When we did get into work we had a fairly productive day, all the cabling is now run for the remainder of the exit alarm system and we also finished the rest of the units to connect to this cabling. This means that we should just be left with a half hour job of connecting everything up on Monday morning.

James also replaced the DJ trip in the sounds power distro which stopped working last week – the trip that was replaced was in service for at least 16 years – possibly part of the Joe Cool road show!

Day 2 of getting things ready for Freshers 2010 marked the return of Paul after a quick session making, updating and prioritisieing to-do lists, we decided to do some asset-ing of some of the new kit we had recived over the summer so we could put it away in its new homes. This included the new Pearl Expert that we reported on yesterday which, after a quick tidy of the ACR moved in!

We finished up the morning with a quick set of weights, moving the 200 liters of smoke fluid that got delivered  to its store, an amp room above the club with only a cupboard for access.

After a quick spot of lunch, we moved on to running some cables in for the new emergency exit alarms, ensuring customers cant accidentally get stuck in the fire escapes out of the union. We had left the hardest for last, as this involved taking out several lighting fixtures, about the same size as our heads, to pull the cable through.

We’re back at work getting ready for Freshers 2010, starting in only 18 days! Up till then, there’s loads of stuff happening – things need fixing, stuff needs maintaining, and new stuff needs setting up, along with the all important planning for the big events the Ents lot have planned, so each day we’re in, we’re hoping to put up a short blog post like this, saying what’s been going on.

Today, just James and Dave have been in, but being the first day back for this year, there’s been lots to get sorted.

Main job for the day was to fix all the DJ consoles – all four of our Xone:62 now have all new channel faders. Only complication was herding them all together, as normally they’re all installed in the pods, which isn’t the most comfortable place to work on their innards!

Our fourth “spare” Xone:62 has also been repaired, after spending several months waiting to be fixed.

Also freshly delivered were new lamps for the entire intelligent rig, 24 fixtures in all, mostly MSD250s, but with some HMI1200s for the Goldenscans, and a raft of other spare lamps for the rest of the kit.

The smoke fluid for the term, all 200 litres of it, also arrived, and is currently sat on a pallet waiting to be put into it’s store cupboard – easier than it sounds, as the fluid lives in one of the amp rooms, a floor above the club, with only a ladder for access! That’ll be a fun job for Paul when he gets back from the summer!

The final new arrival today was a biggie – it’s very cool, very shiny, and very white!

After ten years, our Pearl 2000 is being retired, and it’s replacement – a brand new Pearl Expert has now arrived. We’ve (big thanks to Avolites) had an Expert on loan most of last year, and think the desk it great, and now we have our own (Now we just need to get a touch wing!)

It was a rather hectic weekend making sure we were ready, but we made it, and we’re all looking forward to a busy and successful Freshers Week.

But… Do you want to be part of it too? Read on for more info!

Bar Phoenix

The new look Bar Phoenix opened on Monday, there’s still a few bits to do, but it’s virtually finished, and good to go for Freshers Week. But it was a different story at 6pm on Sunday!

But, after a rather late finish, the new HD projector and screen, along with all the HD cabling and distribution were installed, a new HDTV, altered lighting and PA settings, new subs and numerous other minor works, it was ready for the new furniture to arrive on Monday morning and opened on time.

With both Freesat HD and Sky HD available in C Pod, now linked to Bar Phoenix, all sport in Bar Phoenix will be shown in high definition, along with every other event shown, provided it’s being broadcast in HD. The new screen is 3m wide, plenty large enough to be seen across the entire bar!

Freshers Week Planning

Stage Services always has lots to do during Freshers Week, this year is no exception, and it all starts on Sunday. Freshers Fest is an all building event, plus outside, where a marquee will be rocking till 2am with Headphone Disco. Aside from providing our normal facilities indoors, we also provide PA, lighting and visuals outside in the marquee, and this year we also have 6 live bands in Bar Phoenix during the day, stand up comedy with the Hallam Antics society in B Pod and a very special surprise in C Pod. At midnight we will have 6 seperate DJ’s playing to over 2000 people in the HUBs, after 9 hours of being open (and still 5+ hours for Stage Services left before home time!).

Later in the week we have The Holloways performing live in C Pod on Tuesday , with The Subways doing a DJ set till late. On Thursday, the first of the Phoenix Live events, with 3 bands performing for free in the bar, The Cut Up Boys with Ministry of Sound playing upstairs, followed by a very special one off night with Nihal on Friday, and the return of a new look Sheff1 on Saturday.

Expect loads of updates, and guest posters from the Stage Services committee (it’s going to be whoever isn’t holding something that gets to update the site!), along with more details of what we have and will be doing as the events come along.

Freshers Fairs

During the days there are several things going on in The HUBs during the week. On Wednesday there is the Sports Fair, Thursday the Activities Fair and Friday the Freebies Fair. On Thursday, Stage Services will have a stand – if you’re new and interested, pop in and see us. We’re not sure where we are, but head for the loud music and flashing lights! The committee is run by studens, and the work we do couldn’t happen without them. Full training is given, along with a host of other benefits.

It was a long day in the end, we finished at 6.30am! BIG thanks go to: Charli, Emily, Greg, Jamie, Lauren & Phil.

That was the last big event of the 08/09 academic year, but with Freshers Week 2009 only three months away there’s not much time to relax!

Less than 24 hours to go till the Summer Ball opens, and we’re all packed up & ready to go. We started at midday today, and 9 hours later, all the equipment we need has been taken apart and packed up into cases, sound systems configured and checked. It’s been a long day, but it should make tomorrow easier.

Special thanks to Dave & Ezra who helped out today but aren’t able to make the main event tomorrow.

The fun kicks off for us at midday tomorrow – see you all tomorrow night!

The last couple of weeks have consisted of making lists, plans, more lists, and a couple more plans. Piles of paperwork, patching, loadings and equipment lists are still cluttering our desks, but things are starting to come together. Next week lots of packages of bits of new equipment and materials to put on the event will start arriving, and on Thursday the whole of Stage Services will get together to pack it all in cases to take it up to City Hall on Friday. Amongst other things, the list of stuff to arrive includes 12m of truss, 12 LED par cans, 4 dimmer racks and 4 2 tonne ratchet straps. There are currently 5 pages to the equipment list, weighing over 1.4 tonnes. Hopefully it’s not going to grow much more!

However, it was a nice sunny day today in Sheffield (for once!), so we de-camped to the back patio of HUBs to start building what looks like trellis! It’s actually a load of square and rectangular frames, which will be a big part of the stage in the main room, so we’re not letting on too much at the moment.

On Monday, we’ll be doing more work to these, so expect more photos – and possibly some hint’s as to their use too!

Back to the planning!