That's Lars Fredriksen, a Danish freelance sound-man of some 20 years' experience, who only recently has chosen to leave the road and find a more settled career in sales. Readers may recognize the Lyd' name - they featured in L&SI when they serviced the Eurovision Song Contest from Copenhagen in 2001. But Nordíc is the new brand - I asked Nordíc's MD Lars Aunsberg, why the change of name? "Two reasons; our customers from Germany and the UK couldn't pronounce the old name; and secondly because of the strong 'sound company' association, many people thought that's all we did. In fact, we've always done lights too; now we provide lights, sound, roofs and stages,so the change clarifies things."
Nordíc has recently moved to a new, purpose-built 4000sq.m warehouse in Vejle, midway between Copenhagen in the East, and Åarhus in the North, "we also retain a small base in Copenhagen, but this central location makes sense. In Denmark, business is seasonal: winter is dominated by theatre and TV, summer by concert tours and festivals; no location is more than 300km from Vejle."
Equipment-wise, Nordíc differs little from any large European service provider, "not surprisingly we have lots of Martin lighting, but we also have a lot of Coemar and some Controlites from Amptown, with Hog and Avo desks. Trussing is mainly ATC and some Thomas - mainly ground support. Sound is a mix, we have over 100 stacks of d&b C4, we've just bought 48 stacks of EV X-line C-series, and we also have Adamson Y18."
There was also a large number of Martin Mach subs stacked in the warehouse, "they only really go out for the festivals," said Aunsberg. "We've just sold off all our 1996-era d&b system with a view to replacing it with Q Series, and only lost maybe 20% on the original purchase price - that's why we invest in the equipment we do, low depreciation rates makes good business sense."
"Desks are mainly Midas and Soundcraft, XLs and Heritage, MH4s, and we have a Roland digital, but our customers aren't yet ready to follow the digital route. A country of just five million doesn't provide the experience opportunities to make that jump - we could buy the desks but we'd have to teach the whole country how to use them - besides I can buy two H3000s for the price of a big digital desk." Aunsberg, it seems, never loses sight of the money. "It's also the case that the current trend is that 60%-70% of the touring budget goes on lighting. Stage and sound fight over the rest."
Nordíc has developed a roofing system, and very clever it is too: "The largest we can do is an 880sq.m roof, 3 x3m bases are manually erected to make 12m towers; many venues in Denmark are just not accessible to cranes so this was essential. It takes just three men to build each leg, and it's fast."
Aunsberg says: "We still want to develop the size of the company," a new 2,000sq.m warehouse addition is just completed out back. "Theatre particularly is growing, as production companies move away from owning gear." But here's a thing for many other service companies to consider. "We are working to get a standard contract of employment for crew, a full year contract based on hours worked.
If things are slack, we undertake to employ them in the warehouse on maintenance and repair. At the same time, if they go out to do a one-day TV show they get paid by the hour, rather than the old daily rate. It's a new way of thinking, and yes, many freelances are uncomfortable with the idea, but the industry is becoming more and more professional and we expect regulation to increase. Such a contra
