I worked two days without a night’s sleep in between this week. We had a launch to cover for a client at 5AM. I think I jinxed myself by packing up my briefcase at abou 9PM the night before the launch. Brian, Phil and I went to check one last thing and then….bam that led to another and another. Now it’s 3AM and we’re thinking let’s just stay up for the launch at 5AM. So off we go to Denny’s. A lot can be seen at the Denny’s at Jimmy Carter and I-85 at 4AM. A lot.
Too much travel. Too much time on the road. This is what I get for putting myself on a commercial project….. That said the client is great, the wife is hugely supportive and we are seeing some very cool facilities. We’re making television history. Sorry - can’t talk about it publicly yet.
Now, March 25th its Aruba for the wife and me - without the kids - for five days.
Well I have to admit to thinking a couple of things I saw today were pretty cool. My prior post spoke of the pressure I sometimes feel between our Blue Hat Design business that’s focused specifically in churches and ministries and our legacy in the commercial broadcast world. Jumping between the two for me sometimes feels like business whiplash. Today I was smack in the middle of the commercial side of the world and saw some things that few people get to….
We’ll be working for KNBC in the same building with the Jay Leno studios and just down the hall from Days Of Our Lives. This is the same complex that Carson did his show from. Here’s the fiber tray that sends signals to Jay’s dressing room. It’s strange when someone is telling you to land your cables here or there and then you look down and see something like this in the rack you’re going to be working in.
Well I just taped on my office door a month of travel itineraries. It says I will be in the office for exactly three working days during the month of March. This is a good thing really. It means we’re so busy that I will be in the field where the action is for the better part of the next month.
The majority of this time will be for NBC and there’s the rub for me. I love being busy. I derive great satisfaction form rising to a challenge. Arguably this NBC project our team is taking on is one of the most challenging projects I have ever seen. But it’s a commercial project. Now the balance of our faith-based work goes on as usual. Mat and Steve keep the wheels turning but I have to miss a lot of it. I am needed elsewhere.
I am conflicted about this because like I say, I love a challenge. But I want to work with the church all the time. But in this economy one should be ever grateful to literally have more work than you can handle. This is our position. We’re turning some work away.
Sunday at 8:30 I am on a plane from Atlanta to San Diego. Internal conflict or no, I will be on the plane. I will hope for an upgrade. I will collect my frequent flyer miles and Marriott points. I will go through my usual first night of on the road insomnia. I will miss two track meets and five nights of tucking in the little boys. I will wake up alone and so will my wife.
Still for twenty years this is what I do.
So I guess I will see you out there somewhere and until then, keep on truckin.
I have just gotten my feet back under me after the longest most intense flu of my life. I really thought i was going to die. I was pretty sure at one point it had moved on to pneumonia. Anyway, I knew I was ready to come back to work when I had the energy to sit at my workbench and restore a vintage Moog Rogue synthesizer.
Today at lunch I was explaining to Phil and Mat how Moog is not pronounced MOOOOOG, but M OH G, like with a long O. Then Mat wanted to know how to pronounce Moogerfooger, which is the name of a real device currently in production from the company. Is it Mohgerfohger? “I don’t know,” I told him. I just know that Dr. Moog, rest his soul, pronounced his own name with a long O and most of the rest of the world does not, probably causing him to roll over in his grave regularly.
Here’s a link to the public gallery on my Facebook.
Well here’s a lightning rod topic: when does good media production and creative programming cross the line and become entertainment? I was out sick from my own church this weekend and saw this video online from the service. It’s getting a lot of views on Youtube. I probably err on the side of freedom in worship so I think that a moment like this can be a great teaching tool. I know this view is not universally held in the body though.
I saw a pastor demonstrate real leadership today in a design meeting. Reverend Dan Brown is the pastor of Trinity On The Hill United Methodist Church in Augusta.
Today was the architectural kick off meeting for a campus renovation that’s expected to takes years to complete and will encompass many aspects of church life.
The building team has prioritized several parts of the project but has placed sanctuary renovations and improvement of their broadcast program at the top of their list. As a part of the sanctuary renovations their old pipe organ will be retired in favor of a hybrid pipe/digital organ. Many churches who opt for this route plan on including a number of “dummy pipes” on the chancel to satiate the older members of the church who have an affinity to the traditional. I watched this pastor come down firmly on the side of good stewardship today and say that he did not believe they should be spending money on things that have no function and are only for show. It was impressive and inspiring.
This is an exciting project that we are just getting started on and I look forward to helping this church extend its reach into the local community. They broadcast live every week with several replays of the service along with a studio-produced program too.
I had an interesting Facebook message last night from a client who said he was missing us and that he had gotten used to having us around. Sites related to projects that last a long time and are complex can become interesting places to try and leave. You want to do a good job and you want the client to be happy but eventually he has to sink or swim on his own. Through the years I have seen both extremes of this phenomenon. I have seen clients trying to kick us out too fast and clients that wouldn’t let us go. I once was involved in a state government project where the client literally chose to operate out of a closet we had set up with a temporary installation of their old gear rather than move into the new, spacious and scary facility we had spent a year building them. I ultimately had to go on site to push them into the space and to extract our people away from their fear and lack of accountability.
Now the client who wrote that note last night was not at remotely the extreme end of the spectrum as the state government folks I refer to. I am thinking that we have to find a way to help our clients with their new technology adoption cycle and its inevitable pitfalls and traps. Its not that we aren’t helping at all. In fact I would argue we do better than most, and often to our own financial detriment. Eventually though we have to go home.
I wonder if there is a sufficient need out there to justify some level of post installation support, troubleshooting and documentation maintenance. I wonder if we could provide it without making it a financial hole we have to dig out of.
