Why Quality Matters
Why Quality Matters
October 4, 2018
Portable staging, risers, shells, and other accessories are a necessity for many venues and applications. Whether you’re a school, church, theatre, conference center, rental company, or anyone else who puts on events, you probably use portable equipment in some capacity.
When deciding on the specific equipment to purchase, there are two primary schools of thought. The first is that you consider the price only when making the decision. Though the initial price is less, the cost of ownership over time may amount to more in lost time or a need to replace the equipment on a more frequent basis. The second is that you can buy high-quality equipment that, though has a higher initial price, may be a smarter investment over time.
There are three primary areas where you will see quality play a factor in making a good purchasing decision that no facility can afford to sacrifice.
Durability
When making a large purchase, such as with staging or seating equipment, you want to be sure you’re making the right decision. In many cases, this is a once in a lifetime purchase and you may not get funding to do something different for a long time. Having equipment that provides the venue with long lasting use and limited maintenance requirements will go a long way to make the cost of ownership less. You want to make sure you get the equipment necessary to stand up to your performance needs for today and for possible events in the future. Having a lower grade system may limit your ability to grow your program and limit your ability to host more events if your lesser quality equipment is always in need of repair.
Over time this lower quality equipment will wear out sooner and require a more frequent replacement schedule. This issue will not be necessary if you used higher quality equipment in the beginning.
Sturdiness & Safety
Everyone wants their stages and risers to be sturdy and safe for obvious reasons. Aside from the obvious, equipment that’s sturdy won’t wobble. That means it’ll provide a quiet, distraction free performance by not squeaking or grinding.
Performers will also feel more comfortable on a solid portable stage or risers as will audience members on high quality seating risers. This way performers will be able to focus on putting on a good show and audience members will be able to focus on the performance and not the noisy, wobbly riser they’re sitting on. Higher quality portable equipment can feel just as solid as if it were built-in. Your performers and patrons would not be able to detect a difference with the right system.
Ease of Use
For many performance spaces, there is only a limited time available to set up for your event and tear down afterwards. This is why you need equipment that makes this process go as smooth as possible. It should be simple to set up your portable stages and risers. Typically, most higher quality equipment offers reliability and features to help this transition happen with the least amount of effort. It is easier to make the conversions when you are not spending time repairing your equipment from the last event.
These benefits are extremely important if you’re a venue with a limited crew and you are not only in charge of the conversion but also the performance. The conversion of your space needs to be as quick as possible. You can then spend more time focusing on the event itself. Even if you’re a large arena or theatre and you have an entire crew for setup and take down, this process needs to be efficient to make sure you have adequate time to meet the demands of all your different events on time and on budget.
Conclusion
There’s a lot that goes into putting on an event and if you’re not careful it’s easy to overlook some things. But one thing that should never be overlooked is the quality of your equipment. Sure, it may be easier to order lesser priced equipment initially, but you’ll pay for it in the long run, literally and figuratively. It won’t last as long, it won’t be as safe or sturdy which means you won’t be providing a great experience for both performers and patrons, and it won’t be as easy to use because it won’t be built as well.
When considering the options for your next equipment purchase, make sure you take these points into consideration.
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