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When you get round to the entertainment side of your wedding or party, there's one thing that is super important... the sound of the music! Your engineer is the person who will ensure you have the right amplification for the room and to ensure your guests are dancing all night.
At She Music Global, we work very closely with our production companies as we know the last thing anyone wants is a band twiddling with knobs when they should be focusing on the entertaining the audience. Today I spoke to Jon at Entire Productions to ask him a few questions about his job (or as he calls it "his lifestyle").
How long have you been a sound engineer ?
"I've been doing sound for 16 years. I made a new friend who did sound and lighting for various local events and wasn't long before I was behind the desk. Slowly covering the jobs he couldn't do while doing my degrees in stage management and technical theatre. Now I'm covering a big mix, from bands, events, theatre to festivals!"
What do you love about your job ?
"When it's all running smoothly, the dance floor is going, you can sit back and hear it sound great, everyone's happy. I don't mind if I'm at a wedding, knee deep in a muddy festival field with a band, when the event is going the show is in full swing and everyone is having a amazing time."
What is most stressful part of your job ?
"As you'd imagine a creative person to have, admin! while I love been on gig's, I strive to run a top company, which does means the hours behind the scenes, keeping on top of admin, creating risk assessments, compliancy, checking insurances/license's.
There is so much work goes into every job, we start on your job from the moment you get in-touch, and even after we then pack up, go home, unload and usually debrief, sign equipment back in on our database."
What 3 things could you not live without in your job?
"1) My eyes and ears! Without them what would it sound like. That does mean I have nice custom mould ear defenders, keeping the sound the same but just protecting my ears.
2) My vans, they do a lot of miles, I spend a lot of time in them traveling too and from jobs.
3)My passion! Making the job the best it can be, the definition of passion is: Strong and barely controllable emotion. It's what I love doing, I tried a 9-5 job and yes I could do it, but life is about love and happiness, do something love and you'll never work a day in your life. I've worked with bottom of the range sound and lighting equipment, through to high pro end equipment and seen and heard them both. I've seen terrible engineers on high end systems, and professional's on low end, and you can always tell a professional will get the most out of what they have."
What do you love about doing weddings ?
"It's the same as my what I love about my job, if the dance floor is going, everyone's having a great time, smiling chatting. Smiling is infectious."
What tips would you give for hiring a sound & Light engineer at your wedding ?
"- The cheapest quote might not be the best!
* If you have any questions or don't understand ask them to explain. I can talk technical details down, but what I'm also very good at is explaining in simple terms, that way you know what you are getting, and its not me putting things on your don't need.
* Always tell your band leader the approximate size of guests, this is just so we can set the music up in a way all of your guests can hear it.
* Find out if your venue has a noise limiter. We are happy to speak to the event organiser if this is all jargon to you! "
Ok, so you bring your PA along with you. Do you supply anything else?
"We do loads! The L.O.V.E lights look great. Dancefloors with lights. We do larger PAs, larger stages. All of which, we set up during the day before the band get there. The bands are great but having all of these things just finish it off nicely!"
Anything else you would like to say Jon?
" My Final thought: I do this full time, it's not a part time hobbie, I'm good enough to make a living off been a technician. It's not a job, it's my lifestyle!"
For more info on Entire Productions, follow links below and let them know that we @shemusicglobal sent you to them.
Facebook- @entireproductionservices
Twitter- @EntirePs
