And The Winner From Chauvet Is….

AND THE WINNER IS…
CHAUVET ENDS 2^ND ANNUAL DJ PRODUCT REVIEW CONTEST

SUNRISE, Fla. – CHAUVET®, a leading manufacturer of professional lighting, announced the end of their second annual DJ Product Review Contest [link: http://www.youtube.com/user/chauvetlighting#p/a/u/2/1w9_Qrs6tEo]. The contest yielded two winners in what became a tight race for victory. Both DJ Wicked Jester and DJ Omega80 were named grand prize winners, and official YouTube product reviewers for CHAUVET®, receiving products to review in the coming year.

Originally the contest was to have one grand prize winner and one first place winner, but the entries from DJ Wicked Jester, who reviewed the Scorpion™ Storm FX [link: FX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-FUWN8OIbU], and DJ Omega80, who reviewed the COLORstrip™ [link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9paeZ1axE8], were considered by the judging committee to be the most informative and creative product reviews. It was a close competition which yielded two grand prize winners for this year’s contest.

“The review for the Scorpion Storm FX exhibited great product knowledge and really shared an understanding of the fixture,” said Allan Reiss, product manager for club/DJ line at CHAUVET®. “But the creativity delivered for the COLORstrip was just another galaxy away from the other reviews.”

The top 15 finalists will receive a special edition CHAUVET® T-shirt. They are listed here by their YouTube name: BigShowMobileEnt, bigshowmobile, clarkfrank123, DJRockinRob, keithdivel, djboentertainment, ChadAlanEvents, DJJoey100, DJAdvise, DjwickedJester, DJMIKEYB1000, crankupthevolume1517, DJOmega80, atakid920, and MikeLtheDJ. And the top 25 finalists will receive a CHAUVET® road case sticker.

The DJ Product Review Contest was the second for this annual event. All submitted contest entries were posted on YouTube. The goal of the contest was to find the most creative and informative review of one of the fixtures from the extensive line of club/DJ products from CHAUVET®.

KJ Hosting tip!

KJ Hosting tip from Eric Godfrey

Eric Godfrey manages:
USKaraokeAlliance.com
Karaoke2Night.com network
StarzKaraoke.com
ArizonaKaraokeContest.com

Hey guys, I was writing an email to a couple of new host trainees and thought it would make a decent short article to share with all of you.  In my opinion, this topic is the number one thing in running a quality karaoke show!  Master this first and get comfortable; then you can work on your personality as a host.

Lesson 1 on sound – You need to listen at the beginning of EVERY SONG!  They are all recorded at different levels and every vocalist has different traits and vocal ranges.  When the song starts, you need to listen intently and match up the levels.  Then, you need to listen to the vocalist for at least 10 or 15 seconds and adjust their volume and equalizer levels to get them mixed nicely… If it was a sound recording for a record or demo then you would want a nice blend of the two.  In Karaoke you boost the singer a bit over the sound, unless they are really bad, then you add some re-verb and try to bring them down slightly so it is not as noticeable.   No, this is not being snobby or offensive.  You want your singer to sound the best they can. Sometimes, the best way to do this is to raise the music to a higher level.

If you are a patron at a show, always let the host have the beginning of the song to make these adjustments.   If you see that a host is not doing this, observe how much better each singer would come across if they were doing it properly!  Pointing this out to a host is purely up to you.  Most hosts not following this procedure, will probably be defensive or even hostile and not thank you for your good intentions.

Get out there and sing!

CHAUVET to Help Build Homes in Haiti with Food For The Poor

CHAUVET® to Help Build Homes in Haiti with Food For The Poor

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake that left more than 1.2 million homeless in Haiti, CHAUVET® has teamed up with the charity organization Food For The Poor to raise funds for the construction of homes in the devastated Caribbean nation. Starting in April, the Florida-based company aims to raise $52,000 in four months to build 20 homes in Haiti. Owners Albert and Berenice Chauvet, who are both Haitian-born, are kicking off the campaign with a personal commitment to fund four homes.

“This is a human tragedy that we can all relate to,” Albert Chauvet said. “The good news is that, with very little money, you can have a huge, concrete impact in someone else’s life.”

Food For The Poor has a strong tradition of involvement in Haiti, where it builds housing units at an average cost of $2,600. In addition to providing emergency relief and housing, the organization aims to break the cycle of poverty by offering solutions for self-sustained living with vocational training, agricultural programs and the establishment of fishing villages equipped with boats, motors, sheds and freezers.

CHAUVET® plans to solicit donations primarily through a dedicated Web page www.foodforthepoor.org/chauvet, digital communications, and its network of media organizations, suppliers, designers, dealers and distributors in the entertainment and architectural lighting industry. CHAUVET® has pledged to match donations of up to $10,000.

Haiti‘s ongoing housing crisis has found itself acutely exacerbated by the earthquake. Right now, hundreds of thousands of Haitians live in tents or dilapidated shacks made of cardboard, plastic, tin or whatever materials can be scavenged from garbage.

“Our donors have given a tremendous amount in the past two months to ensure that their brothers and sisters in Haiti have a chance to eat, drink clean water and lie down under some kind of shelter at night,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “We are grateful for their committed support and we will continue to count on their generosity in the long recovery we have ahead of us. The most immediate threat will be the rains that come with hurricane season.”

The 12 x 12 square-foot homes are built with cement blocks and covered with galvanized sheet roofs. To address the need for larger accommodations, two housing units are sometimes joined to form one double-unit home.

In 2009, Food For The Poor built 6,371 new housing units in the Caribbean and Latin America. Since 1982, the organization has built more than 61,200 housing units and completed more than 1,000 water projects among others. Find out how you can get involved, by visiting www.foodforthepoor.org/chauvet or watch http://www.youtube.com/user/chauvetlighting
BEFORE AND AFTER HOUSING PROJECTS
About Food For The Poor: Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

Capitalize on social networking

The DJ Intelligence News & Information Blog allows you to quickly and easily publish articles on your website. The benefits of writing articles for your blog are vast, and experts agree that publishing a blog is a one of the leading ways to increase traffic to your website and gain free exposure for your business. The articles you post on your DJ Intelligence News & Information Blog are streamed directly into the Google search index (and other top tier search engines) which means that unlike traditional web pages which can take days, weeks, or months to appear, you will often find that your blog posts show up in the Google results within hours, giving you immediate exposure. Additionally, your clients and prospects can subscribe to your blog’s RSS or Atom feed to automatically be notified anytime you publish a new article (unlike bookmarks which depend on visitors to return to your site to read the newest updates). These two elements alone can drive significant traffic to your website, but there are other simple steps you can take to further enhance your blog’s reach.

Using free services such as TwitterFeed and Ping.fm, you can effortlessly syndicate the articles you publish to your Twitter page and Facebook wall (as well as countless other social networking sites) using your blog’s RSS feed. If you do not yet use Twitter and Facebook for your business, consider setting up accounts. These are two great methods for communicating with clients and prospects, while further spreading the word about your professional services through the power and reach of social networking.

As you know, DJ Intelligence is also fully integrated with MailChimp, a leading broadcast email provider, so you can send mass emails to your past, present, and future clients. Using your RSS feed, you can set up an “RSS-driven campaign” to automatically email your clients the day after you publish an article to your blog. This is another great way to stay in contact with your client base. If you do not yet use MailChimp to send broadcast emails, consider signing up and integrating with your DJ Intelligence account.

To find out the URL of your DJ Intelligence blog’s RSS feed, visit your blog’s home page and click on the “RSS” icon. The URL which appears in the address bar after you click the “RSS” icon will be the direct URL of your RSS feed. If you have any questions or need our assistance, please contact the DJ Intelligence support team anytime 24×7 at http://support.intelligenceinc.com

So the only question that remains is, what will you blog about? Share company news & information, author and publish articles pertaining to your company or industry, tell stories from past events, share client testimonials, or post any other important information you wish to share with your customers and potential customers. The possibilities are endless. If you do not yet use DJ Intelligence for your business, please sign up today and start reaping the rewards of blogging!

Maximize Revenue by adding ScreenBooth

Maximize Revenue by adding ScreenBooth- the Revolutionary Video Guestbook and Digital Photobooth!

ScreenBooth is the latest innovation that captures the sights and sounds of your events through digital video messages and photos. By following easy touchscreen commands, guests leave a spontaneous video message and take photobooth-style photos that will last a lifetime. Unlike a traditional photobooth, ScreenBooth can accommodate upwards of 17 people in one photo! Only your imagination limits what guests will do!

Event hosts get everything on a searchable CD and movie-style DVD. Guests receive a 4×6 printout of their photos with a customized border on the spot to commemorate the host’s special event.

By adding ScreenBooth to your offerings, you can maximize profits by offering ScreenBooth as an add-on to your current packages or as a stand-alone service.

For additional information contact Linda Kinsella 408.825.3039 or Linda@ScreenBooth.com Check out ScreenBooth’s website at www.ScreenBooth.com

Midwest Mobile Entertainers Seminar – Less Than 2 Weeks Away!

• Andy Ebon, speaking about marketing to the 21st Century Bride and blogging your way to success.
• Stevie Ray, covering the five steps of persuasion to make your sales soar.
• Jim Cerone, will be presenting THE Perfect Host parts one and two.

Phoenix, AZ Takes Center Stage in Karaoke Piracy Battle:

Sound Choice, a leading manufacturer of karaoke discs has filed a federal trademark violation lawsuit against 15 karaoke venues and Karaoke Jockeys (KJ’s) in the Phoenix area.  Alleging use of illegally obtained and unauthorized copies of karaoke content on hard drives, Sound Choice is asking for a jury trial to determine damages for lost revenues, “statutory damages per trademark infringed by counterfeiting”, and all profits realized by the defendants as a result of their unfair business advantage from counterfeiting of the trademarks.  Intellectual Property lawsuits have been prominent in recent news with the RIAA winning a nearly 2 million dollar verdict for willful infringement and a Blogger being sentenced to a year’s probation after leaking a Guns N’ Roses album to the internet.

Local Phoenix establishments and companies listed as defendants in the suit include karaoke hosting companies; Dennis Gorrel d/b/a Big D Productions, Abraham Cortez  d/b/a Carousel Karaoke and DJ Company, Dan Dan the Taxi Man (actual identity unnamed),  William Ludlow II d/b/a Dirty Goat Productions, Greg Kimble d/b/a Dynamic Sound Production,  Debbie Simmons d/b/a Karaoke Fever, Trey’s BadAss Karaoke (actual identity unnamed),   Ernest McCullar d/b/a Wired for Sound, and restaurant – bar establishments; Boston’s Bar and Grill located in Tempe,  the Breakroom located in Phoenix,  the Grapevine located in Scottsdale, Hazelwoods First Place Sports Grill located in Phoenix, Hurricane Bay Nightclub located in Phoenix, Lighthouse Sports Bar located in Avondale, the Regal Beagle Sports located in Chandler.  Representatives of Sound Choice with assistance of United States Karaoke Alliance (USKA) members conducted investigations and amassed evidence in the months preceding the lawsuit being filed.

Sound Choice is a leader in the karaoke community and has invested nearly 20 million dollars in their karaoke music catalog.  In the mid 90’s Sound Choice routinely put out up to 5 new Karaoke discs per month and employed 75 people.  With the actions of those pirating their music, they now employ less than 10 people and  their last disc release sold under 800 copies, yet can be found on thousands of karaoke systems across the United States.  As stated in their suit,  “Sound Choice has been forced to undertake this litigation in order to ensure that it survives and continues to produce the high-quality karaoke music its fans demand, and to level the playing field for the legitimate KJs.”

US Karaoke Alliance President, Eric Godfrey, stated, “As legitimate KJ’s, we support Sound Choice’s endeavors.  Due to piracy we can no longer get a fair price for our services as a substantial majority of karaoke jocks are using illegal content.  Almost every disc that comes out is now being shared on the internet or sold on hard drives.  As a result of this piracy, all legitimate karaoke disc manufacturers already have or are in danger of going out of business”.

Bobby Brooks, Vice-President of the USKA added,  “While KJ’s buying music legally have spent tens of thousands of dollars, KJ’s using pirated content have no cost and therefore have offered services for much lower fees, driving down the actual fair market cost for KJ services”.

Sound Choice started these actions, but other Karaoke publishers are watching Phoenix as the test case for legal action.  Asked what the future holds, Kurt Slep, CEO of Sound Choice, responded, “We hope to set a precedent in Phoenix.  We have already finished investigations in several other markets and those actions will follow in time.”

The Michael Jackson Influence

DJ Intelligence is the service that allows DJs to place interactive event planning tools on their websites. Our flagship tool, the Music Database, allows DJs’ clients to search a DJ’s music library, listen to song samples & view song lyrics, and create customized request lists for their event. Every year well over 3 million requests are cast through this dynamic online system, which we are then able to aggregate and compile to generate some useful statistics and “most requested songs” lists. Our Top 200 Most Requested Songs (of the past 12 months) list is a hit among DJs and listed on tens of thousands of DJ sites.

Even today, Michael Jackson dominates the Top 200 Most Requested Songs chart with 5 of his hits, appearing more times on the Top 200 than any other artist! These songs include Billie Jean (ranked #17), Thriller (ranked #42), Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (ranked #55), Beat It (ranked #118), and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (ranked #160). Reference: http://www.demo.djintelligence.com/music/requested.asp

Additionally, Michael Jackson further dominates our Top 100 Most Requested 1980’s Songs chart with 8 hits, again appearing more times on this Top 100 than any other artist! These songs include Billie Jean (ranked #6), Thriller (ranked #11), Beat It (ranked #27), P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (ranked #37), The Way You Make Me Feel (ranked #49), Rock With You (ranked #58), Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (ranked #66), and Smooth Criminal (ranked #94). Reference: http://www.demo.djintelligence.com/music/requested.asp?list=1980

What’s also interesting is that over the past 12 months, up through June 24, 2009, there were just over 16,000 individual requests for Michael Jackson songs from brides and party planners around the world. That is an average of about 300 requests per week. However, since June 25, 2009, the King of Pop’s death, there have been over 3,200 requests for Michael Jackson songs! This means that since his death, requests for Michael Jackson songs have increased by over 500%!

There is no question that Michael Jackson has shaped the playlists of mobile DJs around the world and will continue to do so well into the future!

G-TOUR Hydraulic Assisted LCD / Plasma Screen Rolling Lift Cases

Gator’s revolutionary lift case is now available in two sizes to fit 52″ and 65″ LCD and plasma screens. The G-Tour Lift series still boasts its ½” plywood construction with durable PVC laminate exterior, Penn Elcom® hardware with MOL latches, carpeted interior and high-performance industrial casters.

The Gator G-Tour Lift case uses an advanced-technology, non-electric hydraulic assisted lift which extends smoothly with a load of up to 125 pounds locking into four center mounting bracket height positions of 52″, 58″, 64″ and 72″.

The Lift case features an included universal mounting bracket, built-in retractable UL approved electrical cord with 3 grounded receptacles, side mounted laptop tray that stores in the case and black presentation drape for a professional appearance.

Additionally Gator has added 2 new features to the case by including an external dry erase writing label for identification and a self adhesive ”Tilt Watch” indicator to warn you of improper handling during transport.

For more information on this and other Gator Cases, check us out at www.gatorcases.com.

KIAA (Karaoke Industry Alliance of America) joins in helping Karaoke community!

Advisory Board members of the Karaoke Industry Alliance of America traveled from across the United States to serve as judges at the finals of the Chicagoland Karaoke Olympics.  Sound Choice President, Derek Slep from North Carolina, Stellar Records President Tom Viveiros from Massachusetts, Stellar Vice President Tony Walstra from Connecticut, and US Karaoke Alliance President, Eric Godfrey from Arizona all traveled to the south side of Chicago to a club called Trio in Palos Heights, IL for the crowning of Chicago’s Karaoke Olympics medalists.

1^st Place Winner Kristen D’Andrea of Orland Park IL won $5,000 cash with her renditions of I’ll Be There by Mariah Carey and No One by Alicia Keys.   She worked the crowd into a feverish pitch with her performances.  2^nd Place Winner Don Grillo of Countryside IL won a complete DJ / Karaoke Rig with Sound Choice and Pop Hits Monthly Library, worth over $6,000 with his performances of Piano Man by Billy Joel and At this Moment by Billy Vera and the Beaters.  3^rd prize was won by Hard Rocker, Kevin Benson of Indian Head Park IL and included a Budweiser Prize Pack and $1,250 worth of Pop Hits Monthly Discs with Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich and Plush by Stone Temple Pilots.  A crowd of over 400 packed the club for the entire event.  The Karaoke Olympic Finals was the climax to 12 weeks of qualifying and then club finals and wild card semi-finals.  The even was co sponsored by SingChicago.com, Nitelife.org and www.chiliskaraoke.com.  The host and MC for the event was Ron Larson, owner of Chili’s Karaoke.

KIAA board members used the event to help the local Karaoke community and pitched very expensive disc collections as prizes.

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