HoustonFest 2017 at the University of Houston – Social Media Videos

Just a few months ago, the staff at In Depth Events was invited to HoustonFest, an event thrown for student attendees on the campus of the University of Houston. The event was designed to showcase some of the exciting things that Houston has to offer the students of the University of Houston, as well as promoting on-campus organizations, such as CougarByte and the Student Program Board.

The In Depth Events staff was there with an in-house video crew to shoot candid interviews of vendors, program organizers, and attendees. These videos, complete with lower thirds, gives the person watching them a real sense of being at the event. Each video is kept to a 1.5 minute maximum, perfect for use on Facebook and Youtube to promote the event and the person being interviewed on Facebook, Youtube, and other social media outlets.

Bad audio? Bad video? If you don’t use quality equipment and behind the scenes personnel, your videos, your audience, and your conversions will suffer! With the HoustonFest videos, we wanted to show a fun campus and provide some great interviews for use by the University, the Student Program Board, and vendors. By using a quality production company like In Depth Events, the overall look and feel is transmitted in a positive way.

We’ve seen cell phone videos and there’s no question they work for consumer-level social media. Families singing Happy Birthday, a video of a friend’s new puppy, or your nephew on stage with his junior high school choir is great. However, when it’s your brand on the line, it’s important to use professional production equipment and staff. At In Depth Events, we specialize in making video specifically for social promotion – all within your budget. We won’t sacrifice the quality of your brand for finances!

Interview format videos worked great for the event at the University of Houston. Other types of events may need other video styles. Vendors and other clients may have completely different needs. In any case, our experts are here to help. Contact us today and let us know the scope of your project. We look forward to hearing from you, and working with you!

Event Outdoor Signage and Structures for Sporting Events and Festivals – An Event Planners Guide

For large scale events like sporting events, large festivals and Municipal events, signage becomes a serious issue. If your event spans an area over several acres, how to you point people to the main stage, restrooms or the emergency services area? No less critical is the branding of the event and the branding of your vendor areas. At In Depth Events, we are experts at event outdoor signage using a variety of media. Read on for more information!

Live Events – Structure and Banner Solutions from In Depth Events

At In Depth Events, we are experts at event outdoor signage solutions. We’ve used structures with vinyl banners as well as structures with large scale video walls. Our technicians and engineers work hard to make sure these structures are safe, look great and fulfill the needs that put them there in the first place – to inform your attendees about a specific direction, scheduled event or vendor message.

Here are the four types of structures that you can easily use at your next festival, sporting event, or marketing event:

Inverted “U”:

An inverted “U” is a mini-beam truss structure. It’s a great way to display a large banner such as a backdrop for a small stage or a step and repeat banner at a selfie station. These structures are incredibly wind resistant, inexpensive and look great.

Media Towers:

A media tower is either a triangular or square structure designed to hold large format LED Video walls. These structures are usually about 20′ tall and very, very strong. They work well at central locations with lots of foot traffic – like outside the food court area. The screens are used for vendor promotion, calendar/schedules of your event and live tweets. When equipped with loudspeakers, these towers can also be used for announcements of upcoming events as well as emergency messages.

Truss and Ballast:

A Truss and Ballast structure is a proprietary type of signage that only In Depth Events has. In combination with a 20-foot tall vertical piece of 24-inch x 30-inch truss is a 3600 pound ballast made of concrete and steel. These units can be placed anywhere for very tall, very visible banners. We also use them for outdoor light towers and as support for commercial bulb stringers. These unique outdoor signage structures have been engineer certified to withstand well over 70 MPH winds while only using a 4-foot X 4-foot ground area.

Gateways:

A gateway is a mini-beam structure that is engineered to allow people to pass under or through it. They are most often used at the event entry or exit or, when attendees are passing through to a different part of the festival. Gateways are usually lighted with signage towers on both sides. Gateways are typically where the event name and sponsors are located, but it’s also become a great location for a selfie station.

The Bonus Structure Type – Custom Signage Towers:

Do you see something here that inspires you to create a new idea? Do you have an idea that is completely off the beaten path? The experts at In Depth Events can (and have!) provided event outdoor signage using custom structures that don’t look like anything else. From truss vaults to branded outdoor seating lounges and even toboggan slides – our experts can create something completely new for your event. Challenge Accepted!

Choosing the right vendor for live event outdoor signage structures

In Depth Events handles event outdoor signage structures for events all over the nation, so make sure to contact us first. However, our Canadian and international event planners may have a difficult time finding a reputable vendor. Here are a few pointers:

First and foremost – trust your gut. Don’t settle for a company that doesn’t seem right for your needs.

Make sure the company you choose is capable of providing engineer certified drawings.
The company needs to be registered as a certified building contractor in at least their home city.
The company should own their own equipment, especially the trussing, tie-downs and ballasts.
Find a company that has recommendations for a signage or vinyl firm. Having a good relationship with a signage vendor means they know what specification are needed.

Questions? Feel free to Ask a Question of our experts. We hope you enjoyed this blog post and make sure to check out our other Event Planner Guides while you are here.

Truss and Ballast for Outdoor Events – A New Product Showcase

The staff at In Depth Events like to flatter ourselves that we engineer products that improve the production industry as a whole. Occasionally, we’re right! Some of our innovations really have been influential to the industry. The best example is our LED Dance Floors – which was one of the first available in the rental market when we began designing them seven years ago. It’s in this spirit that we are beginning a New Product showcase series. Sign Up Here to receive information on our New Products as we discover them!

“Necessity is the mother of invention”

The Development of the Rental Truss and Ballast

About three years ago, a tour with a 5K run required a more immersive experience for their attendees. This client asked us to design a series of outfield towers that could be placed up to 200 feet from the stage. Each tower would be required to hold a significant amount of lighting as well as holding signage. It would also require certified engineer documentation.

Engineer Drawing of Truss and Ballast Design

A side view from one of the engineered drawings used in the initial product design.

Our engineers got to work. Using trussing from our rooftop department, we began with 20 foot vertical truss towers. This pin-together truss (sometimes called fork truss) is 30 inches x 24 inches and is part of the perimeter truss of our monster 70’x50′ rooftop. Now, we have the vertical space and strength. But how do we anchor it to the ground to keep it from falling over?

Using the concept of a typical truss and base (which uses 70 pound steel plates as ballast) we set to design the mother of all truss and base. Using 3/8″ steel plate, our welders built a box 4 feet x 4feet x 36 inches tall with fork lift receivers. Then, using rebar and a piece of the perimeter truss, we set a die for the fork ends. Finally, our stagehands mixed 3200 pounds of concrete, and poured it into each box.

The end result is a surprisingly good looking product with more than it’s fair share of weight. The steel base is painted black and looks great on site, but it can’t disguise the 3600 pound nature of it’s being. Our final engineering review allows the towers to be used in almost any weather environment with virtually no danger of them falling over. Of course, the trussing looks great – it’s a vertical tower of aluminum that holds several hundred pounds of lighting in the air as well as flat vinyl banners with three times the signage space as mini-beam towers.

The multiple uses of Truss and Ballast in outdoor events

Image of Ballast and base supporting lighting and signage

Ballast and base supporting lighting and signage during a spring 2016 tour stop not too far from the Vegas strip.

When we unveiled the new Truss and Ballast, the client was thrilled. Our engineers had created a product that allowed for the immersive experience their attendees demanded (later, we carried that design to over 150 cities in the United States – but that’s another story). However, as we started using them on other shows, other advantages of our 3600 pound Truss and Ballast started to present themselves. Take a look at the list below:

Lighting Placement:

This should be obvious, since it was one of the main initial specifications. However, the sheer ability of our design to accommodate lighting fixtures became an asset. Rather than just holding a few fixtures, these towers can hold hundreds of pounds of weight – meaning more lighting. Our Truss and Ballast towers have been used with moving lights, conventional 6 bars, lekos and FX lighting – many times all at once. They are a vast upgrade compared to the traditional usage of scaffolding or truss and base for outdoor lighting!

Banner placement:

The banner sizing is where this product really shines. Before, spot signage at festivals had to be either scaffolding towers or towers using 12 inch mini-beam. With our Truss and Ballast, signage is 30 inches wide x 20 feet tall! This allows for readable signage for logo placement or directional signs. Since our bases are stand-alone units, you can erect a square signage tower literally in the center of your main thoroughfare, and it provides a easy to read signpost that has very little effect on traffic patterns or slowdown.

Support for Commercial Bulb Placement:

Commercial bulb stringers are a mainstay for weddings, receptions and corporate outdoor events. However, commercial bulb stringers can be difficult to have in open areas. Our Truss and Ballast make commercial bulb stringers a dream to setup and install. Our towers can support multiple strings – or use as a corner piece without worrying about wire tension.

Gateways and Gantries:

In January of 2017, a good friend and client asked us about building a gateway entry. These are usually built with mini-beam, but in this instance the gateway footprint had to be minimized. We designed two corners and a spanning truss to go with our Truss and Ballast, and in doing so, created a new use for our towers. These new gateway structures boast a limited footprint, while providing exceptionally wind tolerant signage. Multiple sections can also be used to create ticket gantries.

Using experts to help with your next event

Do you have a idea that you don’t know how to make work safely? Contact our experts and let us turn your idea into a reality! Look no further! At In Depth Events, our staff and technicians can help provide staging, audio and lighting, and electrical distribution for your next event. Ask Us a Question to get started on your next event!

Super Bowl LI 2017 A Production Company’s Retrospective

Super Bowl 2017, like any of the really large, international events, fills the host city with a dizzying array of private parties, AirBNB reservations and car rentals. For a week during February, 2017, all eyes were on Houston for the Patriots vs the Falcons national showdown (with Lady Gaga at halftime). Of course, lots of private events means an increased need for super bowl event production elements like staging, rooftops, lighting, and electrical rentals. As the marketing companies descended on Houston along with the attendees, the production crew got ready for a week’s worth of event services!

It turned out to be a pretty hectic week! Traffic in a grid-locked Houston affected event times. Security was tight, which affected truck delivery schedules with constant X-Ray scans at high security venues. However, our warehouse staff in Houston made switching trucks and gear seamless. Our expert techs worked together to handle over a dozen client events through the week. All of the staff had the opportunity to work with client names like Comedy Central, DirectTV, MKTG and Nike – all in one weekend!

We would like to thank our clients and vendors for making our portion of Super Bowl 2017 a huge success. We’ll have several other busy weekends in 2017 coming soon. After all, SXSW is fast approaching. And large holidays like Cinco de Mayo, Fourth of July and Fiestas Patrias will keep our staff hopping. We look forward to working with both new and existing clients this year. In the meantime, view the list below to see all the shows at Super Bowl 2017 that we helped make successful!

Comedy Central – ManHouse Productions:

The second show for our old friends at ManHouse consisted of taking over the outdoor space at Kirby Ice House for a week and doing live broadcasts of Comedy Central’s new show, “The Barstool Rundown”. In Depth Events staff built the stage as well as a rooftop for lighting and protection. Our work on this show earned us a 5-star rating from our client!

MKTG for DirecTV:

Our first crews in Houston began Super Bowl week with the staging and carpet bones for the DirecTV setup inside the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. A last-minute pickup of 3,000 square foot of silver carpet rounded out the two main 24 foot x 24 foot stages and ADA ramps for this booth.

NFL Network Stage:

There was nothing more exciting than a 24 foot X 24 foot stage in this booth. Other companies provided the lighting, audio and trussing for this booth. But the stage was there first!

Angel City Designs – Hilton Americas:

One of the many host hotels of the NFL needing lighting techs for setup, changeovers, and finally, strike.

Angel City Designs – Lot 97:

Our second show with this prestigious event company out of LA was called “Lot 97”. In initial conversations, Angel City couldn’t even disclose the end client for security concerns. As a result, the site of this location was the identifier for the show – even after we found out who the end client was. We provided a custom 24 foot half round stage as well as regular staging. We also provided a small army of lighting technicians for setup, changeovers and strike.

IMC Productions – Superbash:

This four day party ended with a bomb threat. But still, we provided the stage, rooftop, lighting and generators for this outdoor event. On Saturday night, someone called in a bomb threat to the police. When SWAT and police showed up, they evacuated the event space. Luckily, the threat was a fake, but it still had devastating effects on the party.

Nickelodeon:

Another broadcast event with trussing, staging, labor, and special effects for this wacky taping of a Nickelodeon game show inside the George R Brown Convention Center.

Pro One – Nike:

This outdoor event was held at a local event center. Nike came in to play with a revamp of the football field, portable bleachers, food vendors, and all the other aspects of a “Friday Night Lights” event. We provided generators and electrical distribution, making sure that all vendors had electrical power.

Metroplex Gymnastics:

Not all shows on Super Bowl weekend are Super Bowl shows! The Metroplex Challenge is an annual gymnastics event where we provide staging, audio and lighting. This 11 year repeat client began our week with a three day show at the Ft Worth Convention Center Arena. Check out a highlights video from the event here.

Barrellhouse Media:

Another event that just happened to fall on Super bowl weekend. This stage was for a corporate event.

Hopefully this blog has been informative for our event planner clients! For more information on In Depth Events and our event production capabilities, please Ask Us a Question today. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on your event!

Shooting interview format videos – the In Depth staff on event site

The importance of GREAT video production for social media