All of the details around the opening are available via the press release below, but I was able to grab Greg Smokler, who runs the CSLA and is also the founder of Paralinx, as well as Teradek Director of Marketing Andrew Ng to ask them a few quick questions about what this news means for them and for the community at large.
ProVideo Coalition: Does this annoucement come out of feedback from customers who have been asking for some sort of demo-room or “genius bar” which would allow them to check out your products and talk with an expert about them?
Greg Smokler: One of the things that allowed Paralinx to grow from three guys in a garage into an internationally-known brand was the deep connection we had with the Los Angeles production community. Having a physical presence minutes away from the Burbank hotbed of product companies and resellers allowed industry professionals the flexibility to drop in a moment’s notice to get something repaired or to purchase a system for the job that just awarded that afternoon.
What we are aiming for is to continue delivering the level of customer service on the sales, service and education side but for all the Creative Solutions brands. We really have a great relationship with our resellers and we continue to support them with CSLA too, by offering ALL end-users a place where they can really immerse themselves in the world of wireless video monitoring; to get their hands on our products, test them out, stick them on a camera, even demo on a job if necessary. I’m a cameraman and many of the CSLA team members come from the production world so we understand the last-minute nature of the rhythms of the industry and since we feel like we ARE our customers, we’re committed to supporting their needs.
Andrew Ng: Interfacing and having constant communication with customers has always been one of the top priorities at Teradek. Like many of our products, when we first developed the Teradek Bolt zero-delay wireless system, being a part of online industry forums with the potential clients gave us the opportunity tailor our system and in the end, provide a better user experience. Teradek has an excellent team of engineers with experience developing hardware and software for a multitude of technology-demanding industries including Cinema, Broadcast and Live Streaming. And for our engineers to tailor our products to a specific field, requires user feedback. This is why CSLA is such an awesome opportunity for Teradek to extend its means of communication and interaction. And hopefully, an excellent opportunity for our current clients and new ones as well to be able to interact with us directly.
Greg Smokler: Both. We’re going to have specific events related to new and existing products, especially our newer and/or more complex systems and offerings. We will focus on interesting products and workflows that might only tangentially be related to a specific Creative Solutions-branded product. ie, On-set color-correction and the use of LUTS in your data acquisition to final DCP output of a feature film. Teradek has a bevy of products that incorporate Look-Up-Tables and we can highlight the process and workflow for people just as much as the capabilities of our products, which are but a star or two in the constellation.
At the same time, we are also set up to accommodate a full in-depth demonstration of all our products at any time, with working versions of all Creative Solutions brand products on display, cameras, monitors, mobile devices, etc.
What’s one product you’re looking forward to seeing showcased in an environment like this?
Greg Smokler: I’m really excited to showcase our Connected Set platform of products with the Teradek COLR LUT box and the LOKR, which will become the hub of all metadata activity on-set, but our most-popular set of products the Teradek Bolt and Paralinx zero-delay systems still offer some of the most exciting applications for our end-users. People come in all the time to talk about newer and crazier ways that they’re moving their cameras and utilizing the ability to go further from the monitor while maintaining zero-delay uncompressed monitoring capability.
Andrew Ng: I’m being forced to cheat on this one a little. While there are a handful of new products that are going to really shine in CSLA, I am really excited for our guests to explore the wide range of solutions we have to offer. For example, during our grand opening, I met with a close friend of ours who has been an avid Bolt user filming episodic television. While we walked around the showroom, what actually caught his eye wasn’t one of our cinema products, but actually our line of live streaming solutions. Apparently, he was currently looking for a solution to transmit live footage which was being filmed across town back to video village. By having all these products from Teradek, Paralinx and SmallHD in one location, it encourages a new form of collaboration in finding solutions for our industry. And as mentioned earlier, it’s not just a solution provided by a manufacturer, but one that is inspired by the ones using them everyday.
Greg Smokler: It’s all one holistic approach. Our products are ultimately the solution to the creative professional’s need, but we really feel that we add more value by offering expertise not only to the fundamentals of our technologies, but since we are camera people we can get into the nitty-gritty of how to mount, rig, power-up and utilize our gear, and we have the dedicated support staff to back you up if, god-forbid, something goes wrong.
Los Angeles, CA – 19 October 2015 – This past Friday night Teradek, Paralinx, and SmallHD introduced the Los Angeles film production community to their new Creative Solutions showroom promoting customer support, education, and hands-on interaction with their industry-leading wireless monitoring technology.
“This is our group’s Genius Bar,” says Nicol Verheem, GM of the Creative Solutions unit within the Vitec Group that consists of the Teradek, Paralinx and SmallHD brands. “We want to bring people in, demonstrate products, and share knowledge. The objective here is to expand our face-to-face relationship with the customer, where he or she can utilize CSLA as an experience center for all of our brands. We have experts here that can give you a demo based on whatever your workflow is.”
The Grand Opening party spilled out from the stylish showroom into a spacious outdoor courtyard featuring an open bar and gourmet tacos provided by Mexicali Taco & Co. The event was well attended by technicians from the local film industry, as well as representatives from other cinema brands, rental houses, and media outlets.
The Creative Solutions showroom is located at 5329 West San Fernando Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90039 and is open Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm.