Preventing theft

[Mike Cleaver]

Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
outsiders coming into your studios?
I know one studio owner who puts expensive mic guts (such as
N**mann's) inside cheap chinese mic bodies but keeps using the N**mann
head grills.
He claims no one wants to steal a Chinese mic and claims he hasn't
lost an expensive condensor since he started doing this.
Apparently, the theives know and go for the high ticket mics, probably
something else we can blame on E***y.
So how do you protect your expensive mics from "Light-fingered Louie"
or "Louise?"
Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Voice-overs, Newscaster, Engineering and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada

[Romeo Rondeau]

"Mike Cleaver" > wrote in message
...
> Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
> walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
> We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
> How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
> microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
> outsiders coming into your studios?
> I know one studio owner who puts expensive mic guts (such as
> N**mann's) inside cheap chinese mic bodies but keeps using the N**mann
> head grills.
> He claims no one wants to steal a Chinese mic and claims he hasn't
> lost an expensive condensor since he started doing this.
> Apparently, the theives know and go for the high ticket mics, probably
> something else we can blame on E***y.
> So how do you protect your expensive mics from "Light-fingered Louie"
> or "Louise?"
> Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
> Voice-overs, Newscaster, Engineering and Consulting
> Vancouver, BC, Canada
>

I've only ever had people steal the 57's and some countryman DI's. I guess
because they could use them live. Losing a U87 would make me violent! We did
get the mics back, by tracing what sessions they were last used on (we had
specific places for certain mikes to be, these came from the drumbooth), all
the expensive mikes are put away unless they are being used, except for the
main vocal mike (a U87 that we used all the time) that was always on a big
atlas stand and in plain sight. Anyway, we figured out who was likely to
have taken the mikes and called them. I talked to one of the guys from the
group and told him to look in their cable bags and stuff and see if someone
accidently put them in there not realizing that it belonged to the studio. I
told them that since it was obviously a mistake, if we got the property back
the police wouldn't involved, no harm no foul. I knew they stole the stuff,
though. Anyway, they brought the stuff back, apologized and never booked
again (which is good because originally I intended to never book them
again). We did have one of the kids in the band that came back with another
band. He called before and asked if we still wanted to work with him,
considering what had happened. I booked his band, counting the mikes after
every session without making it obvious. Anyway, I guess my point is that
sometimes things do work out for the better and people do the right thing.
Under normal circumstances, I would have been angry and confrontational.
Luckily I had read this book when I was first starting out that spelled out
how to handle this type of thing and followed the authors advice. It wasn't
the cost of the gear, it was the principle of the matter. Also, I really
wanted to believe that the guys were gonna at least make a stab at being
honest and besides them stealing the gear, they were. I gave them an out, so
they wouldn't have to admit they were theives. That's important. I really
didn't care to let them know that I knew that they stole the stuff. My guess
is that the kid that called back a year later knew what was up. Anyway, it's
not a U87, but depending on the situation, you may be able to recover the
gear, if you're smart about it. I'm more worried these days about someone
coming for a checkout and rob us at gunpoint or something. The reason why I
say this is that it happened to another studio in my town. It scared the
crap out of everybody in town. I even started getting a number that I could
call back before I would book any checkouts at all. I don't need to get shot
for a mike.

[Kevin Ballard]

"Hi I am thinking of upgrading from a PCI recording(sta)
soundcard to a firewire or USB 2 recording preamp.
Is firewire better than Pci cards?
I will be recording drums or bands so I will need a 8ch
I/O PREAMP FOR Windows XP PRO.
Any suggestions.
Thankyou
Kevin Ballard

[Scott Dorsey]

Mike Cleaver > wrote:
>Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
>walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
>We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
>How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
>microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
>outsiders coming into your studios?

You keep microphones in a locked cabinet and you don't let them out
except for an individual session. You don't leave them set up between
sessions or ever unattended.

And, you raise your rates a little, because occasionally something is
going to disappear now and then no matter how hard you try.

>I know one studio owner who puts expensive mic guts (such as
>N**mann's) inside cheap chinese mic bodies but keeps using the N**mann
>head grills.
>He claims no one wants to steal a Chinese mic and claims he hasn't
>lost an expensive condensor since he started doing this.
>Apparently, the theives know and go for the high ticket mics, probably
>something else we can blame on E***y.

In the case of people who come into the studio specifically to steal
things, those guys are usually rather easy to figure out if you question
them about their music and how they are used to working. Of course, if
someone pulls a gun on you when you're questioning them, it's probably too
late. And this has happened.

I put Peavey stickers on my KMS105 mikes to deter theft. Seems to have
worked so far.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
> How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
> microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
> outsiders coming into your studios?

You put them away in a locked cabinet when you're not recording with
them and when there's nobody in the studio to watch what's going on,
or out. Interns are good for "watching" duty, but most of them don't
like to carry guns. Or I suppose you could stick those anti-theft tags
like they have in department stores on them, and have detectors at
every exit.

Obviously you have to be subtle about it. You can't search everyone's
coat, bag, and instrument case before you allow them to leave the
studio.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Dale Farmer]

Mike Cleaver wrote:

> Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
> walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
> We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
> How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
> microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
> outsiders coming into your studios?
> I know one studio owner who puts expensive mic guts (such as
> N**mann's) inside cheap chinese mic bodies but keeps using the N**mann
> head grills.
> He claims no one wants to steal a Chinese mic and claims he hasn't
> lost an expensive condensor since he started doing this.
> Apparently, the theives know and go for the high ticket mics, probably
> something else we can blame on E***y.
> So how do you protect your expensive mics from "Light-fingered Louie"
> or "Louise?"
> Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
> Voice-overs, Newscaster, Engineering and Consulting
> Vancouver, BC, Canada
>

First thing you do ( you should have already done this for your
insurance anyway. ) is to have a list of all the really valuable pieces of

gear in the place. Prices, serial numbers, etc. This list lives in the
safe deposit box at the bank.
You have four kinds of theft you have to protect against.
One is theft by clients, as you describe above. Next is robbery
by the thug with a gun. After that is burglary, and last is theft by
employees. Different approaches are used to protect yourself
against these threats.
Theft by clients and employees, regular inventories of everything
over a certain floor value are your main protection. Expensive
mics live in a locked closet and are individually checked out and
checked back in. End of day sight inventory is a good protection
for this. Part of your lockup ritual is to open the closet and ensure
that all the mics are back in their drawers or slots. Other expensive
easily portable items are kept in the closet as well.
Expensive non portable items. ( Consoles, effects units, and
so on. ) Have a checklist of each of these by their location, and
each monday morning after you put on the coffee, someone goes
to each location and checks to see that they are still there. They
get checked again at closing time at the end of the week.
Theft by burglary and robbery. The key here is to make taking
these things as time consuming as possible. Use Torx head rack
screws, Chain the consoles and effects racks to something solid in
the building structure. Put individual locks on the doors to each
microphone drawer. Have duress buttons attached to your alarm
system in the microphone closet, receptionist's desk, and so on.
You want to slow down the bad guys and notify the police to come
and get them. Work with your local police crime prevention
officer, they have books full of tips and tricks to make your place
more crime resistant.
Theft by employees is the hardest to prevent. Only real way to
detect it is by regular inventories of your stuff, these inventories to
be conducted by a different person each time, and you as the owner
do random spot checks after each inventory. I'd suggest a wall to
wall count everything inventory once or twice a year, and the high
value items daily and weekly as described above. You as the owner
should come in early before you hand out the inventory task and
remove one item and hide it in your desk drawer. IF the person
doesn't' notice it is missing, then they really didn't do the inventory
very well did they. Constant vigilance. Trust, but verify.


--Dale

[hollywood_steve]

>
> > We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
> > How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
> > microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
> > outsiders coming into your studios?
>
> You put them away in a locked cabinet when you're not recording with
> them and when there's nobody in the studio to watch what's going on,
> or out.

And I just found a great "cabinet," for $299 you can get a gun safe
large enough to hold a couple of dozen mics. I'm ordering one for my
new room. They won't keep a jewel thief out if he has a couple of
hours to work on the safe, but they will effectively end the "grab and
go" and even the "smash and grab" type of thefts.

http://www.deansafe.com/sentry/6211,4211.html

Not bad for $299. They KEY is to keep anyone from ever knowing that
the safe even exists.

[Mr Layaway]

I really like the diligent Inventory idea; with so much equipment in a well
stocked studio, how do you ever really know what you have and what you don't
unless you take a regular Inventory?

[Mike Cleaver]

Locking up equipment in this situation is pretty hard to do.
This is a 24/7/365 broadcasting environment with four stations and
large production facilities.
They must be accessible at all times to deal with emergency
broadcasting situations.
The mic in question disappeared during a holiday season when the
station in question was running automated and there was only a
skeleton crew manning the only live 24/7 operation in another part of
the buildiing.
All the equipment is inventoried and checked regularly and serial
numbers and values are recorded.
But with deductibles being what they are, you pretty well have to lose
a lot of stuff to file a claim (5k plus in this case).
Too bad you can't place a chip inside a mic and trackit with GPS or
something.
If it moves a certain distance from it's assigned position, alarms go
off.




On 06 Mar 2004 21:02:16 GMT, (Mr Layaway) wrote:

>I really like the diligent Inventory idea; with so much equipment in a well
>stocked studio, how do you ever really know what you have and what you don't
>unless you take a regular Inventory?

Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
Voice-overs, Newscaster, Engineering and Consulting
Vancouver, BC, Canada

[Paul Stamler]

Mike Cleaver > wrote in message
...
> Locking up equipment in this situation is pretty hard to do.
> This is a 24/7/365 broadcasting environment with four stations and
> large production facilities.
> They must be accessible at all times to deal with emergency
> broadcasting situations.
> The mic in question disappeared during a holiday season when the
> station in question was running automated and there was only a
> skeleton crew manning the only live 24/7 operation in another part of
> the buildiing.

Perhaps the inactive stations should have an EV 635 up instead of a U87; for
emergency situations that would be adequate until somebody with the key to
the U87 safe showed up.

Peace,
Paul

[anthony.gosnell]

"Mike Rivers" > wrote
> Obviously you have to be subtle about it. You can't search everyone's
> coat, bag, and instrument case before you allow them to leave the
> studio.

I was very suprised when one musician opened his violin case. It was packed
full with marijuana. No violin in sight.

--
Anthony Gosnell

to reply remove nospam.

[Romeo Rondeau]

"anthony.gosnell" > wrote in message
...
> "Mike Rivers" > wrote
> > Obviously you have to be subtle about it. You can't search everyone's
> > coat, bag, and instrument case before you allow them to leave the
> > studio.
>
> I was very suprised when one musician opened his violin case. It was
packed
> full with marijuana. No violin in sight.

That means he gets to hang out with me after the session <g>

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> Locking up equipment in this situation is pretty hard to do.
> This is a 24/7/365 broadcasting environment with four stations and
> large production facilities.
> They must be accessible at all times to deal with emergency
> broadcasting situations.
> The mic in question disappeared during a holiday season when the
> station in question was running automated and there was only a
> skeleton crew manning the only live 24/7 operation in another part of
> the buildiing.

In that case, there could be no emergency situation because there
would be nobody to take care of it. At that time, the mics could have
been locked up. If there are people around all the time, it's unlikely
that a mic would have been stolen. That was just an unfortunate
occurence. I take it that it's not a regular thing. If it is, then the
station needs to come up with anothe way of taking care of "emergency
broadcasting situations" - like maybe have a more expendable mic set up
rather than a U87, to get things working until the engineer with the
key to the mic cabinet gets there to do a real setup. It'll probably
work just as well, considering the circumstance.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I was very suprised when one musician opened his violin case. It was packed
> full with marijuana. No violin in sight.

Some trad jazz bands have an instrument case full of liquor when they
go into the studio. I know of one that comes in with a folding bar.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Laurence Payne]

On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 03:58:16 GMT, Mike Cleaver >
wrote:

>Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
>walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
>We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
>How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
>microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
>outsiders coming into your studios?
>I know one studio owner who puts expensive mic guts (such as
>N**mann's) inside cheap chinese mic bodies but keeps using the N**mann
>head grills.
>He claims no one wants to steal a Chinese mic and claims he hasn't
>lost an expensive condensor since he started doing this.
>Apparently, the theives know and go for the high ticket mics, probably
>something else we can blame on E***y.
>So how do you protect your expensive mics from "Light-fingered Louie"
>or "Louise?"
>Mike Cleaver Broadcast Services
>Voice-overs, Newscaster, Engineering and Consulting
>Vancouver, BC, Canada



Why N**mann instead of Neumann?
Why E**y instead of Ebay?

I just wondered?

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

[Andy Eng]

(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

>Mike Cleaver > wrote:
>>Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
>>walk...


>I put Peavey stickers on my KMS105 mikes to deter theft. Seems to have
>worked so far.


Hmmm...

Been wondering what to do with those Behringer stickers laying
around... :-)

Andy

[Willie K.Yee, M.D.]

On 7 Mar 2004 12:32:20 -0500, (Mike Rivers) wrote:

>
>In article > writes:
>
>> I was very suprised when one musician opened his violin case. It was packed
>> full with marijuana. No violin in sight.
>
>Some trad jazz bands have an instrument case full of liquor when they
>go into the studio. I know of one that comes in with a folding bar.

Louis Armstrong always carried two trumpet cases. One had a trumpet in
it.

Willie K. Yee, M.D. http://users.bestweb.net/~wkyee
Developer of Problem Knowledge Couplers for Psychiatry http://www.pkc.com
Webmaster and Guitarist for the Big Blue Big Band http://www.bigbluebigband.org

[Mikey]

Dale Farmer > wrote in message >...
@hotmail.com
>
> First thing you do ( you should have already done this for your
> insurance anyway. ) is to have a list of all the really valuable pieces of
>
> gear in the place. Prices, serial numbers, etc. This list lives in the
> safe deposit box at the bank.

It can also live online as a program file (Excel or Word, etc.), or as
a simple text email to yourself. That way if someone steals all your
papers and computer and you can't get to the bank or safe deposit box
(most thefts don't occur during banker's hours), the police can help
get you online to retrieve it in minutes.

Mikey
Nova Music Productions

[xy]

good link


>
> Not bad for $299. They KEY is to keep anyone from ever knowing that
> the safe even exists.

[Pooh Bear]

Mike Cleaver wrote:

> Over the year end holidays, an expensive microphone decided to take a
> walk from a little used studio where I work. It was a U87.
> We're in a controlled entry environment with security cameras.
> How do you prevent small, easily concealable things such as expensive
> microphones from disappearing when you have a constant string of
> outsiders coming into your studios?

You call a U87 light and small !

< snip >

How did the thieves get access ? Security *cameras* don't mean security.

Seriously though, although it's not my area, small cameras are 2 to a
penny these days and I'm sure there must be timelapse 'photography' that
runs on a PC that'll deal with multiple sources. Clearly better coverage
is needed.

Also don't leave U87s unattended.

Graham

[Pooh Bear]

Mr Layaway wrote:

> I really like the diligent Inventory idea; with so much equipment in a well
> stocked studio, how do you ever really know what you have and what you don't
> unless you take a regular Inventory?

I used to act as tech manager for a lon-linear mainly dry hire video / film
editing company.

Took ages - and numersous repetitions - to get the lads to do it right - but
eventually we were able to track most kit. Not bad when it even goes abroad.

Didn't even use a proprietary inventory management program. Some manual stuff is
always needed to cater for the unplanned too.

Graham