#224 - Eric Wade

0:00 Hi and thanks for joining me today on Geese of Gear Episode #224. This podcast is sponsored by ACT Entertainment. Airton's latest fixture, Ravalli, is also the 1st in its new Ultimate series. An IP65 rated LED Source profile, Ravalli puts power and precision in a smaller, lighter frame that is also easier to use than ever before. With 30,000 lumens at 6500 Kelvin and tuned for optimal light neutrality, Ravalli's myriad features become irreplaceable in your rig, offering exquisite key light, subtle color fill and perspective tilting effects from a single position.

0:44 Ravalli is setting a new standard and you have to reach out to your ACT Rep To see it. Visit actentertainment.com and today's podcast is also brought to you by Gearsource, founded in 2002 with a mission to help global live event businesses move gear around the planet. Since that time, the company has transacted in more than 100 countries, selling almost a quarter billion dollars in sound, lighting, staging and video gear. In 2023 Gearsource evolved its platform for massive global growth enabling true multi currency cross-border selling with payments held in global escrow accounts set up to prevent protect buyers and sellers. Plus AI powered logistics behind its new global logistics brand Gear Move which seeks to simplify global logistics. For entertainment gear, visit gearsource.com today and expand your access to global markets for your gear and global gear for your markets.

2:23 Hello. It's me again. Hello. Isn't there a song like that? Hello, it's me again. I don't know. Seems familiar. So I've had an eventful week. So last week, what did I do? I went to a huge event for a software company called Rome, which is a very cool platform that my company uses. It's a remote company, remote business platform where it really just bridges that gap between remote and in person offices. You've got this physical office on your screen, you can see everyone's offices, you can see who's in, who's out, You can knock on someone's door and walk into their office and have a meeting. It's just more real time than booking Zoom calls with your staff or with your Co workers to meet later. Like instead you just jump in and you're in the same office or you're in a conference room.

3:20 Just a very, very cool software platform. It also incorporates something called Inbox, which is very much like Slack I guess. We use it entirely for our communications globally. Just a very, very cool platform. Anyways, I was a very early user, my company, We were very early into that product and they call us pioneers and they invited me to a big launch event that they did in Miami last week, which was very cool. I mean it was, I don't know, there was 300 and change people there. And I would say there was a half dozen billionaires in that crowd, probably 20 or 3040 people worth more than $100 million. Lots and lots of extremely successful entrepreneurs, really successful investors, venture capitalists, new founders, just really super interesting room full of people. You know, I met the founder of Shutterstock, I met the founder of Slice, which is a pizza app that's gaining massive success right now.

4:25 And, you know, just really cool room of people and they invited me there to speak. So I spoke in front of this crowd, which was a little nerve wracking, but it was fun. You know, everyone's interested in live events, so they loved hearing some stories. So that was kind of cool. And then on Friday, I got to go out and have dinner with one of my favorite people in the whole world, John Wiseman. So it was John and his lovely wife, Tracy, who I'd never met. I knew his prior wife, not his first one, but his second one. I think I might have met his first one too. I don't remember, but, but this was the first time I've met Tracy and she's just an amazing woman, you know, just really, really great people. We had a great time and talked a lot about business, talked a lot about life too.

5:12 And you know, of course with Wiseman, it's never, never quiet, never dull. And we had a great dinner, just really, really fabulous night. And some of the business discussion just kind of focused around what's going on in the industry, What's his book of business look like? What's he hearing from other people? He's hearing a lot of similar things to what I'm hearing that, you know, everyone's panicking over AQ1 potential slow down. And I've talked to a lot of people who had a rough January and they're like, Oh my God, it's going to be terrible. I had some of those similar conversations last January, yet now I'm talking to people who are saying they had the best 2023 best year they've ever had. And so one thing I've learned in this crazy business climate that we're in right now, and I actually talked to another big industry leader this morning about this, you cannot look month by month at your numbers anymore. You have to look at quarters.

6:12 And it's just the way the business is going right now, like especially in our industry, when one large deal can make or break your month, one or two large deals can make or break your month. And so you have to look at quarters as hard as it is to have a bad month and then a really good one and then another bad one. You know, you have to look at quarters and hope that you're hitting your numbers for your quarters. And the other thing that happens again, I had this conversation this morning is then you avoid doing these things where you're doing something crazy, selling the farm for nothing in the middle of a month because you're panicking because January's soft and now, Oh my God, we got to burn the house down and do something. And instead just trusting your numbers, trusting your systems, trusting your people and recognizing that, you know, this isn't a month by month business anymore, it's a quarter by quarter business right now.

7:06 So you know, I don't know if that's brilliant or or stupid, but for my business, I know it's probably brilliant. It keeps you from jumping off the bridge every 3rd month. Instead, you're you're just doing it four times a year. So that made no sense at all. I'm sorry, what else did I wanna talk about? ISC. I don't remember if I talked about that on a prior episode. Amazing show. All I've heard is incredible stories. I have to go to that show next year. I've never been to it and everyone just keeps raving that it's just the most incredible show. Up next is Pro Light and Sound, which I have been to multiple times in Frankfurt. Massive show that is attached to something called Music Mesa, which is like Nam on steroids. It's just a massive, massive musical instrument show, like where it's in, I think it's in like 8 or 9 or 10 different halls.

8:01 And like Hall one might be drums and percussion, Hall 2 might be sound systems, Hall 3 might be guitars, Hall 4. So you're taking this bus all over the place and you've got meetings and you've got to take a bus between these different buildings to to get to your meetings and stuff. It's it's crazy. It's a lot of walking, a lot of just a lot of moving around for that show because you know you're going to go from hall to hall depending on who you're meeting with and where. But it's it's fun and it's huge and it and it's pretty exciting. And the other thing I wanted to talk about, and if you don't know this one, you've just been sleeping. I'm telling you, it's probably the most important news that's come out in the last couple of weeks. Yes, of course I'm talking about Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari. So why is this big news?

8:49 While Lewis Hamilton has won 6 championships, 6 World Championships with Mercedes, and he has been with Mercedes a long, long time, he started his career with McLaren and then went to Mercedes quite early and he's had a lot of success there. Everyone, myself included, probably believed that he was going to retire from Mercedes. But lo and behold, that sort of a lure of going to Ferrari to finish your career. There's just this sex appeal for every driver we've got to drive for the Holy Grail of racing, Ferrari. I've got to do at least one season, two seasons for Ferrari before I retire and whether or not I agree with that, I don't know. Like it.

9:36 Most of the time it doesn't work out. Very sexy, you know? And Sebastian Vettel, it wasn't that great, Alonzo, it wasn't that great. I mean, there have been some that went to Ferrari and had great success at the end of their career. But for the most part, I think it's it's sort of more of a sexy story in your head than it is in reality and it never really pans out. But one of the interesting things that I saw and and I don't remember the details of the article, but I read an article that basically said Hamilton's deal was worth something like €400 million. And he's only committed, I believe to two seasons, €400 million and that includes, you know, the driver wages but also some sponsorship stuff or whatever, but €400 million.

10:28 And I just thought that this was just a ridiculous sum of money that could never be worth it. And then lo and behold, as soon as they announced it, Ferrari's stock went up by like a billion dollars or something. So, you know, this is the game that's being played. It's not, you know, I'm going to pay you a reasonable wage for a reasonable job done. It's hey, if you can change my stock price by 100 million, I'll pay you 50 million. And yeah, I mean, I don't know what to think about that, but, you know, I used to be a big Lewis Hamilton fan. I became sort of not a Lewis Hamilton fan when he he just got on his soapbox and became a little bit annoying for a while. He, you know, his fashion and his statements were more important than his driving for the past few years and you know, go figure his success hasn't been there recently. So I know that that's not due to the fact that he supported some interesting causes and stuff, but maybe the car just isn't right up to where it was when he was winning with it. But you know that.

11:29 I don't know. He just, I kind of lost it on him. I I he lost me a little bit when I just like drivers that that show up on the track, not drivers that show up in the social media and all that stuff. Like I don't care about that stuff. I like guys like, you know, Max Verstappen, the guy's a flashy guy and everything, but you don't see him showing up at the track wearing, you know, funny outfits and stuff. He shows up in a racing suit ready to race, you know? It's all about the racing for him. It's not about the show. And so yeah, Anyways, thought we should talk about that. That's pretty important. Formula One. Anyways, pretty excited about today. I I've always been a fan of this guy. So today's guest is Eric Wade.

12:19 Eric, I'm gonna read his bio right now. Pardon me. Eric is the principal designer and creative director at Crossfade Design. He got his start in the industry at the ripe old age of 14. His mom was a rock singer in the Dallas area, and he would help in the lighting and sound booth at her shows. By 16, he was working for lighting company, building dimmers and consoles from scratch and renting his own equipment to local bands. At 18, he was the LD for George Strait. That is wild. Today, Eric's robust portfolio includes live events at arenas, convention centers, cruise ships and concert tours.

12:59 Please join me in welcoming Mr. Eric Wade. Hi there, it's me again. And so I had a problem. We had a technical problem. We ended up losing about the 1st, 15 or 20 minutes of today's conversation. And so I wanted to take just a minute and first of all, apologize for that because Eric Wade is a brilliant guy and it was just an incredible discussion of his early years specifically. And so for those of you who didn't know, Eric's mom was a rock'n'roll singer when he was 12 or 13 years old. I mean she was for a number of years and and so he actually became her LD and sometimes sound person at 12 years old and would go and do her gigs and would run lights and sometimes audio as well.

13:49 And you know, this was his upbringing. It was one of the things he did. And then at I think at around 16 years old, he went to work for a band who owned a club in Fort Worth and was doing their lighting at night while during the day he would go to school from like 8:00 in the morning until noon and then at noon until six. The school helped set him up with sort of a work for you know, schooling gig at a lighting company that was doing electronics for nightclubs. So they were doing dimmers and and control systems for for nightclubs.

14:31 And so he was working in there learning how to do soldering and how to put together these dimming systems and and light control systems. And so he was doing three things every day. Basically he'd go to school from 8:00 till 12. From 12 until 6, Eric was working in this lighting factory. Basically, he would go home, take a shower, change his clothes and go to the nightclub at night and do lights until about 1:00 in the morning. And he did this every every day for a while. And you know, it was what he had to do. His mom was a single parent. He he needed to help pay the bills.

15:11 She was a rock'n'roll singer. She wasn't making a lot of money, even though she had some pretty cool gigs. He told me that she was doing, I believe she was singing with Stevie Ray Vaughan's band at one point and she had a successful audition with Elvis in I believe. He said it was July of 1977. She actually got the gig as a backup singer for Elvis and then of course he died in in August of 77. So she never actually got to to perform with him. But she did go to Memphis and do the audition and got the gig and then unfortunately, Elvis died.

15:54 So Eric, you know, built a lighting package. He went on to rent that lighting package to local bands in Dallas and then eventually went to work for some people that I knew real well back then as well, Charles and and Vicki Belcher, who had a company called Dallas Backup. And he was there, I believe, when he was like maybe 17 or 18 years old. Charles Belcher kind of played dad a little bit helped educate him on how to do how to do things properly and Charles also gave Eric his first LD gig which happened to be for George Strait. I mean what a place to start.

16:36 You're doing arenas with you know a huge country act. But remember, this was back in the day when country wasn't 400 moving lights, it was 2 or 300 bark hands. And so, you know, it was 4 sticks of Truss and a bunch of bark hands. And so he did that for a couple of years I believe. And then in 84, Eric went to Vera Light where he was a programmer and tech for Vera Light. And this was back in the very early days of Vera Light. He was working for Wiseman. And so you would get your own dressing room where you would repair the lights with the door closed and locked.

17:16 And it was all very secret, you know, it was in the early days of Vera Light. Very sexy, very interesting. And I think his Vera Light career ended with Michael Jackson dangerous and that was when he met Peter Morse and became close with Peter Morse and the rest is history. He started doing all kinds of stuff with Peter Morse and you know, they've been very close friends and and very close work partners since that time, which I believe was in 911991. So very long successful relationship between the two of them. And I asked Eric, do you consider yourself a designer or a programmer?

18:01 And he said both. And then he went on to tell me about the four different businesses that he owns and operates. And so I said aren't you an entrepreneur or a businessman? And he said, yeah, that too. And so, you know, he said basically as a designer he, he always has to, you know, do his own programming, doesn't have to, but he often does his own programming. There have been tours where he's had to bring in outside people. He'll bring in Troy Ackerman or someone like that. And now his sons also work with him. I believe you might have heard that on part of what actually we were able to save from this podcast. But that is sort of the penultimate when you can have your sons working for you as well or working with you as well in the business and they now go out and tour.

18:47 One of them was with Luis Miguel and the other one I believe he said is going out with Janet Jackson. So again I apologize for what just happened. This has happened a total of two or three times in the history of this podcast and this one unfortunately I was unable to salvage the 1st roughly 20 minutes of the recording. So I thought I'd go in there and just give you the sort of highlights, the, you know, 10,000 foot view of the stuff that you missed. And so there you go and enjoy the rest of the podcast and here you go. Here's Eric. Today, you know, but you're right. I mean to me, you know the Super Bowl shows that, you know stand out.

19:32 I mean the the very first one with Michael Jackson years, you know, that was right after we finished Dangerous that he did the the first Super Bowl thing there, you know, and it was spectacular, you know, Yeah, but you know, there's been some amazing ones. Paul McCartney's was, you know, over the top. You know, there's there's been some really good ones. Yeah, Paul McCartney, you know, I mean I I thought Bruno Mars recently was pretty good. Obviously the Michael Jackson one was pretty good. You know, Prince I think is the all time winner for me, like in the rain in Miami. That was just, Oh yeah. That was an increase doing Purple Rain in the rain. It was amazing. That was so good. And yeah, so I mean, there have been some really, really good ones to me. You know, this one was just like average. It was good, but it it was, you know it. Wasn't.

20:19 I think it's just gotten to the point where it's it's almost impossible to outdo some of the other ones. You know, they've gone so big with it and hyped it so much. Our expectations now are so off the chart for that halftime show, right? You know what the public perceives and wants is, you know you're going to have to have 10 times the budget they got and a lot more time. So absolutely, it's just what we expect though. I mean, you know when you start, everybody wants bigger and bigger all the time. So you're always going to be fighting that. It's a it's probably it's it's a tough show. I mean that's going to be a tough one. You're never going to make everybody happy. No, this is the way it is. But that's but that's every show. You know everybody's going to have something to say about a show. So I've always been curious, you know, And I asked, I think I asked Troy Ackerman the same question. And I've asked a bunch of people the same question, but are you a designer or a programmer?

21:15 You know, I like to think of myself as both. For me, I've always been a programming designer. So. I can't really keep my hands off the console. I'm not that kind of person, although I did on this last Janet Jackson design. I strictly just designed it and I hired Troy to come in and and associate with me and we had the kids all programming. So and it turned out amazing, you know, So, you know, I these days I'm, you know, it's it's weird because I've kind of transitioned in my career now to being, you know, like with Janet right now I'm the tour manager, I'm the production designer, I'm doing everything right. So I mean I'm dealing with contracts even for her shows. So you know, I've kind of transitioned more into that role and and our company's kind of gone that direction as well. Crossfade is more of a we're like a turnkey for you know, design firm that you know when you're you come to us with your tour and go we got a budget.

22:14 Can you just put this whole show together for us? That's what we do You know we'll take care of the budgets. We take care of hiring all the vendors. We take care of hiring all the staff. We take care of the design. We take care of everything pretty much you know and I mean down to like with Janet I'm I'm ordering buses and trucks you know I'm doing everything so was that was. That like always sort of a planned evolution or is that something that just as an opportunist, it just kind of happened? Yeah. Yeah, it just, it just made sense, you know, because these days it's, you know, I was telling somebody this earlier today. I did an interview earlier this morning, but I was telling them the kind of the same thing is, you know, back when we were all really busy programming and doing all these shows.

22:56 Back then it was all about, you know, record sales. So we were doing tours to promote an album. So the artist never really had to make money on a tour. It was more about making a spectacle out of it to sell more records. Right now it's completely opposite of that. Now it is. They go on the road to make money, you know, and and it is a business and if if you're artist and that's where we kind of have gone with what we're doing is to make sure that whoever we're working for and the artists we're working for makes money, right. So I take the budget and I go all the way down the budget and make sure that every night they're putting money in their pocket and taking it home, you know, and that's you know, and that's the only way they're going to keep doing shows. I mean, who's going to do what we do and travel as much as we travel and be in the, you know, be in the red after every show, you know, it's just you can't do it. So that's that's kind of our philosophy now it's more about working with an act, giving them something that they can can be proud of but also make money on.

23:55 Yeah, no, it's interesting 'cause I asked you, are you a programmer or a designer? But it sounds like you're a business guy now. Like it that? Sounds. Yeah, I'm pretty much it. Yeah. No, I mean your kids. Get to go out and have all the fun. Yeah, they're doing it all now. Yeah, I mean, I. I let them handle it. But yeah, 'cause we have right now, there's, you know, we basically have three different companies or I've worked with three different companies that I'm a part of and one of them is, is just a fabrication shop. It's just metal work. And all we do there is pretty much from now we're mainly making truck bodies like utility truck bodies. So nothing to do with the industry at all, but but that business is, you know, off and running. So, you know, I've never thought I'd own a shop with laser cutters and press brakes and you know, all that kind of stuff and I do nothing.

24:44 You know what, it happened mainly because Nemesis are the UVC company. We, you know, because I started that just right before COVID or right when we thought. It was happening. Yeah, I mean, I started in 2019 when I started hearing about COVID and what could you know when? And I went, holy crap, I know what? Why? Didn't you tell any of us? Yeah, well, why do you tell quite a bit? Yeah. Yeah. I mean we, we did a lot of business and you know, basically what I did is reinvented UVC lighting with that company. So, you know, because I had learned about it from Rick way back in when I first started in the clubs because back then it was the HIV scare, right. So you had all that going on. So they would put UVC in the bathrooms at these clubs overnight to disinfect the bathrooms and kill all the viruses and bacteria and all that stuff. I mean you can run UVC in a club overnight and get rid of that horrible, you know, beer smell and all the, you know, the club smell because it'll it disinfects. So I just kind of reinvented it and you know we sold a ton of stuff during COVID.

25:47 We were busy and I we were extremely busy and crossfade was busy. We went into the bubble with Top Rank. You know, we had we had boxing work going and sports work because we still took care of the hockey teams and basketball teams we take care of. So all that was still going, so you know between the three companies now pretty slammed you know? So it it. Really eats up a lot of time. The UVC thing blows me away, though, like that. Somehow you had this foresight or vision or whatever that that was going to be a thing. And you know, 'cause I know people who got into the UVC business, like at the end of 2020 or whatever, you know, but you were already in it for that company that's called Nemesis. Oh, yeah.

26:29 No, we, yeah, Nemesis UVC is the company. Yeah. And it's we you know that's so that's how the metal fabrication shop came because I couldn't find any shops that were really had people working or doing anything then and everything was already backlogged. So my one of my partners and me, we went John and I bought the equipment and we got another guy involved and you know all of a sudden now we got you know laser showing, laser cutters showing up and press brakes and we to build all the lighting fixtures basically is what we started doing. So we started building lighting fixtures right there. Is that still a thing? Like, did did you know, 'cause I know how particularly Americans operate, You know, it's it's like, whoa, you know, we need to stop everything.

27:12 And then it goes away and all of a sudden it's like, what? What happened? What are you? Talking about yeah, but in downtown nobody really cares anymore. Now. Yeah it's I mean we get we're we're still in it's still running and it's still doing it but it's kind of it's very slow We're we still have some Indian nation work you know the Indian nations are still buying stuff and we're building here and there and we got some air cleaners and things like that we do but it's it's pretty much you know that's hence why the machine shop now the fabrication shop is doing truck beds because the lighting market for UVC. Is falling off you pivoted. Everybody doesn't really care anymore. No, we're going to get sick. Whatever. No, that's that's how the world. And I had a good friend involved. Yeah, I had a don't know if you knew Joe. He used to work for elation.

27:57 He was involved with us and Joe Adams. So Joe Adams was one of the original guys in with us with UVC and we got it going. He was the one that pushed it to the Indian nations and him and I got COVID together at the same time when we went to. I don't know whether he got it from somebody or how we got it, but him, me and my wife, all three got it at the, I mean, within 24 hours of each other. And Joe. And Joe passed, yeah, seven days. And he died. He had a pulmonary embolism from it and passed away. You know, It was horrible, you know, young guy, you know. Yeah, I know. I. So that that was, yeah. I remember when that went down.

28:37 Yeah, I didn't realize he was your partner. Yeah, he was one of our partners in that. Huh. Yeah, I, you know, I still don't know to this day. I don't know that anyone really knows. But why did like, 'cause I got it probably three times or four times. I think I got COVID and every time it was no worse than any other flu and sometimes not even as bad as colds that I'd get. You know? And to be honest, since 2020, if I look at all the times I've been sick since 2020, it's less than probably the four years prior to that. You know, 'cause it pretty much got rid of the flu and a lot of the colds and stuff for a long time, but.

29:17 Yeah, it did. You know, knocking on my wooden head, I never got really, really sick. You know, like I think one of the times I got it, I I had to spend a day in bed. But other than that I just kind of got on with my days and and I work. Yeah, that whatever we got that week that my wife calls it, you know, we had OG COVID. So yeah, yeah, you know, but we it, it was, it was brutal. I mean, it was watching your O2 levels and all that stuff and then the brain fog and you know, all that garbage. She lost her taste and smell for almost a year. Yeah, my girl. Oh, for a year. Yeah, 'cause I never lost. Every time I got it. I never lost taste or smell. And my girlfriend did again. Why?

30:00 Certain people different. Effects and all of that stuff. Yeah. I mean, well, just like the Indian, the Indian communities, they're still just getting beat up with it. It's it's really rampant, so. I don't know. Yeah. It's it's who knows? You know, I I like and it's unfortunately when when you're like me and you didn't get very sick from it, it's easy to downplay it. But then you got to be careful because you talk to people and they say yeah, but my father died from it or whatever. Yeah, and I and I can't downplay it. I I mean almost a very dear friend. Get it the same week as me and pass. Away from. It so you know I you got to take it serious after that. I mean it it wrecked you know his family's life. You know, it's just, yeah, it was it was not a good moment. That was one of the more sad ones that I remember. There was a a friend of mine here in South Florida who was that obnoxious guy that was like, on Facebook all the time going, this is bullshit.

30:57 This COVID thing's bullshit. It ain't even real. It's the government. Yeah, right, right. You know, just ragging on everybody. And of course, the minute they open strip clubs, he'd be like, hey, I'm going to Rachel's today. Who wants to meet me? We're all going to Rachel's F COVID and all this stuff, right? And he was the first person I knew who died. He got it Well, I mean, but he was such an asshole about it. And I hate to say that God rest his soul, but you know that he refused to go to the doctor. He got it and he wasn't going to take any medicine and he wouldn't go to the doctor. Live The life was real. Yeah, there's a lot of people that that were that. Way. I mean, and I ran into a lot of them running the running nemesis, you know, we ran into that a lot. People are like you guys are, you know, you're selling witchcraft, you know, it's a, you know, we're one of those, you know, door to door guys or whatever. You know, it's trying to sell voodoo. You know, it's not, it's a proven, it's a proven science. It's been used.

31:57 I mean it wasn't anything new. UVC was patented in the 1950s and it's been used in hospitals ever since. So it's it's not, yeah, it's proven it's, it absolutely works. The thing about UVC though, it's so dangerous. It's so like. You know, it can be it's it, it depends on the exposure. I mean we we're baking the lights and you know, it's funny because Stacey Labarber was involved with that, with me as well and his boys and we, you know, we were exposed around it all the time. We just wear something on your eyes, you know, the most you could get. I mean, you'd have to be in it for a long time. I mean, we'd be in there doing tests with it. And you get a sunburn sometimes on your neck or something like that. It's, you know, it's some people think you're going to walk in there, you're just going to die.

32:44 You're not going to do it. I was talking to somebody in LA about it and they had done like an XR studio or something with UVC and he said after like a week or something they were starting to see like the the outside of cables were getting brittle and cracking and and the the flooring that they had in there was was getting all messed up from the UVC or whatever. So they they were probably overexposing things. I'm. Sure they. Were you know you don't you know you don't just turn it on and leave it forever I mean we I actually we did all the I had all the science so it's really the exposure times are I mean it's ridiculous we we actually did our labs in A at a lab down in Austin and we actually the the unit the longest thing we had to run to kill which you know I mean even other things you know was MRSA and staff right.

33:34 So and that took about 15 minutes with our fixture from 8 feet away. So to completely wipe out MRSA and staff they did the test on COVID it was it was about 8 1/2 seconds. So you didn't need a long exposure with any of this stuff. You know, you could run a crowd out, turn on the lights and let them run for 5 to 10 minutes, tops, and then turn it off and you were good to go. You know, So what I found a lot of people doing, and because people were just buying anything they could buy at the time, but they would just turn it on and leave it on. You know, they'd leave and go overnight and just let it run all night long. Yeah, it's going to. It's going to. Absolutely. It's like it's like leaving something out outside in the backyard. In the summer.

34:16 In Texas, it's the same thing. You're just putting UV rays into something. 10 hours must be better, right? Yeah, you know, and the thing you'll look at now, I mean like all your paints and everything anymore is got UV protection in it because they want it to last out in the sun. So your paints, your materials, most everything's got UV protection in it. But when you're putting UV light directly on something you know, it's like leaving it out in the, you know, overnight can be like, you know, leaving something in the sun for a month, you know. So let me ask you a couple gear questions and I'm going to let you go because I know happy hour is coming up or something. So console your your MA.

34:58 Yeah we're MA we own quite a few. We've got we've got we've got quite a few full size some lights you know we got compacts we got you know the PC wings all that stuff. We are all in my house now. Yeah I mean pretty much yeah I I was Max's and going down that line and I still you know I still love all the all the stuff that they've done with Onyx and you know all the stuff that elations done with that. Console. Yeah, the Obsidian stuff is great, you know, but we're we're so deep into MA. It's just what we are now, you know and that is the majority of my rentals too. I mean, my consoles are probably the busiest thing I have.

35:39 Yeah. So you have a rental company as well in? Addition. Oh, we own. Other stuff we own. We own more gear than I ever thought I'd own. Yeah. No, we cross made. We we own. We've got mega points. JDC's, we've got we got all kinds of stuff. Motors, Truss. Yeah, we, I never thought I'd be in the equipment rental business, but here I am so. Yeah, Well, hey, I mean, you know the. People that in the previous our previous suites we've we've invested heavily into our previous suites and we we really started out just wanting to be a control company, more media servers control pre vis you know design work building 3D models that kind of stuff. But you know as time grew on, you know we're we got clients that you know like Top Rank, we bought the lighting system for it because it just wasn't beneficial to rent it. So we bought everything and it stays out all the time so. Yeah, what about favorite fixtures? Any favorite fixtures right now that that you're? Really in love with all.

36:39 There's some new well there's some new ones and I'm going to put few of them on Janet on this next run. Shabe's got, they've got a new fixture out. It's the pixel curve. It's the Colorado pixel curve. Really. I've got one at the shop right now. Brad Haynes sent me. It is. I really like it. I I was in love with the clay packing one there for a bit but this one is kind of it on steroids, you know so it it was you know as it always turns out somebody will try to outdo them. But that one to me right now is a really great fixture. But one that really impressed me the other day is I got I had Brad come up and bring me a Mac one.

37:20 Martin. Yeah, so they got this new Mac one. It's a really great. Little small thing is cool. Yeah, that thing is cool. It is very cool. Well, and just the way they've packaged it with the bar of four and and you can wall mount it, you can hang it, you can do all this different stuff with it. Like pods and it's lightweight and the whole the size. And the form factor, yeah, now that that fixture as much, you know, I, I talked to other lighting manufacturers about it and they're like it's no big deal. You know, that's no big deal. It's not bright enough, it's not small enough, it's not this enough. But I, you know, I just keep saying they're going to sell a billion of those things like. They're going to sell. They're going to sell a. They're going to sell tons of. Those and it's cheap. Because we've been we've been dying for something. I mean I I the, you know my go to for the small formats always been the X4S from GLP you know great little small light I mean on Usher as a matter of fact it's the picture I see in your background there.

38:14 I had a wall on that of 248 of them. Wow. So. And they were impressive. You know, they look incredible. But, you know, that light's old now. It's been around. I'm surprised GOP hasn't reinvented that one. I mean, I see that coming. I think they should because it was always a great light. But the Mac one is kind of what's happened there. They've kind of reinvented it. And you know, it's a neat little light. Yeah, I think they hit that one out of the park. I mean that is just they're going to again the price point too like it's you know, dealer. I think, oh, it's way over 2. Grand, you know it's. Oh yeah, no, I yeah, I mean yeah, dealer on it. I can't. I don't think it's more than about 1500 bucks or. Something, you know, it's insane, yeah. I don't know exactly, I haven't got a quote yet, but yeah, it's. I do, but I'm just not saying I'm being slippery. But no.

39:04 I need to get a quote. Actually, you just reminded me I got to e-mail and get a quote because I need to. I'm probably just going to buy the ones for Janet instead of PRG buying them, but yeah. I just, I just think that's going to be a light that people, you know, they don't say, yeah, send me 12, they're going to say send me, you know, 250, you know. Yeah, that's it. It's. Just going to be something with lots because it's got so many applications. I mean, you know, 8 lights. It's got the I can't show. Booth or something. You know, like just everything about it. It's so simple, so straightforward. Maybe the only thing they could have done that would have made it even cooler is make it, you know, battery and wireless that you could just take. You know, four under your arms to a trade show? Absolutely be perfect. Yeah, yeah, well, maybe it's coming. You know the the Mac 1B will be battery. You know the Tesla version.

39:52 Yeah. Yeah. Well you know I know you're on vacation and I appreciate you doing this for me. I we were going to originally do it last week and and you got real busy and. Yeah, it's, it's that's what's happening right now. All of a sudden you're like, you know, you get all this stuff you think you got this time and then, you know, and then all of a sudden you're slammed. I mean, I've got a corporate show that just came out of nowhere that we're doing right now in Dallas. And that was what we were trying to get out the door. And then, you know, and it was the last minute. Joel Young sent the guy my way and you know, just and I hadn't heard from Joel in many years. And. It was kind of nice. What's he doing? He's he's this corporate gig and other than that he's working in the medical industry now. He's like, he's in medicine. He's doing plasma or something.

40:36 Yeah. So him and his partner or husband, I guess Ty is, I think they're married now, but they're him and Ty. Both are out of the business now, I guess for the most part except you know Joel does this one corporate client and that's it. I had. No, it's funny, I was thinking about him a couple weeks ago. I I wonder whatever happened to Joel and and I know that's funny. You're saying that? Yeah. So you know, interesting how many people that's probably the biggest problem we got right now is how many people left after COVID. You know the God, it's hard to find people right now. I mean finding good people right now is. I mean that that's the hardest thing we have to deal with right now is staffing and crewing. And it's you know, because and one thing I can say is it did help. It helped some because there were some people that just didn't really need to be in the business. But, but then there's some that you know that we're well, more qualified and needing to make more money and now they can, you know.

41:30 Yeah. People, people are getting what they deserve in this industry right now, I think and it's, you know, I mean for what we do, it's they should be paid for it. Well, it's it's going to be interesting to see how long this lasts, you know, like because I know everyone is all the larger companies anyways. They're pushing really hard on the education thing, trying to bring new people in, new young people into the industry, right. You know, you've got a lot of even designers and stuff. Like I know Soon Sooner has been involved in, in really trying to beat the drama of, hey, you know, this is a real gig. It's not a gypsy job or whatever. You know you you can make real. Money. Yeah, you can make real money doing this and travel the world and see cool stuff and and you know do cool things. So they're out there doing marketing basically on the business, which is important but because obviously. We're we're working on something right now. We're hoping it kicks off but we're we're real close to it. We're talking we're we're real close to opening up some rehearsal studios and right outside of Dallas with Forney school district and and starting an education program for our industry at the same time.

42:37 So that's kind of our next big venture we're working on right now. So we would have, you know, 4 sound stages out there, you know, education division that takes care of start teaching lighting guys and sound guys and all that good stuff. Sure. You know, introducing the kids to a different industry that they normally wouldn't have access to, you know, and that school district's really interesting. They, they have a place called the OC and that is the high school. So it's more of a vocational high school. You know, you can get in, you can walk in there as a freshman in the high school and go, I really want to be a car mechanic. That's what I want to do. Well, they have a car, They have an automotive shop. You and work on cars, your four years in high school and learn how to work on cars, how logical they've got. Yeah, I know, right?

43:24 Curriculum that actually works, you know? Yeah. Beauty shops, catering company restaurants, they got all this stuff in this OC. It's really cool. It's a it's a really neat concept. They were definitely thinking outside the box when they did it. And I mean from learning to Weld to you know they even have podcast studios, you know, where you can kids can go in and do podcasts and do broadcast stuff. They put in a theater and an arena, and now we're talking about partnering with them and building these sound stages and opening up basically an entertainment site. Who? Funded it. They, well the city funded the initial project, what it is now and now it's more they're bringing on partners kind of like us with this.

44:09 They brought in Eddie Dean. He's a big BBQ guy in Texas, brought him in with all the restaurants and the catering companies. You know they've they've brought on Randy Klein who does like Texas Style Wrestling. And you know so they're doing that out there now and they're doing you know TV broadcast with Texas Style Wrestling. And so it's more about bringing in partners now too, You know, develop it like there's a automotive company that started with them with the automotive shop, so they work with real mechanics and work on real cars. You know, it's a, it's a real neat concept. So kids don't have to just go, yeah, I've got to go four years of school and I'll figure out what I'm going to do there. You know, they can actually go, hey, you know, this is really, you know, they can they can be around it and exposed and go, well, I I would really like to do that. You know, welding might be my thing, you know. So that just makes.

44:57 Way too. You know. You know. So yeah, it's a it's a real neat concept, you know, And I think we're real close to getting it off the ground. It's Crossroads Collective is the name of the studios we've already incorporated, and it's all running. And you know now the next thing is just breaking ground. You know, it's amazing. I'm during, during COVID or just before COVID, this industry, we were so short on rehearsal space. And now the new ones, what's it called? Elevation in Nashville and Gateway and. There's all and there's still not enough. Yeah, still not enough. It's so I mean I've been because I have to find the buildings for Janet to rehearse in and Harold has been working on find a place for Lionel to go.

45:41 And finding buildings or anywhere to rehearse these days is it's hard you can't find anything. I mean oh the arenas everywhere we go. I mean we're we ended up in we're going to end up doing Janet rehearsals it looks like in Fresno you know and we found an arena there that wasn't busy so you know it's that's that is really the area where we need help right now is sound stages and rehearsal spaces. There's just not enough of it. That's crazy. Well, you enjoy Park City, you enjoy your happy hour and. Absolutely. I appreciate you taking. Some time Mardi Gras time. All right, man. Go put them up. Go. Have fun, all right, man.

46:23 Have fun. Thanks. Thanks Eric. Good to see you all. Right. Good seeing you, man. Yeah.