Set-up is always a beast, and I knew there was no way anyone would stick around to help me on Sunday if they had to plug all the equipment in, set-it up, then do the reverse to tear down every Sunday. So, I designed a case that rack mounts all of the equipment, has table legs in the lids to create work space, and has a connector panel so projectors, TVs, Cameras, and audio I/O (in/out) for easy plug and go, and hired someone to build it. No, it was not cheap. It cost about $2000, but as you can imagine, it was well worth it. Sometimes, you’ve got to bite the bullet and spend the money to make your life easier. This was one thing I could not compromise on.

The same guy who built the case made us some projector platforms that fit on top of ordinary, inexpensive speaker stands. Theoretically they should have worked perfectly, but for whatever reason, we always had problems lining the three screens up (they have to be lined up perfectly. We eventually moved to camera tripods with plywood platforms bolted to the quick release attachment, which worked much better and would have saved us money had we gone that direction to begin with.

We set up three risers on stage for drums and other instruments. They are Intellistage by Road Ready and are light-weight and fairly easy to set-up if you get the expandable legs. We only got those legs for the higher drum riser and less expensive screw-in legs for the other two. Big mistake. It might have saved us a couple hundred dollars but it takes way more man power and time to screw in 40 legs. We are in the process of saving up to buy the expandable legs for the other risers and will be ordering them very soon. The reason I went with this staging was because of the simplicity in set-up and the fact you can get special cases that house all the pieces making it extremely easy to load in and out. With the expandable legs, the entire system can easily be set-up by one person. The down side is the sturdiness. Compared to other portable staging by Stage Right, and other companies, it is much cheaper, but it is not near as heavy duty either. This is the kind of stage you’ll find at trade shows where quick and easy is the way to go. You want see this kind of stage in a venue where bands, dances, and other activity driven performances are the norm. for what we use it for, it is prefect. If we ever back to a room where we had to set up our own stage, we would find something else.

Several people have been asking me for pictures of Oak Leaf’s media environment so I thought I’d give you a link to a web gallery that has a few. I’ll take my camera with me this Sunday and take a few more so you can get a better idea of what is involved and how we have it set up.

I’d also like to extend the invitation to anyone who has any sort of question about anything you think I might be able to help you with to ask away. I am definitely not an expert by any means, but I have a fair amount of experience in just about every media and music related area and might be able to give some insight or at least offer an idea or suggestion. I’m not sure what people need to know and instead of me continuing to type out everything we do, it might be more productive if I could specifically help you in your area of need. Leave a comment or email me and I reply within 24 hours.