Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You - Mobile Production Pro

BY MIKE WHARTON
It’s been three years since
mobile Production monthly
spoke with the information
technology company, Wanetics
LLc. Venue Wi-fi installation
expansion and development of
a truly scalable product line
has kept founders janet Rogers
and Dave Bauman, and their
support team far from idle.
The name WANetics is well known as an
information technology provider to venues
and other businesses around the world, but
over the course of attendance at Tour Link
the last few years, it became clear that the
touring industry did not readily identify with
the company’s other services. “We felt we
needed something more descriptive of the
services we offered within the touring segment,”
says Rogers.
TouringTech.com is the name brand realized
out of that need. Essentially telecommunications
on a tour has reached a point
of intricacy and necessity which requires
consistency equally important as the rest of
the production being carried. WANetics and
TouringTech.com are uniquely qualified to
fill these needs.
“We’re probably the only company, literally
worldwide, that truly understands both
sides of this coin,” states Rogers. “We have
installed systems into many major arenas and
seen infrastructure of what networks look
like in hundreds and hundreds of venues. We
know what it is like to be both the guest and
the host.”
The WANetics side of the company concentrates
on voice and data service for small/
medium businesses, IT infrastructure and
WiFi systems for venues. It is this very aspect
of the company that paved the way for
the mobile application and development of
TouringTech.com. In 2005 Chris Weathers,
Regional Director of Live Nation contacted
Rogers to solve a telecommunication problem
at the Charter Pavilion in Chicago. Weathers
had introduced Rogers to the venue side of
the industry in 2000.
34 mobile production monthly
RH
cP TouringTech.com
lARGe oR sMAll ANy PRoDuCTioN
CAN BeNefiT fRoM THis CoMPANy
He told her that the new venue already under
construction had not been able to allocate
pathways to route phone and internet cable.
WANetics solved the issue with what in those
days was a revolutionary idea for phones;
go wireless. Shortly afterwards when Celtic
Women Tour came through, Steve Dixon,
Tour Accountant for that show, planted the
germ of an idea in Rogers mind that “it
would be nice to package what you have here
in a box and take it on tour.”
Rogers and Bauman came up with the “Office
in a Box” concept of packaging an integrated,
high-speed and secure WiFi system, business
class phone system and network printing,
scanning and fax, in a touring road case. The
germ Dixon had planted now had legs... or
wheels as the case may be.
Originally, the concept for scalability of these
packages had been heading in the direction of
larger and larger events. The “American Idols
Live Tour” was awarded to TouringTech.
com for the fourth year running due to this
asset. The company has since seen a need
for productions to scale down as well. The
“box within a box” image of taking a full
sized corporate office of phone portability
and independent internet access specific to
the production’s needs on the road has now
become a “suitcase” as well.
Rogers notes that, “Hundreds of small tours
are out every season, sometimes for very
short runs. The suitcase package works well
for them. There are far fewer large arena or
stadium tours in any given season. Even those,
however need the variety of scaled products
we offer.”
TouringTech.com’s current work with the
Red Hot Chili Peppers current tour is a
success story which grew out of its meeting
Chili Peppers Production Manager Narci
Martinez at Tour Link. The relationship with
Martinez has demonstrated this need amply.
The Chili Peppers are doing large arenas as
well as festivals and fly dates. In the case of
a festival, little if any of the larger touring rig
is utilized. Travel often includes air transport
rather than truck and bus. Couple this with
the fact that festival production office space is
at a premium.
Martinez, expressed the need for a system
that can expand or contract to fit the various
venues and dates.
“We had redesigned our system several years
ago during the Carrie Underwood tour so all
the ‘smarts’ were in a suitcase, because they
had sent all our gear back while they did the
summer festival shows. They just did not have
the room for it,” recalls Rogers.
The suitcase sits on a sliding shelf in the bigger
case. When someone rents a full-size case
they get this as well, so they can just pull these
suitcases out and leave the bigger case with
the printers in storage. The Chili Peppers
started with these suitcase units and now have
the full scale solution on tour.
TouringTech.com has taken the smaller system
another step forward and created a
“virtual” touring phone system, called Tour
Voice, which the Chili Peppers utilize as well.
Tour Voice is able to turn any phone, anywhere
into a tour phone and keep the same
phone number originally assigned from
TouringTech.com. A simple user friendly app
named Call Control is utilized to point where
the call goes. Incoming calls can be routed
to laptops, iPads, cell and smart phones as
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