“What Would You Do” is written by JOSP’s Mike Kindlick, where each month he explores various situations, offering insight to solutions, condolences and empathy for some of the DJ/Entertainment Industry’s most pondering scenarios.
A few months ago, at a networking event, a local DJ who’s fairly new to the industry mentioned that he had run a small event and was not able to use one of his lighting effects. It turns out he didn’t have extra power/extension cords long enough to run the effects to its lighting controller power.
He decided to not use it, and the event went well and he had no other issues aside from his disappointment of not being able to use this cool effect.
My immediate thought was why not just piggyback off another light for power? Both were probably newer LED effects and draw very little juice. When I mentioned this to him, he looked at me like I was from another planet! He had no idea that many effects today have that additional power option on the rear panel.
Read More: 14 backup plans for a DJ laptop crash.
This DJ is fairly new to the industry and only recently added effect lighting to his shows, so he is not familiar with the ins and outs of all his gear.
“We all started somewhere,” I thought, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go over the importance of what a “DJ Emergency Kit” should comprise.
The perfectly curated emergency kit will not only save your hide but that of your client too. I remember one time where our extra adapter saved the day for a keyboard player during a cocktail hour that didn’t prepare himself in advance and us as the DJs saved the day!
The perfectly curated DJ emergency kit will not only save your hide but that of your client too.
Backup gear is essential to be professional, such as our main system operations, so are the little things that are all too easy to overlook. Each DJ Emergency Kit should come with all the extra essentials one might need.
Here are some of them:
- Screw driver
- Bungee cord
- Pliers
- Snicker bars ( just in case I was asked not to eat).
- Pepto
- White chalk for wedding dress stains.
- Non thread (fishing line style) needles for fixing up dresses.
- (Scrim king) strong and works with any color
- Small utility knife or pocket knife with scissors
- Double sided tape for wardrobe malfunction (shoulderless falling down) or to hold your gear in place (laptop, mixer), if it’s not on a level surface.
- Spare garter
- 2 spare speaker stands + white or black curtain (to hide that ugly door behind you or setup a change room in the corner of the hall for bridesmaids).
- Spare VGA to VGA male cable for a powerpoint presentation
- Floral tape. Throwaway bouquets tend to get scattered.
- Tux buttons
- All types of batteries
- Extra extension cords of all lengths and sizes
- Extra fuses
- Champagne flutes to help save the day!
Now, this is just my take on a situation, and where it may seem like a simple solution to one, someone else might not think the same. Only one person can make the decision for you, so just ask yourself, “What Would You Do?”
Mike Kindlick is the owner of Jam On Sound Productions in Reading, Pennsylvania, and has been in business since 1994.
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