The Germans are coming

Today was a stressful Monday, par for the course. We were expecting two large deliveries of new equipment for the Summer show season and beyond. A small delivery was also expected from German Light Products of a software uploading programmer. The paperwork and accounting "to do" pile was getting in the way of more pleasant items such as - lunch, such is life. I'm not complaining although it sounds like I am.

On the agenda today was the strange repair to a new Impression LED moving head. GLP, German Light Products, is the manufacturer that now has a presence in the US. A few weeks ago I got a call from an experienced LD reporting that one of the six Impressions he was using wasn't behaving like the rest in a color roll. On a Saturday I called the number that I found on the web for GLP and left a voice mail. Much to my surprise I got a return call in five minutes. Then I called last week with two fixtures in front of me to go over all of the possible scenarios that could cause them to respond differently. After two days the GLP rep concluded that somehow the software needed to be reloaded and they sent out the software uploading programmer.

The SUP arrived today and I was able to break away from the paperwork to use the uploader. The pdf instructions that were sent to me in an email were the most detailed and easy to follow instructions I've ever seen. Full color photos showing the particular detail to pay attention to while connecting the hardware, very impressive. The whole process took about five minutes, and fixed the software problem.
That was encounter #1 with Germans.

The caller ID showed "Out of Area" with a string of numbers, most likely a telemarketer. I picked up and heard a bunch of noise then the caller asked for me by name. It turned out to be the tech from Protonic software, whose product is EasyJob software for rental operations. The conversation went well and I'm fairly confident that we will be purchasing the software very soon. We have already purchased and installed a new server for the database software, so half of the work is done. I say that now before we start the implementation of a new software platform, ha.

Here's a picture from LiveDesign of a Paramore concert featureing a bunch of Impressions in action.