ATLANTA – Active Production and Design, based here, has been stocking up and renting out High End Systems products since the days of the Intellabeam and Trackspot. The company recently added the Hog 4 range of lighting consoles to its inventory, including a pair of Hog 4s, Nano Hog 4s and a Full Boar 4.
More details from High End Systems (http://www.highend.com/):
AUSTIN, TX — Currently celebrating their 20th anniversary, Active Production and Design provides professional audio visual services for numerous corporate, social and fashion events in Atlanta and beyond. From humble beginnings, Active has grown to become a major player in national and global corporate events, and has also carved a successful niche working as a preferred A/V provider for hotels, museums, and event venues around the country. An early adopter of High End Systems lighting technology, Active has employed HES products since the days of the Intellabeam and Trackspot.
Following the introduction of the Hog 4 range at LDI 2012, Clouser and Active were quick to update their inventory with the new desks. “We’ve always used Hog series consoles,” Matt explains, “In the 1990s we were using LCD controllers and other proprietary control, and jumped onboard the Hog 2 upon its release. As the series progressed and the line moved over to High End Systems, we started buying Hog 500s and Hog 1000s. Next we started investing in iPCs and Hog 3 consoles. We felt like while there were many different console options available, in our eyes the Hog was basically the industry standard console for the corporate event industry – at least for the jobs that we were doing. Ninety-nine percent of our LDs here in Georgia and even globally all seem to know how to utilize the Hog, so it’s always made great sense for us to have these tools.”
Clouser points out that the diversity of the new Hog 4 range perfectly fits the range of shows Active delivers to their customers. “We love the versatility of the Hog range,” he enthuses. “We need a lower end console for some of the smaller gigs that we do, just as we totally need the flagship desks for our larger corporate events. When the Hog 4 was released High End Systems ran a special, which provided a great opportunity for us to get into the new technology at a really good price; we picked up a pair of Hog 4s, a few Nano’s and a Full Boar. They’re great consoles, and all of our guys seem to know them. And the software seems to be very stable – I haven’t heard any rumblings up through the sales ladder, and that usually means it’s very good!”
Recently, Active put their Hog 4’s on a multi-day corporate event for 5000 with lectures, sales presentations and other corporate activities. Clouser says, “We had LED technology and about 80 moving lights, as well as media servers and some Pixel Tubes, and Kris Peterson controlled everything off of the Hog. He’s one of our really good LDs who was born and raised on Hog consoles; he’s very proficient and has really learned how to make it sing.”
In closing, Clouser says that investing in the Hog console range has proven to be good business for Active Production and Design. “We’re unique as a production company in that we don’t necessarily cater to designers, as all of our shows are designed in-house. As a business owner, I’m looking for a console that is tried and true, and that is going to deliver when it’s time to make the show happen. From the Hog 2 era up to the present day with the Hog 4, we’ve determined that this a console range with proven success. The key to profitability is reliability; if a console crashes we could lose the gig and not get paid. That doesn’t happen with Hog consoles. Another factor is that Hog consoles last a very long time, in fact we still run a Hog 2 on some shows! If we get that busy and need to send it out, it still works great. And we’re still running Hog 500s and Hog 1000s that work flawlessly. These consoles are all long-term money making workhorses.”
