a big event, for a crowd... have a good stash of back-up equipment ON HAND, and a helper or two... I had two friends lined up, who bagged out the last minute... :)
F*&KING NEVER AGAIN!!!

Mr. Stanley,

I thought that I had it bad. I only had two installs and a recheck on Sunday. Got home and only missed the first three minutes of the game.

It just goes to show you that when you are feeling down and think that you have it bad....there is always someone who has it worse then you. The next time I am thinking that I am in bad shape I will just think about you and know that you probly have it twice as bad as me. LOL

Good job in making the best of a bad situation.

What happened to those Seahawks?

Dave T

Uhmmm, there were these old, senile A-holes in black & white striped shirts on the field messin' things up.
Also one of our guys had the jitters and dropped (3) nice passes! And our always reliable field goal kicker missed (2) long ones...

Great Story!

Mr. S,

I know you're not that stupid so you must be completely insane. You had no backup from the "boss" you speak of on this? I would never have even considered this without a full crew. And I will never again complain about a day that goes poorly. You're lucky you wern't shot and killed.

And you mention the "herbal smoke" being passed around the parking lot. Are you sure you wern't smoked up that day?

And some guys in yellow and black helped ruin your day too.

If he had been that stoned, he would have said, "Was there a problem Sunday?"

Yellow?

I didn't see any yellow on the refs...

I knew it was there somewhere (most likely yellow undies).

Stanley...

You should have called me... or at least someone else... I agree, how the heck could you go this one alone... your a bloody masochist.

Thanks, I had it perfectly (I thought) planned out... Was going to set it all up with (2) other guys on Friday... Pulling a long day... But that would have given me a cushion so that we could test and test again and test again... So that on Super Bowl Sunday, we could just kick back with the crowd -- and be the super stud heroes!!!

But, on Friday morning, my boss came in, got ticked at my installers because they screwed up some stuff, interfacing his computer with a "vehicle tracking system" in his office, so he sent them home for the day!!! Didn't even ask me what was on the schedule!!!

So, right then, I KNEW I was F'd!!! But then, he has ME, go out to his house, and change out his Security Gate Control Box & Swing-Arms in a total downpour in my "sales clothes" for 7 hours ...(never done it before, no wires labeled had problems), so- I didn't get that done until 6:00... THEN I had to go out and try setting up all this stuff.... So my whole plan - timewise, was totally trashed. That's when the initial Panic & Hell started, and it just kinda spiraled out of control from there... But I certainly appreciate the offer!!! Looks like I might get stuck with repair costs for 3 Infocus Projectors... But THAT is another stroy... but, amazingly I'll not even go there...

Was this "Promo" for you or your boss? When were you made aware of this dicision to do the video.
I certanly hope there was some money exchanged for all your efforts.