Disc Jockey News Swap Shop Feb 12, 2009
Swap Shop for used gear for Feb 12, 2009
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Swap Shop for used gear for Feb 12, 2009
When the sky turns green, you know what that means: One heck of a storm is coming. And now that American DJ’s eye-popping new Galaxian Sky laser effect has been introduced to the professional DJ market, club-goers and party patrons everywhere can expect to be swept up under an intense green monsoon.
A DMX-compatible fixture, the Galaxian Sky uses a compact 10mW green laser to create a “Liquid Sky” effect, projecting more than 500 animated green beams onto the ceiling or walls of a nightclub or party area. With a beam angle of 82°, plus 35° panning and tilt, this little unit has a massive beam spread that will cover just about any surface with a huge green wall that resembles a giant nebulae cloud of laser patterns. The effect works equally well with or without the use of a fog machine.
“The Galaxian Sky is great for clubs, bands, professional DJs and other mobile entertainers who want a user-friendly portable laser that will blow the minds of everyone in the room,” said Scott Davies, General Manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. “Shoot it up over a party crowd, and watch all eyes turn to the skies. Throw some smoke into the air, and watch the awesome green storm clouds start rolling in. It creates a truly dazzling spectacle, a psychedelic ‘liquid sky’ effect that your patrons won’t soon forget.”
The green lasers of the Galaxian Sky sweep the ceiling and dance together in eye-popping animated patterns that can either be programmed in by the user or recalled from a large bank of cool factory presets.
The versatile Galaxian Sky features 3 operating modes: DMX-512, Sound Active and Master-Slave. In DMX mode, the Galaxian Sky offers 5-channel operation (Laser, Pattern, Movement, Rotation and Zoom), giving users the flexibility to command full control of the unit and program their own light shows. DJs and users who don’t want to use DMX can set the Galaxian Sky to follow the beat of the music according to its own internal programs. In Master/Slave mode, multiple units can be synched up using standard 3-pin XLR connectors to achieve a more widespread effect.
The Galaxian Sky is extremely efficient, cool running and economical to operate. The effect has a low power consumption of just 17 watts, allowing users to connect more units on a single electric circuit and save more juice for their other lighting and audio gear.
Other great features of the Galaxian Sky include 1.8-degree stepper motors with micro stepping for super smooth movements, a built-in LED menu display for easy navigation, and switchable voltage (115V or 230V) located on the rear panel. The unit comes with a 1/4” input for remote operation using the optional UC3 universal controller from American DJ (sold separately). The Galaxian Sky requires no variance or special permits to operate.
The Galaxian Sky joins the extremely popular Galaxian and Galaxian Move line of celestial-type laser lighting effects from American DJ. A highly portable unit, it measures 11.75”L x 7.75”W x 8.25”H and weighs only 8 lbs. The Galaxian Sky carries an MSRP of $349.95.
Click link below to see the Galaxian Sky in action!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0_baVYckgI
For more information, contact American DJ at 1-800-322-6337, or visit the company’s website: www.americandj.com Email: info@americandj.com
The slow down began in December of 2007 but didn't really hit until October of 2008 and is estimated to continue to worsen until 2010. Are you prepared?
For years I have been promoting and preaching about DJs needing to raise their rates to represent the quality, skills, talents and experience of their business. I followed the Mark Ferrell's "Getting What Your Worth" mantra and to this day still believe in it's message and it's positive effect on the DJ industry... But the winds of change has hit the economy, the number of DJs continue to rise while the number of events with an entertainment need continues to deplete.
Everyone is looking to save the few pennies that they have and have turned to hiring the "Discount" low budget DJ. So what happens to those of us who have raised our rates to a respectful and needed price to cover the bills, we suddenly are losing business to many untalented, unexperienced and unpredictable DJs.
The economy in many areas just can't sustain the number of DJs available on any given night and/or the DJs who are higher in costs then the "average" DJ in the area.
Many DJs including myself are trying different ways to attract the fewer events available to the huge numbers of those calling themselves entertainers.
What will work for you if you are facing a slow down in 2009 - 2010 events?
Options:
1) Reconfigure your packages to add value to them
2) Offer a sale for a limited time.
3) Reconfigure your standard billing rates
4) Increasing advertising
5) Networking/phone calling
Or a combination of several or all of them.....
Good Luck.
50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew | Remarkable Communication
50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew
by Sonia Simone on April 21, 2008
50 things your customers wish you knew
Some items on this list might seem cynical, but they’re not. The fact is, it doesn’t matter what kind of customers you have. I don’t care if your customers are kidney donors or Zen masters or million-dollar contributors to your nonprofit organization. Each one of us has some less-than-loveable characteristics that tend to come to the forefront when we’re in the role of customer.
If you knew, really knew, these 50 things about your customers, and acted accordingly, you’d gain their trust and even their love. After all, who doesn’t want to be loved despite all our flaws and embarrassing insecurities? The better you understand both the noble and not-so-noble secrets in your customers’ consciousness, the better you can serve them.
Here are 50 things your customers wish you knew: about them, about how they see you, and about your relationship.
1. I don’t need you to be perfect, but I do need to know I can rely on you.
2. Telling me what you don’t know makes me trust you.
3. It means a lot when you take the time to thank me for my business or a referral.
4. You don’t need to do all that much to be a superhero. Just do exactly what you say you will do.
5. A friendly voice on the other side of the phone means more than you can imagine.
6. Your employees treat me about as well as you treat them.
7. I don’t mind spending the money, as long as I feel I’m getting real value.
8. My life is really stressful. If you can reduce that stress, you become immensely valuable to me.
9. I want to tell you what would make this relationship better for me. Why don’t you ever ask me?
10. I don’t understand a lot of the messages you send me. Can you make them clearer?
11. My life is very complicated. If you make it easy for me to just buy a simple all-in-one package that I can use without learning anything, I’ll take it and be grateful. (I’ll even pay a premium for it.)
12. I want to trust you, but it’s hard for me to trust anyone.
13. Once you’ve won my trust and loyalty, the truth is you can screw up once in awhile and I will forgive you. If I don’t think you’re taking me for granted, that is.
14. When I refer my friends and you give them exceptional service, that makes me look and feel smart. I love that.
15. I spend an awful lot of time being scared to death.
16. The wealthier I get, the more I like free stuff.
17. A lot of the time, I secretly feel like a lost little kid. I don’t admit it, but I want to be taken care of.
18. I’m lousy at admitting I was wrong, but I respect you when you do it.
19. I like to get little goodies no one else is getting.
20. I don’t understand how to use your Web site, but I can’t admit that because it would make me feel dumb.
21. There’s no worse feeling than feeling like I was suckered into trusting you. If I’m screaming at you or one of your employees, that feeling is probably behind it somewhere.
22. Our relationship isn’t equal and it never will be.
23. I get crazy jealous if I think you love another customer more than you love me.
24. I don’t have any interest in your excuses. In fact, I usually don’t notice them at all, and if I do, they annoy me.
25. I find myself endlessly fascinating.
26. I hate salespeople, but I really like to buy things.
27. I only like to communicate over the phone/Web/mail and I hate when you try to make me communicate with you over the mail/phone/Web.
28. I want to buy your product, but I need you to help me justify it to myself.
29. There’s something in my life I’m afraid of losing. If you can make me feel like you’ve protected it for me, my gratitude will be intense and eternal.
30. I’ll give you anything you ask if you can help me not feel silly.
31. I want you to do the hard work for me. Even better if I can get all the credit.
32. I’d rather do it the convoluted hard way than learn something new.
33. I’d love to know something about your product that I could use to brag at a dinner party.
34. I have the attention span of a goldfish. Go too long without contacting me and I’ll simply forget you exist.
35. Money is no object when it comes to my obsessions.
36. What you think you’re good at is not what you’re good at. Ask me, and I’ll tell you what you do better than anyone else.
37. I like it when I feel like you’re talking just to me.
38. It infuriates me when you answer the phone while I’m talking with you face-to-face.
39. Embarrassment scares me more than death.
40. I’m lazier than I would ever admit.
41. I’m more selfish than I would ever admit.
42. I’m more vain than I would ever admit.
43. I’m more insecure than I would ever admit.
44. Despite all that, I secretly think I’m a better person than most people. Help me believe that and we’ll be fast friends.
45. I believe I deserve much more than I’m getting.
46. I want to tell you everything you need to know in order to sell to me, but I’m lazy. Make it easy enough and I will. (Especially if you flatter me a little.)
47. I don’t know what I want most of the time. You need to figure it out for me.
48. I mostly daydream about making life better for myself, but I’ll take action to keep from losing what’s mine.
49. I believe that most of what’s wrong in my life is someone else’s fault. Let me keep that cozy illusion and I’ll believe anything you say.
50. It really is all about me.
To Make A ‘Gem’ Of An LED Effect
New Tri Gem LED Makes ADJ’s Exclusive Multi-Color Tri LED Technology Affordable To DJs, Mobile Entertainers
American DJ’s landmark Gem effect revolutionized DJ lighting when it originally came out as one of the first truly affordable, easy to operate sound-activated lights. Now this wildly popular classic is leading another breakthrough in its newest incarnation as the Tri Gem LED, a powerful 3W LED plug-n-play effect for DJs that creates a full range of eye-popping colors at a great price point.
With an amazingly low MSRP of $89.95, the new Tri Gem LED does more than just revive an awesome vision from the past. This compact little beauty points the way to the future of affordable lighting effects by making American DJ’s exclusive new Tri LED Technology accessible to DJs, bands, mobile entertainers and even party hosts. That means being able to produce LED beams in a rainbow of colors, smooth color mixing, and rich saturated colors that don’t fade or require fog –all now within the reach of an entirely new market segment of lighting users. Plus, this updated and highly enhanced version of the Gem offers all the great value-added advantages of LEDs like low power draw, cool operation and an amazingly long lamp life of 100,000 hours.
What makes American DJ’s new TRI Color LED Technology so exciting is that it gives LED fixtures like the Tri Gem LED the power to produce beams in a whole spectrum of different colors — not just the typical red, green and blue that LED effects could create in the past. Each LED lamp is actually a 3-in-1 lamp containing 3 different color LEDs (one red, one green and one blue). With this advanced tri-color LED diode, up to seven different colors can be created when the RGB beams are blended together. The Tri Gem LED can create red, green, blue, purple, cyan (light blue), yellow and white beams of light.
“With the release of the new Tri Gem LED, a classic cornerstone American DJ effect has been completely reinvented with Tri LED Technology,” said Scott Davies, General Manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. “Not only that, but we have managed to bring the price down to where the technology is affordable even to entry-level users. The end result is a win-win: more excitement and cooler color options for your partygoers, and much bigger bang for your buck!”
As its name suggests, the Tri Gem LED sparkles like a treasure chest full of precious stones. Featuring a powerful 3W Tri LED lamp, the effect produces a total of 23 sound-activated colored beams that dance and strobe to the beat of the music. For such a small and lightweight fixture, it has an incredibly bright output similar to a 250-watt halogen lamp and can fill large rooms with its brilliant light. It consumes very little electricity in comparison, with an impressive power rating of only 30 watts.
Designed to operate as a stand-alone unit, the Tri Gem LED is incredibly simple to use right out of the box. Just plug it in and let ’er rip — it doesn’t even require a power switch. Since the Tri Gem LED runs according to its own exciting internal programs, there is never any need for a lighting controller, just as with the original Gem. The Tri Gem LED’s sensitivity to sound can be tweaked by adjusting using a special knob located on the rear of the unit. Once the proper level is set, you can run it all night long, without ever having to pause for duty cycles, thanks to the cool operation of its LED diode.
Highly portable and built for durability, the Tri Gem LED measures 8.75”L x 5.5”W x 5.5”H and weighs only 4 lbs. It comes equipped with its own convenient built-in hanging yoke.
The MSRP of the Tri Gem LED is $89.95