Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277960
16 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2020 "We furloughed some sta, and kept our remaining sta on with reduced hours. New York State has an amazing program called 'Shared Work,' which allowed us to reduce the hours and rotate people accordingly. Georgia has a similar program too, so we were able to remain open the whole time providing support for the broadcast media." Over at Location Sound Corporation, Mike Paul said, "Around the 15th or 16th of March, we looked at could we stay open with a skeleton crew, but it became obvious that we were just going to have to completely shut down. We did go for the PPP loan, and we ocially opened to the public Monday, June 1, with a very reduced sta." Charles Parra of Denecke, Inc. said, "We just sent the guys home on March 20, and kept them on the payroll. Kim and I would come in and basically, we had a few repairs in the two months span or so. During the downtime, I started working on new projects. So, the good part of that is we'll probably have some cool new Denecke stu later on in the year." P r o f e s s i o n a l S o u n d C o r p o r a t i o n furloughed the sta, but continued to pay for their health insurance while they were on unemployment. Ron Meyer continued to come in to work and deal with any customer needs. "We've been in business over thirty-ve years. I've been through writers' strikes and 9-11, earthquakes, and other things that have disrupted business. But I've never seen it taken down to this level so fast in my life. It's a new learning experience for sure." Jon Tatooles of Sound Devices spoke to me from their Reedsburg (Wisconsin) oce. "We closed the Madison oce, and since we were dened as a company that supplies broadcast tools to organizations worldwide, whether it's the BBC, Al Jazeera, White House communications, NBC, and all the relevant players, we had to maintain operations to continue to support those customers and any repairs." Jon continues, "We also recognized that there was a need for face shields and PPE, so we put a little skunkworks group together, all working at their homes to come up with how to manufacture an open source design that the University of Wisconsin had put together." They manufactured their FS-1 and FS-1NL face shields and by March 24, they began to sell them at cost to healthcare workers and hospitals to help protect them from the COVID-19 pandemic. "We started producing about four hundred per day. As we've increased production to thirty thousand per day, one of the most dicult aspects has been procuring enough parts to build consistently," said Matt Anderson, CEO and President of Sound Devices. Between May and June, with the assistance of the PPP loans, most of the companies brought their employees back with shorter hours, rotating shifts, or part-time employment. They all enforced social distancing, wearing masks, face shields, sanitizing surfaces, plexiglass dividers, and curbside pickups. There were little to no customers due to the production shutdown. The PPP loans covered about an eight-week period, once they were depleted, several companies had to reluctantly furlough some of their employees once again. Brenda Klemme explains, "We have most of our machine shop and assembly crew back, but we are going slow. Everyone has their own space and are wearing masks. No one is allowed in the shop except for employees. We are getting a small boost in boom pole sales from media crews which is helping keep us busy." The nine companies I have spoken with have all survived a protracted and demoralizing economic downturn. They have taken care of their employees with a remarkable sensitivity toward their welfare, while weighed down with continuing expenses of just keeping their businesses operating. At Lectrosonics, "Right now we're back in a full-time basis," said Gordon M o o r e . " E v e r y b o d y i s w o r k i n g , getting a forty-hour paycheck and, no overtime. We're maintaining a very safe work environment. We have a mask requirement, we temperature test when they arrive in the morning. If they're over 100.4, they go home. We've had zero COVID cases with one hundred and forty- eight people. Goal number two is that we keep everybody's job, and goal number three is of course, we keep the company alive. Whether I make a prot or not, I couldn't care less this year, as long as the company can continue to move forward."