bossgroove Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 I know this has been asked in the past, but i am having a terrible time finding the posts. Can someone direct me in the direction to what to do when a City comes to you and wants some quotes on pricing for a downtown display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Run away!!! (faster!!!)Seriously though, it can be done, but it will be expensive, time consuming, and require really thorough planning.. (and then even more careful cost estimating)I know of one city block end, consisting of a park and firehouse that absorbed $15K the first year, $30K in electrical (including install) and $25K in lighting the second year, and $15K in lighting the third year. And that is just the hardware. The seemingly thousands of hours of labor are 100% volunteer... And each year, on volunteer work days there are items we need to go forward that are just easier for me to go buy, than to stop work, and get the city to buy them, so I have about $500 per year in donations to the city.Add into that (in our case) a city fiscal year that starts October 1st.. So any funding you get within the city budget before October 1st, must be spent or correctly moved out of the city accounts before October 1st, or you loose it.. (not that I am in any way set up to move funds out of the city accounts. We loose what is not spent (we try to keep it small) and go to city council for funding for the remaining required equipment and early season purchases for next year as early in October as we can manage)If you are going to go into it in any scale, you are going to have to put together really detailed estimates, and even if you arrange to get paid, you may discover that to get it all done, you are practically giving your time away.By the way, if any of you find my brain, let me know so we can arrange for its safe return. It ran away a couple of weeks ago, and I have not seen it since... Really, I will feel better about it all after 750 channels go live Saturday.... (now step away from the forum, and continue sequencing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossgroove Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 It looks like it could happen, so any advice would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpctech Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I own a regional sound, lighting and video production company. I have been expanding my personal display over the last 3 years. I have been approached by a local town to animate their current very nice LED static display. So my part would be supply many 8 ish 16ch LOR boxes and write the sequences.Any thoughts on a magic formula for pricing the rental of LOR boxes and doing the sequencing. The field installation we be pretty straight forward.KEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank A. Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 Good morningKenI would recommend charging$120.00 per hour programming allowing 6 hours per4 minute songhardware should be paid for in full by customerUse whatever discount you can get but the customer paysthe bulk of the fee would cover the additional costs of bonding and insuringBe sure and be insured and bonded because somebody willcreate an accident, damage community property, many possibilities,and litigate and name you or your company as responsible --- nature of living todaycover you and your families tailAll of us would want to do a community public display but I really thinkyou must protect yourselfYou own a company so you have legalities in placeI closed my company after my insurance rates went thru the roof and the required liability by my customers exceeded 3 million dollars per incident ---- programming for industrial automation --- liable for any lost production and/or equipment damagejust my 2 cents worthFrank A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpctech Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 Frank A. wrote: Good morningKenI would recommend charging$120.00 per hour programming allowing 6 hours per4 minute songhardware should be paid for in full by customerUse whatever discount you can get but the customer paysthe bulk of the fee would cover the additional costs of bonding and insuringBe sure and be insured and bonded because somebody willcreate an accident, damage community property, many possibilities,and litigate and name you or your company as responsible --- nature of living todaycover you and your families tailAll of us would want to do a community public display but I really thinkyou must protect yourselfYou own a company so you have legalities in placeI closed my company after my insurance rates went thru the roof and the required liability by my customers exceeded 3 million dollars per incident ---- programming for industrial automation --- liable for any lost production and/or equipment damagejust my 2 cents worthFrank A.Thanks!! I understand the insurance thing. we now have to a 5 million dollar umbrella Ouch! KEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 Six hours for a four minute song? Must be speed programming? It takes me six hours a minute just to do characters. Some songs take 12-14 hours.Honestly, on the city deal. If you want to be married to it then just figure how much you want to make an hour and the cost of materials plus profit margin on those materials.However, if your city is worth a grain of salt they will require all sorts of things from you before you do any "work" for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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