We love what we do. Why else would someone put themselves through what we do in this life?

The Travel, The Hours, Inhospitable Locations and worst of all - the Idiots. After waking at midnight to catch a pre dawn flight - to get into a smelly car on a cold dusty airport and bump over 100 kilometres to the venue gate to be told by a voice behind a faded glass window ‘aapka naam list pe nahin hai !’

It’s humbling to see how many ways my (unusual ?) name has been mangled on a security list. Vibha Pulka, Baraf Puja, Giraffe Pochgaya; are standout examples.

And so it goes. We battle for our creative independence, trying to meet our clients expectations while dealing with so many hurdles to get to where we want.

That is our life and career and business. We do this as well as we can, simply to earn the privilege to get up and do it all over again the next time.

Ah - ha... WAIT! We have forgotten perhaps the most important element that will make our business and careers thrive - Investment.

In all our hustle and bustle of getting ahead I have seen so many promising enterprises drown under their inability to service their investments.

Hastily people point out that ‘What nonsense’ - their business still exists. So they have invested wisely. If that is your yardstick - then Good Luck and God Bless. But if the idea of actually making money doing what you love interests you, read on.

Let’s understand some basic concepts.

1. Turnover: This is the total amount of money our businesses earn in a year.
2. Direct Expenses: the expenses we incur that are directly related to the business we carry on.
Means that it is directly associated with a project.
3. Overheads: Expenses we need to make for the routine running of our businesses - telephone bills, rent etc.
4. Profit: What remains of our turnover after deducting all expenses and overheads (Incl. taxes)
5. Investment: Our spending on any item that will help us generate revenue in the future.

To effectively manage our businesses the manager must know on a week to week basis the exact total of each of the above heads -IN TOTAL. A good manager will also know how close the business is to the BUDGETED figures for the year.

For the manager to be truly coveted - he will know each ratio that the above heads has in proportion to each other; because that comes with the ability to tweak the operations to meet the business’ goals.

Too often I hear sneers of what a waste of time all this is. Give the figures to the accountant, pay your taxes and everybody’s happy.

If I have not already lost you I urge you to consider just one point. If you do get your balance of these concepts right - and are aware of the balance your companies need to maintain - you could save lakhs and hours of your companies time. Most importantly you could save your companies future.

In my experience the typical life cycle of an event business seems to be.

1. First Five years: Work Crazy Hours at crazy prices and make a name in the market.
2. Year 3 - 7: Make huge investments into people or equipment.
3. Year 7 - 15: Have so much equipment - No place to store it or have people to effectively manage it.
4. Year 15 Onwards: Get bogged down by details, owners lose interest, slow fade into just staying afloat. Equipment lying wasted and impossible to sell.

I see this pattern repeat itself countless times. Just a handful of companies have managed to dodge this curve.

More despairingly - I have not seen a single company being sold at a fair price to some young energy that has built on the founders past to grow into another form and stay on top of the market. Not one single company (that I know of. Please prove me wrong!) has managed stay on top of changing business cycles.

Which means that every company must spend its formative years learning the ropes of being a business. In my view that is the single reason why we have not seen a breakout success. Some event management companies have done it. Their present avatar is unrecognisable from what they were when they started out. Their owner or manager roles have matured into functions that have grown. Responsibilities that have enlarged.

How many owner managers of event technical companies can truly say that? Sure, as you have grown you may have more professional help. But understand that you are still making the same decisions you were making when you started. More worrisome the parameters on which you are making your decisions are still more or less the same.

Be true to yourself. If you are out of the cycle - You are blessed. If all of what I am writing is gobblygook - do yourselves and your businesses a favour. Ask for help. Be assured that you will benefit from the lessons you will learn.

It is a truism that a person that is technically skilled or creatively gifted is usually bad at maintaining accounts books. But I urge you to find somebody who can do them for you so that you know when, and where to invest your time and your money for maximum benefit.

Most importantly - know when is the right time to bring in the right energy at a fair price to carry your business forward so you can stay ahead for as long as possible.

My Best to all of you who undertake this journey.

(The views expressed by the author are his own personal comments and the magazine does not subscribe to them).

As you have leafed through this magazine, bet every one of you has stopped and marvelled at some amazing new technology you wish you had.

Every day tools appear that make our lives easier and assist us in producing super work.

Now. Allow me to both, vent and preach on one aspect that I was tearing my hair out on when I started and sadly continue to be pulling my hair out even today.

‘Connections’. Not the connections that got you the job. The connections through which all our signals and electricity flow, that enable the lighting rig to actually produce what you programmed. Disclaimer. My issues are usually with the live Lighting Rigs. But I have seen enough sound guys and video dudes expressing the same frustration I feel. So here goes...

It’s usually not the quality of the equipment. Hey ! You get what you pay for. Usually - The more money you spend - the quicker the connection process AND the longer lasting. BUT, not always.

Let’s work through the issues. Just to figure out the weak links.

We are setting up very sensitive networks in some inhospitable environments. It’s Hot. Its dusty and there is never enough time. Usually the cabling is laid down by the junior most and least experienced guys on the team. I think half our problems begin and end there.

Let’s look at equipment. Our country does not have any standard mains cable connectors. So even the most sensitive equipment is powered by a mains cable screwed into a metal box. 1917’s systems powering 2017’s latest technologies. Think about it. If it works - why tinker with it. The Answer is - ‘Yes it does work - Until it does not! No heads up. No fail safe.

Now follow that mains cable down the line as it branches out and is distributed around the network. On dusty ground, wet ground, carpeted ballrooms, tiled backstage arenas. Rarely will you find a connector. Just some wires twisted together. Rarer still is a box that meters or monitors the power supply. I have definitely seen more Deity’s pictures than Amp meters in a temporary electrical grid. But Hey - It works.

Next Step. From Dimmer racks to the actual light fitting. Improving. Now we definitely see a lot of connectors. Which is why fault finding is usually restricted to faulty fixtures. Great!

Then, perhaps most critical - the signal cable. Here all of us worship at the altar of the mighty XLR God. Most used and perhaps least understood of all connectors. Perhaps that is by its inclusive design. It’s used for everything from lead singers mikes to guitar amps, to dmx cables to smoke machines and intercoms. That’s the good part. The problems arise when our guys on the ground think they are infallible and interchangeable. In my opinion the graveyard of all networks. Rarely have I been through a show where everything works the First time. No Time for fault finding - chuck back in the box and replace. Where it may probably lie...

Now the Cat 6 cable has appeared. Designed to be used in Air-conditioned spaces. Its multi cores tightly wound to make as small an imprint as possible. Suited for a network Box. Very badly suited for a concert arena. I am not aware of any effort to make a sturdier connector.

Coming back to the first point. All connections usually set up by a junior member and usually unmarked. So fault finding is always going to be tough.

In your estimate - How many man hours have you lost in figuring your way around the network? And usually at crisis times when it may have impacted your ability to deliver everything that was designed around the show.

Is there a fix ? I know of only one. Like in a diet (that I find impossible to follow) the only way is to - 1. Plan 2. Execute as per plan 3. Pray

Now let’s think Ideal World.

It starts with the purchase manager, who generously gives you budgets to buy good quality cables and connectors. Then given to a super technician who will tin and securely solder each connector.

Each XLR colour coded as per use. Black for DMX lines. Blue for smoke machines. Orange for intercoms. All DMX networks TERMINATED adequately. A special box on each show into which EVERY faulty cable is deposited and isolated.

On the Mains side - Cee Form Connectors all around. To a power box that measures all capacities and lifts all earth loops. Where cables cross open ground - Rubber cable Trays

On the Lighting Grid - only identical fixtures on each network connected up to a Good quality Splitters. All fed down a protected and double lined cable down to the Desk. Where a merger will feed two boards.

On a Cat 6 grid. At least a 4 cabled armoured cable fed into a hold box that clamps onto your unit and holds the Cat 6 firmly in place.

And every connector marked - where it comes from and where it feeds into.

Think about how easy this is. How much longer will set up take? Maybe half hour. Now think about the stress you will eliminate. Worth It Na ?

Oh. The most important - a dedicated work bench with gleaming tools, solder irons and test boxes devoted to cable testing and repair. Cables tested every 10 shows max.

That’s my Dream of ‘Achhe Din’.

If you ever make the mistake of stepping into the console area during a stage show these days, you would not be faulted for thinking that all those screens and headphones were coordinating an alien invasion.

If you glance across onto the stage you will probably see a stage lit bright enough to be spotted from those alien skies. All you $200,000 dollar space flight types - please confirm.

And if you are a peaceful alien who asks politely without threatening to “EDM HAS FALLEN” our world - I am sure our boys could patch you a 24 track, crystal clear sound feed, in real time with the sparkling led screen.

As a kid, during less security conscious times I was allowed to peep into an air traffic control room just to be impressed by all the radar scopes and blinking CRT tubes. Later as an events guy I was lucky to walk through one of those telecom centers that you see in the movies. Massive maps with more blinking lights and more trailing information. Cheekily I asked how anybody could keep track of all that info. Was patiently told that each section was looked after by one team, but all the teams needed to see how their section connected within the larger network.

These days I can’t help thinking that is what today’s visual designers are after. Information Overload.

Todays designers throw terms like visual variation, schematic progression, upload time lag, horn punch ups, wandering elevator arms. How does it all hang together?

Each trade is wandering off into its own space. The digital world has opened so many possibilities. By breaking down sound signals into impossible fractions, it possible to tweak almost each note into whatever space and shape you choose. To further complicate life in our multimedia world each media unit requires the sound altered to fit into its specific signature. The band wants to hear themselves in a certain way. The PA engineer want to amplify and the fill the stadium with a lively sound in every remote corner – so the producer can rub his hands and claim ‘there are no cheap seats!’

The TV crew, today the stars of any live show of any significance, need their feed doctored to sound great on both the lowly TV set as well as the multi lakh home theater system so that the opinion forming critic can say stuff like ‘…. While the 5.2 mix is little subdued, the 7.9 mix gives an unfair opportunity for the third horn to play over the third guitar….’ Yup I still read those reviews in some aficionado magazines.

Further down the food chain the radio guys and the web feed guys tweak the sound feed for their own purposes. I am told that the Global Initiative otherwise known as ‘Coldplay is Here’ had 6 massive sound desks . Each for a specific task. Everybody was happy so mission accomplished. Pat on back sound team.

That’s only covered sound. Ten years ago, the sound guys ate up 60 percent of console space. Lights got 30%. Remaining 10% fought over by the Live Video feed guys, Pyro team, Stage Turntable operator etc etc. Invariably the director would show up minutes before the show and hastily some cables were moved aside, a flight case was placed behind the CD operator, a torch was found so he/she could read his excel sheet script and we were away.

The first time I saw a laptop on the console was for a world class Rock Band on its India tour. All of us who had just started using DMX were super impressed and spent a good bit of an amazing concert wondering what role the laptop played in the amazing light display. Afterwards I was both crestfallen and tickled to learn that the laptop was open on a word document displaying the bands song list. Midway through the set, the laptop died as its insides could not function under the onslaught of the dust raised by Mumbai’s frantic rock fans.

Today there are at least a dozen laptops bluing the faces of as many operators. Either the dust has settled or they are just building better Mumbai resistant laptops. Progress.

But seriously. There are so many elements to the visual design of a show. The Stage lighting has been overtaken by the Giant LED guys. Today the media servers take up more space and electricity than the audio amplifiers. Elsewhere in this issue I am sure you can read all about the amazing equipment in use.

As Stage mechanics gets more complicated, it just a matter of time before that is overtaken by the Robotic arm operators who will lift impossible weights into geometry defying shapes, all the while throwing off flames and steam and confetti. How long before that catwalk Chris Martin ran down with A. R Rehman will be replaced by a hover stage lit by hovering light battens as we Harry Potterise (to coin a phrase) the next gen stage shows.

Will FOH consoles keep growing the way Stage Sets seem to be?

That’s where our electronic geniuses need to look next. To build multi function consoles that can control or trigger cues to all the moving parts. Home Automation allows you close curtains, drop screens, arrange room lights and switch on AV consoles all from a single screen. How long before Stage FOH consoles consolidate into those aforementioned Telecom Control like touch screens. Each team has control of one section, and can see how its piece fits into the whole Visual experience to produce ONE indelible image encompassing an impressive array of moving parts. Soon I hope.

They were here. Did you see them? Has your life changed?

If you did not see them - get the recording off VH-I. I have been told they will keep broadcasting it.

If your life has still not changed - sunny boy, this is the time to recognise your dad was right. You need a real job. Like in an office, with a tie.....

If you, like me has seen the future. Then you in the right place. A few columns ago I wrote that we were in the best of times and in the worst of times. Coldplay was the best of times.

In my opinion Chris Martin is a Star. Cut in the mould of the greatest Rock Stars of his generation. Amongst a crowd of 80,000 (reported) he connected to everyone there. He was best friend.... or brother or lover or whatever you wanted him to be. That is his gift and we all felt it that night.

Also in my opinion the rest of the band was about the most boring, average set of musicians who were supremely lucky to have befriended a Rock God. Lucky Them. Was that boredom or resentment on their faces ? While Superstar Martin obviously was enjoying every moment on stage and ensuring that every one of his new best friends or lovers or brothers in India also enjoyed every moment, the rest of the band looked like they were going to burst into tears or just wanted to be somewhere else.

Now let’s talk about the real hero of the evening. The Staging.

The Sound - Impeccable. All the work and the attention to detail paid off. The Colden King was transmitted to each one of us there. The unique timber of his voice sitting on our shoulders. As for the rest of the guys - the PA made them actually sound good.

The Lighting - Vast. Who says that a massive inventory of cheap Chinese lights doesn’t look great. Who would have thought that DMX delays and many cylinders of carefully released smoke can fill a space with shock and wonder. I learnt a huge lesson that day.

The Staging. That vast flying wing of blinding light flying at you. The confetti, the balloons, the bridge and even more confetti. Simply WOW.

Everything put together makes me feel that tomorrows Global citizen has much to look forward to.

Clean Toilets, Digital Currency, No corruption and every time somebody powerful wants to make a connect to India’s unbounded youth - we can celebrate these gifts with a huge concert.

There was so much around the concert. So much to read, so much fuel, so much hype. Like good little children being groomed to be global citizens, concert mama also advised us on what to wear - loose comfortable clothing. What to pack - water, salt tablets, nutrition bars. We were told to bring cash. Not cards. Apparently the ringing of cash registers and the airwave consumption of card machines would adversely affect the technology of the evening. Hopefully next time we will learn to behave in the presence of our betters. But mama - we were good children right? Nobody got hurt or was led astray.

I was led astray. After ages some excitement crept into my cynical old bones. I danced, bad leg and all, and still had energy to walk to the car.

I am a minimalist. I believe that great lighting is about the minimum darkness we displace. One carefully placed spot light in a beautifully timed fade, to me is orgasm. In the theatre my mentor would yell at me. ‘I don’t care how big the show. You don’t need more than 15 dimmer channels - as long as you have a finger on each one of them ‘

Even in a Pink Floyd Concert with its amazing light shows - when you break it down it is always so simple. Every song has ONE big look. That you can never forget. Against them you have the Rolling Stones with their jumble of joys. But the Coldplay light guy had it all. Simple stuff like in the obviously lit ‘Yellow’ to the complexity of ‘In My Place’ From Garage Band to Outsize stadium in a switch. Break it down guys. Watch it over and over. It was lesson in showmanship. What can I say - Respect !

This issue is all about Outsize DJ’s. This is a Visual Designers dream. Like the self effacing Pink Floyd once said - ‘None of us are in the Robert Redford looks department, so we got have our audiences see something’

Fortunately for us, most of the DJ’s are not much better looking than Roger Waters. Can I be mean and say - perhaps even including the ladies !

So here’s your chance to stand up and give those incredible audiences ‘Something to See’

All the advertisers in this issue offer many tools in that journey. Coldplay has taught us that being a maximalist with cheap Chinese lights is the new way forward. I finally understood why people would invent boxes that control mountains of DMX universes. Ok sorry - I was slow - but I got there !

Break out of the square box stages. Fly off in a hundred new directions and bring back the stages that immerse you in light, shower you in fine smoke and fill all the air around you in tightly controlled LIGHT.

The beat is steady and easy to bounce off. The girls are pretty and everybody is moving in chic convulsions. Come on we got Mr Modi to sprout ‘Too cool to show up for a Nobel, Dylan’

Step up and take the space before these Global citizens come yapping on your heels.

The world must have been a pretty grim place before God dramatically summoned ‘Light’. Much like show producers today expect us technicians to recreate that experience with a fraction of the energy at Gods disposal.

Wonder how God’s accountants responded when they got the generator bill for the power that sparked the Black Hole to spit out our universe.

The Drama Continues. Much thunder and lightning emanating from the accountants side of the table. And the shaking Lighting director wondering how he can produce twice the impact at half the budget.

But guys - let’s focus on the bright side. The show producer has sent you on a delightful journey of figuring out what lights to put where, getting everything all cabled up and then playing on some computer to make all those lights create some magical effects. Be Grateful that they are allowing the kid in you to play to your heart’s content - as long as you keep the grown ups amused.

But this is serious business.

It’s in our hands to make it all come together and work, or flounder like a wet diwali cracker.

Those dancers and actors and compares and clowns and models and performance artists - they been working for years to get to that stage. And we light guys sit in the dark back corner and allow those performances to be SEEN.

Remember - Bad Lighting is SEEN. Good lighting just disappears so naturally into a scene that nobody notices it. All that hard work just so we WONT get noticed. Where ‘s the satisfaction in that?

There is plenty. Gotta do it to know it, buddy. It’s our un-understandable secret.

None of that has changed over years. But just look at all the tools we have these days.

It’s fantastic. You can’t be God, and create light - at least not yet. But you can shape it, colour it to dawn or dusk, make jungle patterns, move it about as gently as the sun moves across your window or as violently as a tropical thunderstorm. All at the flick of a button. And the best part for lazy old fellows like me - all of this can be planned from within your own study sitting on your favourite chair sipping beer and stopping for a healthy snack now and then. Who knows the next generation of Lighting Designers will be free of all diabetes, blood pressure, twisted back and shoulder muscles once we are removed from programming at 3 am crouched on a chipped flight case, wrapped in layers of stinking sweaters or sweltering in muggy heat.

So what is this relationship we develop with the machine. In today’s world I don’t think it’s possible to make a good living without some mastery over a machine of your choice. (Clarify - Reaching level 20,457 at Candy Crush does not count). In our case it the operating board, sound desk or video console. And there are dozens of brands and variations available.

For us operators, we need to meet the one that’s right for you. Ive been married to one for decades. Some of my colleagues change their loyalties faster than I changed girlfriends (Before I met you, dear wife). Fortunately boards don’t have friends who gossip about your shortcomings or chase you with a machete to cut off your .... (A colleague once confided - ‘much rather lose my nuts than my fingers. I could program in peace without the urge to run home at bedtime’.)

All of this sets us up for that eternal conundrum.

Do you know and master the show VS Do you know and master the equipment.

What makes for a more successful and fulfilled professional. I hope you are with me ?

In that half hour rehearsal you get (If you lucky!) Do you absorb every music break, model turn, compère intro point, scene end mood OR, do you learn all the layers associated with each button. Program a dozen variations to the basic and time the speed with which the board responds to your command.

What you do will mirror your personality. And if the manufacturers can capture your responses digitally and compile them - we may move to more symbiotic, intuitive and interactive layouts and responsive systems.

Will that lead to better shows or lazier lighting designers all delivering sloppier more generic shows ? A few columns ago I wondered if these were the best or worst of times.

How both our manufacturers and our designers respond to this challenge will define the results.

I have met many board designers. 90% of them are engineers. Some of them who are inspired or briefed by great designers produce good work. Only very few board designers are both creative and engineers who have their fundamentals cast in stone. They can anticipate what a work bench tweak can produce on stage without going into an elaborate testing process. Those guys make the Great Boards.

To sum up - Know the show or know the technology ?

In an ideal world every operator has his eyes on stage and fingers on the board. He knows where everything is and will pick up that sideways glance each singer will give a lead guitarist as he launches into a guitar solo. The faster you pick up that glance, and the faster you respond - the smoother and tighter your show. Are your wiggly lights still wiggling when the music suddenly breaks? Or are your lights still building as the drummer crashes from opening aalap into the song structure.

You do what’s right for you. But share your process with both manufactures and performers.

Only then will we see the best of shows.

Despite new age technologies and great technicians having transformed the experience of attending a live show in India, lighting industry expert - Viraf Pocha, finds the euphoria of attending a live event in India, missing. In this column he discusses the need to reinterpret, redefine and recreate a holistic live show experience - one in which event producers, the government and venue owners come together to work out a winning formula, which will keep audiences engaged and coming back for more.

Thrilled and worried

These could be the Best of Times. This Could be the Worst of Times for the Event Industry.

When I look around me - I am Equal Parts Thrilled and Equal Parts Worried. Our Industry is crossing milestone after milestone every season. Bigger.... Brighter....

Yet, I don’t see the energy and the euphoria that normally accompanies such success.

Is it my imagination? Do You agree?

I don’t recall seeing any really big innovation for years. Sure LED walls are drowning out everything in sight. Apart from a few scattered shows, almost every show I see seems to be a rehash of something else.

And our audiences have started noticing. An astute concert promoter once told me that when he went out to check a new act - he spent just a few moments looking at the performers. He would concentrate on the audience reaction. Was it studied or spontaneous?

If the performer had his/her audience enthralled, he could not give a hoot about how good or bad they were. If the audience was enthralled - they would buy tickets.

These days most shows follow a formula. All the shows are very light on content and try to make up by liberal use of technology. But each section could be copy paste out of any one of a dozen similar shows. Very few audience these days are walking out of a performance space with a smile or a look of fulfilment on their faces.

The other day I was lucky to see a conversation between Sir Ian McKellen and Aamir Khan - two actors chatting for a bit, with interjections from an enthusiastic compere, and ending with Sir Ian delivering a spontaneous rendering of a passage from an old masterpiece.

Every person walking out of the theatre was talking about some aspect of the evening, replaying it over and over as they savoured the experience. I am sure more than half will remember that evening for years.

Rush of a Live experience

On the other hand how many of us can recall even half the songs we heard at last month’s concert or show? Go on test yourself. If you remember – Great! We are in the best of times. We are successfully capturing an audience that is getting addicted to the rush of a live experience in a digital world.

If you cannot recall, it’s a time of worry for all of us. Why would someone tear themselves away from their digital devices and brave the crush if it was not worth the joy of immersing yourself in a live show.

The Good news is that we have the equipment and more than a handful of great technicians who when challenged, can produce a really great show.

So let’s all give them an opportunity to shine.

Worst concert experience

We all know that India offers probably the worst concert experiences possible - Traffic, Heat, Jostling, Limited facilities in some really uncomfortable venues.

Promoters spend more time dealing with authorities, staying ahead of ever changing laws, tantrums from all sides, to really concentrate on presenting a great show.

So we in the Event Industry have to work doubly hard to keep our audience engaged and have them coming back.

Audiences for Live Entertainment are out there. If all the stakeholders - Including Government (Both in their role as Tax Collectors, Security Standard Bearers & Venue Controllers), Private Venue Owners (and increasingly Venue Operators) and Event producers come together and must work out a formula where everybody gets a fair and CONTINOUS return. Only then will everybody’s minds get focussed on investing rather than concentrating on making a fast buck.

Star is the sport

It has been heartbreaking to see so many Indians ‘almost’ making it at the Olympics. A popular journalist was hugely derided for stating some facts in an ‘unpleasant’ way. The sad fact was that in the furore that followed, the original message / plea for our powers that be to accept that our athletes may need some assistance to cross that line onto the medals podium - was totally lost.

Another fact lost on most people was that within the huge social media condemnation - I did not see, nor was there any highlight on any contribution by anybody connected with the Olympics, who could have actually made a difference.

Is it that both are sportsmen’s management teams and our sports authorities have not woken up to the power of social media to effect change by focussing spotlights on the issues.

Why is it that when any sports person (including cricketers) who call out to our democratic public to ask for our votes and voices - they are usually met with silence. It stands to reason that most sportsmen want to get ahead and WIN. So why can’t we give them what they need to win.

Am I digressing ? I believe that sports is a huge opportunity for the event Industry. But like in the Film industry and in the Cricket world - we need to create stars. Would Bollywood or Cricket be half as successful without Sharukh, Salman or Sachin?

Talent is the show

Within our Live Sports and Event industry we need to create a set of Superstars. Develop their talents, promote them hugely and create an infrastructure where a huge number of PAYING public can enjoy an evening with family and come home better for the experience.

A whole eco system of service providers and talented young people can make useful careers and the government can generate serious revenue if only we can all find an umbrella to gather under.

We need a Steve Jobs type superstar to lead the way. Come on - somebody fancy themselves and step up!