Barcelona Conference

After taking serious precautions to ensure that the artic’ containing kit travelled safely and in good time to Barcelona through the snow, the day the crew were booked to fly was the day that the Spanish air traffic controllers chose to go on strike. With a day lost for the get in the crew worked for 12 hours immediately upon arrival and again for 17 hours the following day installing four 16’ x 9’ screens and 12k projectors, a 20’ x 24’ stage with dance floor, lighting and sound, and 8 x 3.2m LED curtain. The one and a half day conference was dramatically opened by a dance troop and went on to be delivered in variously styled stages such as game show, storyteller and news broadcast. 220 delegates enjoyed the seamless production of the information being delivered followed by a comparatively relaxed get out.

Josh Ritter UK tour

Startech recently supplied lighting and sound for the first date of Josh Ritter’s UK tour supported by Dawn Landes. Turbosound front of house rig and Tiger monitor rig were installed into the Oxford Town Hall with digital front of house control and analogue monitor control. A mixture of generic and LED lighting was installed furthering the transition to more energy efficient lighting.

Eco Fleet

Long standing clients ADT and their parent company Tyco have made the environmentally conscientious and economically beneficial decision to update their fleet of cars to those of lesser carbon emissions. Startech assisted Riverview Studios to produce a commercial film introducing the new fleet of Astra Ecoflex vehicles now used by their UK engineers.

Trifle Anyone?

Oxfords South Parks will be hosting Foodies Festival over bank holiday weekend. Sample dishes from local restaurants and buy fresh produce from Oxfordshire and surrounding counties. Michelin star chefs will be cooking live in the Chefs Theatre.

On top of these delicious delights Matt Dawson is due to make an appearance for the filming of Monster Munchies - a television series celebrating traditional British food by creating them in super size. A Startech stage will be supporting two giant trifles, which apparently originated in our city of dreaming spires. Local teams will battle for recognition of their superior trifle talents.

The wedding season is upon us.

Startech designed, installed and operated lighting for a wedding at the Oxford Town Hall this weekend. Theatrical lighting was applied to highlight the interior architecture of the building. Source fours were employed to project a custom designed gobo onto the dance floor and to create a starry night effect.

New Mixers!

Now added to the Startech hire stock Soundcraft EPM 12 and Yamaha MG 24/14 FX mixers.

The emphasis on Soundcraft EPM mixers is on quality build and user-friendly control surface. Close-tolerance components are used for high accuracy and repeatable settings for EQ and gain controls. Professional 48-volt phantom power caters for condenser microphones of all types and the monitor and headphone output work in parallel allowing  performers to listen on phones whilst the engineer is able to listen on studio monitors. 

Yamaha MG24/14FX are suitable for live sound applications in which a substantial number of sources must be handled efficiently. This model has16 mono inputs and 4 stereo inputs. Microphone levels can be adjusted from -60 dB to +10 dB, while line levels can be adjusted from -34 dB to +10 dB. Channel peak indicators are provided to facilitate optimum level matching.

Green Marketing

Startech employed beanwave to design an “Excellence All Areas” mailer which was sent to Performing Art departments and Event Organisers at schools, colleges and universities. Whilst promoting the company is important we took into serious consideration the environmental impacts and found alternative methods to ensure that products used were from sustainable sources.

Beanwave sourced branded lanyard straps made from 100% sustainable bamboo fibres (which we have also found softer on the skin). The lanyard holder and 8 page inserts were printed locally by Seacourt on FSC certified recycled paper and using vegetable based inks and waterless offset printing. The polythene envelope used was recycled and recyclable.

The mailer had a great response with many bookings appearing for our basic set up - professional result, lighting and PA kits. It wasn’t long before the lanyards were spotted in action on an event site and more requested!

Commotion Festival

Startech supplied a stage and supplemented the lighting and sound for Commotion ‘10 in Kingham, near Chipping Norton and our trademark red canopy is visible by satellite! This annual family friendly festival had a great line up with From the Jam headlining on Saturday. The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band performed and will be back in the area for Truck next weekend. The Jericho Tavern had a stage hosting some of Oxfords finest, see their site for upcoming gigs. The Witchwood School of Rock ran song writing workshops which are continuing throughout the summer at various venues.

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The Festival of the Nine Muses

Startech supplied lighting to The Festival of the Nine Muses hosted in the romantic grounds of Milton Manor House on Saturday.  Performances were carried out throughout the day from 10am into the evening, poetry, theatre, music inspired by the nine daughters of Zeus, King of the Gods and Mnemosyne, Goddess of Memory. Headlining the music acts at the first in this series of festivals was English folk rock musician Johnny Flynn. Listen out for this idyllic celebration of Arcadia next year.

ASIMO

Once again Startech were recruited provide staging and technical production for Honda's robot ASIMO to perform at the opening launch of the Swindon Academy. Specifications for the staging were extremely tight at only 1mm rise/fall over 2m to accommodate this advanced piece of technology. Lighting and audio was supplied to produce a dramatic reveal and exhibition of ASIMO's human like movement and intelligence.

Charlbury Riverside Festival

Thousands had a beautiful weekend at Riverside 2010. Immaculately organised by Andy Pickard and a team of volunteers, the weather was perfect and the bands were fantastic. The crew are now preparing for Cornbury Festival, which hosts the Riverside Stage. David Murphy made this stop motion film of the main stage construction featuring our very own Startech crew.



Visit the Riverside website for reviews of this years festival.

Charlbury Riverside Festival

Startech have been out in the sun this week erecting staging for the Riverside Festival. This annual family friendly festival is run by an independent group of volunteers, with support from Charlbury Town Council. Entry is free and music ranges through indie, folk, world and some good old blues. You will hear well recognised Oxfordshire bands such as The Black Hats and Charly Coombes and the New Breed. Some familiar faces are collaborating in The Prohibition Smokers' Club on Sunday and the main stage will be opened by Deer Chicago this afternoon.

Enjoy the festival!

Startech are supplying technical production for Chiltern Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. This Open Air performance will raise money for The Stroke Association and the Bucks Community Foundation, last years performances raised £10,000 for Thames Hospicecare. There are still tickets available for this weeks performances of arguably Shakespeare's most entertaining play.

Roehampton Summer Ball

Roehampton Summer Ball 2010 does not appear to be an event for the faint hearted. An entertaining afternoon (hopefully blessed with sunshine), with fairground rides churning stomachs from 1pm, mid afternoon comedy and the essential hog roast. Once the sun goes down fireworks will announce the start of the diverse music line up for which Startech are supplying the PA. Students and their guests will enjoy performaces by Calvin Harris, Scratch Perverts, The Pigeon Detectives and Roehampton Uni's finest. A dedicated few will surely enjoy the sunrise.

Levellers Day

Startech supplied staging for entertainment acts supporting this years Levellers Day. This is a memorial service held in Burford for soldiers executed by Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War. Levellers was a term given to the soldiers fighting for parliament and who viewed Cromwell as a dictator. 300 Levellers were captured by Cromwell's army and three leaders executed in Burford churchyard.

Since 1975 the closest Saturday to May 17th has become an annual celebration of the Levellers beliefs in democracy and justice. In remembrance of these soldiers music and dancing is performed and discussions are held in Warwick Hall Gardens and flowers are laid in the Church.

Startech have been long term supporters of this well known, popular Cotswold event.

Dragon Boat Day 2010

The grey weather on Sunday failed to dampen spirits of the 2,000 spectators who gathered for the Annual Dragon Boat Race in Ryegrass Meadow, Abingdon.

This fundraising event organised by the Rotary Club of Abingdon Vesper is one of the towns largest events and attracted twice as many teams this year than 2009. On top of the 49 races along the Thames the bankside hosted craft stalls, games and live music for which Startech supplied the staging.

Oxford Fashion Week - More Lights!

Oxford Fashion Week 2010 was launched on Saturday with lighting, sound and AV provided by Startech. A desperate call was received at 7am on opening morning as one of the designers had requested even more elaborate lighting for their part of The Style Show. Despite the short notice, extra lighting was promptly delivered to the Oxford Town Hall. The designers were satisfied, the organisers could breath again and the show was a success. The Fashion Week has evolved from only four runways in 2009 to 11 this year due to such positive feedback and willingness to get involved from designers and fashion enthusiasts. Enjoy the rest of the week!


Oxford Fashion Week 2010 Intro Video from Bryan Drake on Vimeo.

Bring on Oxford Fashion Week

True to form Startech are up to their eyeballs with local events this month. We hired out equipment to nine different venues during this years record breaking Oxfringe. Initially blooming three years ago as a modest literary festival, oxfringe 2010 took over the city for a fortnight with theatre, music and comedy at every turn.

We're now preparing for a busy bank holiday weekend, particularly with the dawn of Oxford Fashion Week. Kicking off this Saturday the Startech crew will be constructing a catwalk in Oxford Town Hall for the first event of OFW, The Style Show exhibiting high street brands, independant designers and vintage collections.

This is the start-ech!

This is the start of our Startech blog!

As Oxfordshire's leading audio visual equipment hire company, Startech is renowned for the nationwide hire of professional production equipment for the live event industry. Our reputation is built on delivering superior quality hire equipment and producing an outstanding quality of event productions, both at great value for money.

After 12 years in the live event  industry, we've seen a lot, done a lot and look forward to learning a whole load more. Through this blog we aim to keep our customers up to date on the latest equipment, new technology, events and interesting productions, as well as our own news here in Electric Avenue (the Oxford one, not Eddy Grant's!)