Event Production Services with Bigabox

We recently caught up with TPI Magazine to talk about Bigabox: Our event production services, what we’re up to and what we do best. You can read the article online at TPI here!

Could you talk through the origins of Bigabox? When did the company form and what were the goals from the outset?

Bigabox was started because we saw there was a gap in the market and a need for more dedicated Video rental companies. At the time, there weren’t a huge amount of businesses that were offering this, apart from companies that focussed on large corporate events. Our ambition was to be a complete production house where people could come and get everything that they needed, instead of using multiple suppliers to deliver events. Coming from an extensive production background, we understood that there was a massive need for this. We believe that this really sets us apart because we remove a lot of the challenges that event organisers face by offering complete solutions from video, lighting and audio to SFX and event production services. Bigabox Productions are celebrating 10 years this summer!

From your website it seems like Bigabox is a real turnkey solution not only in providing audio/lighting/video but also catering for multiple sectors. What are the advantages of having an overview of different market demands rather than focusing on a specific niche?

Working in multiple sectors gives us a huge depth of experience and enables us to constantly learn and develop ourselves; we are used to applying strategic thinking and problem solving in multiple scenarios, working with a diverse range of clients and businesses. It also keeps us entertained for the whole year, rather than just being seasonal. We do a lot of corporate events and live events to maintain that variety and balance and we believe that it really adds a great dynamic to these industries. We know how to put on a proper show, it’s in our DNA, having a product catalogue like we do means that we can enhance every show that we do with years of music experience and SFX, delivering some of the best conferences and after shows that you’ve ever been to! Ultimately, we are consistently broadening our knowledge for ourselves so that we can continue being great at what we do.

At TPi our main focus is on the live touring and festival markets. Would you be able to outline some of the bigger events you’ve been involved in these two sectors in recent years? 

There are so many to choose from! We’ve done everything from live tours for Flux Pavilion in the US, concerts and tours for some big names, shows at the O2 and Wembley like Daddy Yankee and Armen van Buren and we’ve got more of that coming up this year.

We’ve delivered complete production solutions for Sundown for years. We’ve worked at Reading and Leeds providing SFX, Nocturne, Love Supreme, the list is endless! We do proper festivals, that enable really creative output and production from our team.

I appreciated it’s not the happiest topic but how were the years of 2020/21 for Bigabox and what would you say were the main things that enabled you to make it through this tricky time for the events industry?   

The most interesting thing about covid is that I think it gave all company directors, the TIME to step back, look inside the business properly and assess what is profitable, what we want to do, what we are happy doing and how we might want to diversify. It was a great, and positive, opportunity to take a third person perspective on our business and cultivate ideas that we were looking at . We didn’t see it as a bad thing and we got through it because of the diversity of our products and portfolio. We were able to offer streaming services for clients and put emphasis on comms and products that people needed in that time, that we had!

Despite events being back to normal there are clearly several issues facing the events sector – what are some of the biggest issues Bigabox has been facing in recent years and how are you combatting them? 

A lot of people left the industry during covid so there are a lot of staffing issues. This has helped up create more of an internal training programme, one where we can promote and grow young talent in the local area. Instead of relying on freelancers. We have seen a huge increase in costs for transport enormous increase, so this has made us look at how we can be more effective in the delivery of our shows. We’ve started looking at increasing our internal transport for example, which helps us look at how we can be more sustainable as a business. I think a rise of costs in general and also equipment shortages have been a challenge but again, this just supports our thinking on how we need to diversify and grow as a business.

Could you give an idea of the stock of equipment you currently have as well as your staff base? Do you mainly work on a freelance model when it comes to people working on shows? 

Our stocks boasts a massive range of LED video, lighting, audio, SFX, processing equipment and staging/ rigging. Servicing corporate and live events for both indoor and outdoor. Our kit is premium and I believe we have some of the best on the market. We are about move into larger premises in Q4 because we are running out of space! Staffing wise, we have an internal PAYE structure and we use a freelance database for excess delivery and large scale events.

How is 2023 looking for Bigabox? Are there any specific events we should be keeping an eye out for? 

BUSY! We are working on some really nice festivals for summer in Q2 and Q3, we are delivering a European tour for a well known bass artist and we have some big arena shows coming up in Q4. To name a few..