Hotel A/V Position?

[asplashofcitrus]

I've recently been perusing different avenues of audio jobs, and I remember seeing an ad back a few months for an audio/visual position open at a Mariott Hotel Suite, and actually went to the hotel for a Christmas party. One of the Mariott A/V personnel did pretty much nothing, but setup a PA system with active speakers and a behringer mixer. Anyhow...

Relative to that, I just received an AAS in audio production, and obviously work a lot with signal flow, and I've been doing live sound church work for 4+ years, so I know I'm more than qualified (in the audio realm anyhow). I figure it might be a "safe" alternative along with doing the recording and live stuff, as I could probably make better than minimum wage working at WalMart, and snag some "benefits" along the way.

I guess some questions and thoughts are, is anyone out there currently working for a hotel A/V position, or have been? What was it like? Experiences? Rate of pay? Benefits?

[cortisol]

There's a sound engineer I use for my bands gigs now and then and she's pretty darn good.

So she set up sound for borring business conferencesand specs out the light rig and set up the AV for presentations. It's her day gig and she get to do bands at night. So be prepared to travel from the hotel to the nearest city for the rock and roll stuff.

Peace,
cortisol

[bishopthomas]

I don't have any answers for you but wanted to let you know that I'm in the same boat. I am moving to a new state soon and looking to get out of the freelance world. I also did the church thing for a few years, and while it had its ups and downs it was nice to have that steady job doing (for the most part) what I loved. Let me know what you come up with.

[Murton]

A steady job in the music industry is a very rare find indeed.

[NorseHorse]

I've done conference AV. In fact, I'm still doing it.

It's great to have steady work with lots of hours, particularly if it's during the daytime. Most of my remote gigs are in the evening, so there wasn't a conflict.

Depending on where you work, you job might be limited to setting up speakers, microphones, and LCDs. OR you might be designing installations, installing/repairing TVs, installing audio/Internet cable runs, running the lighting system, running video cameras, calming conference personel, constantly adjusting HVAC, acting as an MC, etc. etc.

[RobAnderson]

At the studio where I started out, a bunch of the guys did hotel A/V during the day to get the health benefits &c.

I have done shows in hotels, and I remember encountering one company in a few of them that subcontracts A/V personnel and equipment to various chains. I think the name of the company was Swank Audio(?). I'll have to check.

I see nothing wrong with "prostituting" yourself to corporate, video, or any other arena where audio skills are needed.

Dem bills ain't gonna pay demselves.

Now where is my micro-mini and my fishnets?

[Dan Steinberg]

I do some of this work from time to time, on a freelance basis with an A/V company that provides gear and the folks to operate it to different hotels and convention centers in DC and Maryland.

While this type of work will not always be very interesting to some folks, the work can be low stress and makes for a nice supplement to the income stream to the more traditional audio engineering stuff. And, you can always learn new things.

For me it comes in handy that I am also a pretty hardcore computer, A/V, and home theater nerd, since this type of work also involves lots of troubleshooting and working with laptops, projectors, VGA splitters, getting onto intranet networks etc.

Sometimes you will interface with the staff sound guys that the hotel does employ, and they don't always know a lot about signal levels and interfacing. If all goes well you can often help show them a better way to do things. For example at a gig the other week they were trying to connect a laptop to the permanently installed Shure mic mixer with a custom made TRS 1/8" to XLR cable, and didn't understand why the sound was low in level and high in hiss.

I showed them how computers put out -10dB consumer stereo line level and the mic mixer expects a mono mic level signal, that you can not bridge these two signal points with a cable that just makes the connectors fit. We got one of those ProCo special direct boxes that are made for just this need, patched it in and they saw how the audio was then loud and clear.

Thanks!

[alex!]

Ha! I'm babysitting technology in a conference right now! I work on contract and therefore negociate my fees and send out service invoices. I'd recommend this approach if being on the companies payroll doesn't offer any benifits. And make your fee reasonably higher than what they pay their staff

[asplashofcitrus]

Thanks for all this good info so far! I love it.

I was recently just going over someone's resume online, and noticed he served an AV position on a cruise ship line for a few years. That sounds way awesome right? Travel, the ocean at arms length, the possible rate of great pay

Anyone know anything about this, or have had experience in this field? I never really considered it until now. After doing a bit of research, obviously live sound experience is key, and most places I searched required a few years of experience in that, as well as some lighting and video stuff. They absolutely love someone who has plenty of theatre live sound experience as well, as the entertainment aspect of it is key.

I'm seriously thinking about packing up my junk, doin' some work, and work my way up to it .

Any thoughts?

[bishopthomas]

I've always been interested in the cruise work myself. It's been a few years since I've thought about it and at the time I certainly didn't have the experience necessary for it (I feel confident now that I do). I have heard from people doing that for a living that it is one of the most strenuous positions in our field, not necessarily physically but technically. Every type of production imaginable happens on a cruise and if something breaks you better either know how to fix it or be able to figure out how to get by without it until you get to land.

I'm actually glad you brought this up since I'm looking for a new job myself!

[Obitheincredible]

subscribin'

[bishopthomas]

Well, the resume's almost updated and I found several positions on various lines. Most of them do not post salary information but some of the cruise line career placement sites had the range as $1200 - $2000 a month. Surely this has to either be VERY old information or just completely incorrect. That's getting into Craigslist territory.

[asplashofcitrus]

Very nice bishopthomas! You'll have to let us know how that all goes if you do go seaside with your endeavors

On the side of salary though, I think one site said the average was about $38,000 a year, though it too may have been dated, or information compiled differently, I don't know. I guess ultimately it would be good knowing you had a "safe" job with decent pay anyhow. Thought at this point I wouldn't complain about getting near 40k a year

So do you have any type of theatrical experience? Any experiences to share worth sharing? How did you get involved, if so?

[bishopthomas]

I wouldn't complain about $38,000 for a while. I do have theatrical experience, although not on a Broadway level. I used to do a lot of high school productions (pretty good sized at times) and still do a little from time to time. I guess Les Miserables was the biggest production so far with 19 lav mics (of varying brand and quality) and 31 people using them, plus the typical PZM's and area mics. I got into it because I knew the choir director from attending the high school and I ended up doing several other high school musicals for several years in the area.