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First of all do not be put off by the website. To keep costs to a minimum we do our own
website in house. This stops the cost
of a website to be passed on to you.
Our website design skill are basic.
Our Audio and Visual experience is fantastic and the only way you will
find that out is give it a go. We are a small company so every job is personal to us. We give that little extra care an attention
that some of the small companies do not have time for. |
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HISTORY OF RJ’S. It goes back a long time. My dad was into electronics.
There were gadget being built all over the place. I grew up in an electronics environment. Being a keen learner
I watched when dad made things, at the same time as watching I learnt why
things worked and how to fix things when there was a problem. As I grew up there were electronic kits as
Christmas and birthday presents. Also
living a short walk from the very first ever Maplins store I was a regular
customer. Components and kits whoo
hoo. That shopping centre closed down
and got demolished, rebuilt and we got a Tandy. Technology back then was basic but still
interesting. I am happy to be part of
the start of home computing. One
Christmas we had a ZX81 computer that you build yourself. It came in kit form. We got to build a computer and back then
there were not even computers in the home.
Since then we moved on to Spectrums and following that the computers
got bigger and better. |
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To go back to the previous page click the logo at the top
left of the page. Keep pressing to
return to home screen. |
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In Junior School I used to help operate lighting and audio for the school
plays. They kept putting me in the plays and I
just wanted to operate the sound or the light. It looked appealing At senior school the
chance of getting my hands on some audio visual equipment was given to me. I was taught sound and lighting on a larger scale. The music teacher name was John Patterson
who was a very good teacher, a good friend one of the reasons for me being
where I am today in the Audio Visual world.
I wanted to contact
him and thank him for being the
teacher he was and what I was doing with my life in audio visual. I did a search on the intnernet to find a
story that I was not expecting. I would also
like to dedicate this small section to him as I head he
lost a battle to cancer. Should his family ever read this I would
like to pass on my wishes to them and say that he is one of the reasons I am involved
in audio visual as he made this sort of thing
interesting and enjoyable to
me. He showed me how to make a pile of
equipment come to life. We got on well
as we both were perfectionists and just wanted it right. Even the slightest thing can make a big
difference overall. I was trusted to
wire things up despite being at school and young. A few articles about him are below should
you wish to read about it. He was a
good teacher and a friend which is why I dedicate part of the history in his
memory. If you click these use your back button to
come back here (or if on a pc hold ctrl to open a new window). |
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Rest In Peach John. Sadly Missed |
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Mr Patterson was a well respected teacher at
our school in the Midlands. When we
were doing the audio work and something was wrong he would not tell us off,
he would tell us why it was wrong, how it occurred and what could we do to
prevent it. We learnt and because of
him things ran without a problem. We
were left to repair and sort things with him at close range to be able to ask
if assistance needed and also to have a check to see if we were getting it
right. When we stayed
behind after school late he would get the chips in from the chippy down the
road. He never let people get
hungry. We had food and drink. He made sure all of us got home safe. We worked as a team when we set up the audio for large orchestras with many
microphones and also the lighting for them along with the lighting, sound and
special effects for many productions.
One of the big productions was called “The Curse Of Baddesley Manor” a
manor haunted by ghosts that did not care too much for the Manor being sold
and they would do all they could to scare any potential buyers away. There was a choir, sound, lighting, special effects and with the backing of Mr Patterson the show was a huge
success. I was glad and proud to be
part of a very good team. We had confidence knowing that if there was
a problem John would be there to help.
John moved on for bigger challenges in his life. Our school missed him. John, you are sadly missed and I thank you
for all the help that you did for our school and the way you helped the pupils and treated us
all as people and not just a number. |
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On leaving school I never lost the interest
in sound, lighting, audio and visual effects.
I carried on doing all sort of things to keep myself in on it. I helped out at events where possible and
did a lot of voluntary help. A friend I used to know used to do disco’s
and upon offering the sale of his disco equipment I started doing a bit of DJ
work. It was only a short while when I
felt it was not as much of a challenge.
I then moved on to Karaoke in 1994 which gave me a lot of experience
in mixing sound with general public and getting a good sound.
It also brought screens into the show too. I was wiring up
lights and light controllers. Slowly I
was building up lights. Through this I
met up with some radio presenters. At the same time of
this my dad was taking a music centre to a local community centre playing
50.s 60, country and western. It was
then a local DJ was also selling his equipment with a lot of records. We bought this and Dad started to do
discos. It was then he was getting
lights too and taking lots of records out playing for parties. Once I had to take his equipment to a venue
as his car had broken down. We got
there and found it was a rockers pub.
I am thinking, these people are not going to appreciate 50’s and
60’s. Out comes this guy in leathers
and chains and says to me “anyone going to upset your dad they have to go
through me”. Next thing I know I hear
someone shout “pint of coke for Tazza.
A coke is bought for dad and placed by where the disco is to go and a
pile of guys go out and unload the trailor and start setting it up. Next thing I know there is ZZ Top and all
sorts of Rock music playing and the floor is full. Needless to say I left him to it. Dad was doing disco’s up to about the age
of 70 when his health stopped him doing it. |
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I joined a local theatre group and got
involved a lot in the sound and lighting using some of my own equipment to
assist in the shows as well
as appearing in them. I joined here as
South Pacific was moms favourite so rather then take her to go and see a show
we took her to see a show I was in. I started full time work with an AV company
doing conferences and all sorts of work including motor racing events at
major tracks, I worked with some well known stars and spent a good deal of time with
the well known celebs. Whilst doing this I still ran the karaoke
and also ran different types of entertainment. The Birmingham Branch of the AV company
closed down and I could not travel to the Buckingham branch every day. The company kept me on working from home
for as long as possible but only small events could be done from a member of
staff’s house. When it finally finished I was taken on by
another company for a good few years doing all sorts of work for them
including the
National Memorial Arboretum We have done work for other companies for
many events, including openings of buildings, celebrations, ceremonies,
speeches and many others. We have in
the past done a lot of work for the Lichfield Cathedral. I played a big part in the setting up and
operating of the sound, vision and lighting at the Lichfield Festival and
also the camera mixing for the audience.
Setting up of lighting in the gardens around the Cathedral. We also did the sound and video at Moor
Hall’s Ladies Day each year. The company I was working at retired and I
decided to start up on my own.
Lichfield Cathedral were happy with my work that they have started to
use my services. If you were to look
at the reviews on the home page you will see that our first event there
recently was working alongside Don Maclean
MBE, KSS, KCHS (who some of you will recognise the catchphrase
“CRACKERJACK”). Don Maclean has been
in the industry a long time and you can see his review of our work. We have also worked
for Paul Zerdin, Arthur Bostram We did the audio,
video, filming at Lady Nancy Baggot’s funeral. We volunteered our
services for free and we were fully responsible for all the audio that was
heard world wide for Stephen Sutton’s Funeral. Our system gave the feed to the BBC Van who
in turn shared it world wide with TV and radio everywhere. This was over two days at the
cathedral. The cathedrals sound system
did not cover the outside of the building so any audio you may have heard (if
you were not physically inside the building was because of us) We were requested by
the BBC to do a 24hr non stop karaoke for BBC Children In Need. We then went straight out to work
again. A total of 42 hours non stop
with no sleep. We can cater for small events and we still
have the contacts to be able to help you with large events. So as small as a broken down audio system at
a church hall line dancing event to a Festaval In Lichfield Cathedral. Single Speakers with a professional sound
system, a karaoke for after event entertainment and all other events. Please contact us and let us know your
requirements. If we can do what you
want you will not be disappointed. We do in house Pat Testing, In house
Website, in house repairs. All these
costs our saved so they are not passed over to you. We look after repeat work. With the experience of trouble shooting in
the event of a breakdown. Some
companies may call someone in and if time is not on your side this can be a
problem. |
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We are soon to be updating this—please come back again soon. Thanks RJ |