Hit “Upside the Head” With A Mic Stand

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, microphones & mic stands, Pro Sound, speaker cables — No Comments ↓

mike2 I was helping unpack a large shipment of microphone stands yesterday, when I got a great “blast from the past“.  I am always amazed at the sorts of experiences that will turn back the clock for a few minutes.

I learned a lot of my “hands on” production skills working as a stagehand, first as a student, then as a part time employee at my alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill, on the tech crew there.

One of the first acts I had a chance to do sound for was John Sebastian, soon after he had left The Lovin’Spoonful to go out on his own.

In those days, acts never traveled with sound systems and rarely did any sort of advance work.

The day Mr. Sebastian showed up, the took a look at our sound system and said “where are the monitors?“.  Not only did we not know WHERE the monitors were, we also didn’t know WHAT the monitors were.

After having him explain to us what monitors were and what they did, we decided that we could achieve what he wanted by simply setting up two complete sound systems, duplicate mixers, speakers, mics, stands, everything.  One set for the audience.  The other set for the performer.

I’ll never forget the first thing he said when he hit the stage.  Looking at the audience through a forest of four big, shiny chrome microphone stands, he said “I feel like I’m in jail“.

Next time we produced a concert, we had the monitors.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.   Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

Want To Get Rich? Start Here

Posted on by Jeff Posted in good business ideas, web development — No Comments ↓

ted_head.jpg I find that I have gradually moved from being amazed at how many great media services I can subscribe to on the internet to being just distracted.

The time required to keep with with online subscriptions to  Netflix, audio books,  The New York Times,  satellite TV, Itunes, Pandora, etc. has become a time issue.  It makes me less and less interested in taking the time to look into the next newest, greatest idea.

Just keeping up with the passwords is a chore, never mind the payments.

Why not a media aggregator that could handle all the details of every media account you subscribe to.  You would log in to a single account to access all  your services (premium & free)and make a single monthly payment that the aggregator would distribute to everyone you owe.

A single log in would quickly tell you how much you are spending and remind you that it might be time to cancel or downgrade a service that you longer provides real value.

The aggregator could potentially increase their revenue by making suggestions about new services or changes in service level based on an analysis of your current subscriptions.

Unfortunately, right now I’m too busy to get rich.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

Blowin’ In The Wind

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, duct tape, gaffers tape, Pro Sound, tape, tie-line — No Comments ↓

mike2 It’s outdoor show season, and that means that drought stricken areas all over the country are planning elaborate and expensive outdoor events so they can make it rain.

It’s all but guaranteed that 30 minutes before the event is over, but well after dark, the bottom will drop out of the sky, promising a load out in the rain and a truck full of wet gear.

While the standard hardware store blue tarp is the industry standard for quick cover ups in the rain, they can really cause you some problems when the rain is accompanied by a stiff breeze.

A simple modification in a cheap tarp can make it many times more useful when the raindrops start falling.

Turn the tarp into a plastic bag.

Just take your tarps, fold them in half, and stitch up the edges.  If you’re not handy with a sewing machine, gaffers tape or even a stapler will work almost as well.

Larger tarps can be turned into bags that will cover up your entire PA stacks, and you can make smaller bags for covering up things like monitors.

Since the tarps can be easily cut and normally do not unravel, you can take one large tarp and turn it into a lot of custom covers for things like your consoles and amp racks.  No hemming necessary.

Since the tarps have grommets, you will have some tie down points, but you probably won’t even need them.  Since wind can’t get inside the bag, the harder the wind blows, the firmer the bag stays in place.

Make sure you label each bag with a large label (try using a Sharpie marker directly on the bag) in letters large enough to be seen in the dark.

At the first mention of rough weather, place each bag close to the location where it will be needed and instruct stagehands or volunteers how they are used.

This might well be the best piece of sound equipment you ever buy.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  Lots more good ideas at our Twitter feed.

This Drummer Is Hot!

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

ted_head.jpg So, I’m watching a Metacafe video of the drummer for The Dave Matthews Band (Carter Beauford) while the site serves ads for “printer drums”, drum heaters” and “ear drum” protection.

I realize that keyword driven advertising has a long way to go before it can be counted on to deliver up relevant ads, but this is ridiculous.

What most advertisers don’t seem to recognize that only they are in a position to be specific about how their ads are served up.

It would be fascinating to know what percentage of keyword advertising is  totally irrelevant to the subject matter being delivered.

Just a quick thought!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Nobody Likes To Get Old

Posted on by Jeff Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

ted_head.jpg As part of our new marketing strategy built around goodideaguys.com, I am trying to work on a new social media presence for our business.

I have resisted using sites like Facebook and Twitter to date, partly because they can be pretty complicated to use effectively, but more importantly, they are so difficult to read.

I’m not talking about actual postings (not too hard to read a 140 character twitter posting).  I’m talking about reading the instructions for setting up profiles.

I realize that most of these administrative pages are intended for eyes younger than mine, but who thinks that green type against a blue background is easy to read, even if you are a twenty-something?

The basis of good design may be negotiable on the web, but the presentation of information that requires the reader to comprehend instructions and actually do something still call for good contrast, an easily readable font and text size large enough that you don’t have to constantly zoom the text in order to get the job done.

The standard settings for web text that present black type against a white background are one of the most powerful tools the web has for presenting information and it is something that most people take for granted.

Just because it’s the “default” doesn’t mean that it isn’t also the best!

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Quick Follow Up To Yesterday’s Blog

Posted on by Jeff Posted in good business ideas, microphones & mic stands, web development — No Comments ↓

Yesterday, I posted some comments on Google knol and I have already gotten a couple of questions answered.

While the articles don’t show up in search when the key words are used by themselves, when you combine the key words with the term “knol” the , mic stand article pops up number one.  Yesterday’s blog posting is returned in google search as well.  I certainly never had a posting show up and go to #1 so quickly, regardless of what it was.

I returned to the knol on microphone stands using another browser and discovered that I was able rate it.  Needless to say, I gave it four stars.

If google allows the writer of an article to control who can edit it and allows the author to rate his own article, I doubt if knol will be around for long.

Rest easy, Wikipedia.
GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

What’s Google Up To Now?

Posted on by Jeff Posted in gaffers tape, good business ideas, microphones & mic stands, web development — No Comments ↓

spokesguy Have you heard of Google knol?  I hadn’t either until yesterday.

Knol is an acronym created by Google, and it means “a unit of knowledge“.

Knol is a new content creation index from Google that has a lot of similarities to Wikipedia.  Individuals are allowed to post articles on any subject of their choosing and then the articles can be commented on and edited by other users of the service.  Unlike Wikipedia, knol will allow the creation and viewing of multiple articles on the same subject and the author can control how his or her work is edited.

I first came across it through an online posting by Jason Calacanis, a highly regarded web guru.  Mr. Calacanis went to great lengths to draw interesting and accurate between KNOL and traditional content creators like the New York Times.  These parallels led Calacanis to determine (and I agree) that this project was Google’s latest attempt (not unlike YouTube) to get into the content creation business.

It should be obvious that a business that has become the defacto provider of indexed search results faces potential conflict of interest problems if it is the creator and controller of the content it returns with its search results.

Since we are currently indexed at the top of page one for a number of  Google search terms,  I have created a couple of KNOL articles on microphone stands and gaffers tape to see how quickly Google might index them and how high they might rise in search rankings.

You can take a look at these articles here:

microphone stands

gaffers tape

If you’re interested in whether this test turns up any interesting results, check back here from time to time.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands. Sometimes we have some interesting ideas about web development too!  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


New Newsletter On the Way

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, customer service, web development — No Comments ↓

ted_head.jpg We’re getting ready to roll out a brand new GoodBuyGuys.com newsletter with lots of tips, product information and other useful stuff.  We look forward to including you in this community.

Sign up here.

 
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GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords,OnStage Stand mic stands

How About A Little Balance Here

Posted on by Jeff Posted in audio visual, good business ideas, Pro lighting, Pro Sound, web development — No Comments ↓

spokesguy I spend my entire day online staring at four computer monitors.  It is not exciting as life was when I was a special event producer, but it is a heck of a lot better way to get my childrens’ tuition bills paid.

That’s the idea that led to the launching of goodbuyguys.com.

After almost thirty years in the special events production business, it just made sense to develop a web business that could take advantage of what I had learned from three decades of “hands on” experience.

A good part of my time is spent monitoring forums about audio visual and stagecraft discussions,  looking for info about how the products we sell are being discussed and used in the field.

Unfortunately, most of the moderators of forums that cater to those in the sound and lighting business take exception with the idea that you can combine a production career with supplying products that you used successfully when you actually used what you sell now.

It seems that if those who control these forums think that you make a living selling something, then you are automatically disqualified from posting useful information to their forum.

It is difficult to understand how bringing practical knowledge to the marketplace somehow disqualifies the seller from being able to answer questions and comment on forum user postings.  Would you rather buy your gaffers tape from someone who has taped down enough cable to go to the moon and back, or someone who has spent their entire life in a sales office.  The sense that selling a product discounts the value of the sellers experience means that the real loser is the person who posts a forum question.  They are denied access to what may be a lifetime of experience just because the email address of the person answering their questions points to a domain that sells the product.

As the web continues to build a larger and larger database of links back to the sellers domain, it becomes even more likely that the forum administrator will disallow postings from an experienced seller with real world experience.

The end result of this sort of thinking means that the forum subscribers are denied access to a lot of valuable information.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands.  Look here for good information about web development too!

These Guys Are “First” Among Our Favorite Customers

Posted on by Jeff Posted in customer service, gaffers tape — No Comments ↓

spokesguy We got a nice gaffers tape order this morning from the First robotics competition and we are excited about working with this customer.

The first several times we got online orders from “usfirst“, frankly we thought they were coming from a bank or other financial institution.  I’m glad I took the time to look a little closer.

First sponsors a national program for for middle and high school students who design and build robots  and then compete against other teams.

It turns out that they use gaffers tape to lay out the “arena” where the robots compete.  The lanes and end zones are marked with different colors of cloth tape.

You can see an example in this video.

First was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, a well known inventor and entrepreneur probably best known for inventing the Segway.

To date, First has awarded almost $10 million in scholarships.  This year they will work with over 196,000 students making up 1680 teams.

This year the national First championship will be at the Georgia dome in Atlanta April 16-18.  I hope they will take us along.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape, Duracell Procell batteries, MagLite flashlights, Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment ONe extension cords, OnStage Stand mic stands.  We are proud to be a supporter of our local schools here in Chatham County, NC.

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