One of the core competencies we pride ourselves on at Record My Research is our experience. Experience often learned through client requests, through research into what others have done and, more than occasionally, through the school of hard knocks.
But to say ‘we have experience’ on a web page and ask you to trust us with your business is not enough. With that in mind, we will be writing an occasional series in this blog that highlights some of the specifics that we have learned while working with clients to record their research. Of course, we’ll keep the names out and locations a bit vague to protect the confidentiality of our clients.
Carry-on
We travel for most of our events which means packing our equipment and taking it with us on airplanes. And it is enough equipment that it won’t all fit in carry-on. Or technicians always keep core, vital equipment in carry-on: the main video camera, a back up camera, an audio recorder, microphones, backup microphones, video recorders and amplifiers and enough cable to get the closed-circuit feed working. And a dress shirt or logo’d polo, depending on the client. Equipment that can usually be rented or purchased on site (if we have to) is checked: more cables, additional amplifiers and such.
One client had a job that required travel through Boston Logan airport to a small regional airport in northern New England. Everything worked the way that it was supposed to on the way out. Challenges happened on the way back.
Arriving into Logan, our tech discovered that his connecting flights had been cancelled. He was given an option of staying the night and getting a flight the next day or getting the last seat on the last flight that night which left in thirty minutes. From a different terminal. Which, at Logan, means going back through a TSA checkpoint.
He arrived at the gate, out of breath lugging his backpack and carry-on as they were getting ready to close up. Then he was told that there was no more overhead bin space. He needed to check the carry-on with all of the key equipment. And all of the recordings of the event.
Of course they lost the luggage.
Eventually, the airline found the luggage and got us back our equipment and recordings. But, there was approximately thirty-six hours where we did not have any of the event recordings and no idea if we would ever get them back.
Key Learning
As a result of this chain of events, we now ask our technicians to carry one copy of the event recordings on their person; usually an SD Card in a pocket. On occasion, we have also FedEx’d a copy back from an event if it looks like there will be travel problems or other issues.
This particular disruption happened on the way back from an event. We’ve been fortunate, so far, that something like this has not happened on the way to one. But that does not mean we don’t plan for it. We keep an eye on travel delays and, if it looks bad, will ship additional gear in advance. This adds its own set of complexities (shipping delays, lost shipments, tracking down the shipment on the other end), but if that is what it takes, we’ll do it.
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