T he journey started at Peter Gibbons’ local school. Now MD of LUX Technical, Peter looked after all the sound and light gear for school plays and end of year discos. While doing this, he was also part of a group of film enthusiasts and adventurers called ‘Movie Makers’. He and his fellow explorers spent their summer recording their adventures, before putting together all the rushes and premiering their hard work on the local big screen.
In 2009 while studying Technical Theatre, what would eventually become LUX Technical began to emerge as Peter started to supply kit for parties and discos here and there. Making the most of his local contacts, he bought some basic sound and lighting gear and partnered with local rental houses to supplement shortfalls.
Discovering Current RMS
LUX Technical discovered Current RMS over 5 years ago and came on board after trialing the software for 30 days. As LUX Technical were one of the first companies on board with Current they’ve seen lots of changes and developments within the system. As we’ve grown, so have LUX! Along the way, we’ve added lots of new features and pushed through updates to help LUX and businesses like them manage their rental processes and deliver their great service.
Current works out the box so you can start running your business straight away, but it also has immense capability to integrate into each step of the production process. It’s the company which has the power to implement the best integrations for them. You can use different barcoding techniques, having ultimate control on how production documents look. The further you embrace and input in to the system, the more it will be capable of. We’re constantly developing our system which makes us become more streamlined, efficient and capable.
Peter Gibbons, MD, LUX Technical
Like a lot of rental businesses, the team at LUX are rarely in the office and need access to their business information wherever they are. Being fully cloud based, Current RMS is a boon to their operations because it’s accessible wherever they are.
Current RMS has become an invaluable central point to our workflow. Our key staff can be on site visits and still check in to see the preparation progress of another job at the warehouse. What we love is that the system is constantly evolving to our needs.
In the world of rentals, getting a quotation turned around quickly is make or break. With Current RMS, you can send beautifully branded documents directly to your customer. You can even capture digital signatures, totally eliminating the need for printed paperwork and creating a seamless customer experience.
The events production industry is a high pressure, demanding environment. Clients expect quotations within hours. Job specifications are highly particular, no single equipment can be missed from the truck. Current RMS has enabled us to meet all of these objectives and reduced the time required to reach them.
Being able to collaborate across counties, countries, or even continents is more important today than ever - especially in the event production industry. Things change quickly, so a platform that keeps everyone in the loop is critical. Current RMS provides a single source of truth for LUX, putting all of their people, products, projects, and proposals in one place.
A lot of our staff are millennials, so working remotely and flexible working hours are becoming more of a common request. Current RMS allows us to coordinate, communicate and monitor the work of everyone in the business. It allows us to keep job satisfaction high whilst also ensuring everyone is pulling their weight and delivering on targets.
Exciting Projects for LUX
2019 has been super busy for Peter and the team at LUX Technical as they’ve been working on some pretty impressive projects! Kitting out The Brewery in London for the Season 3 premiere of Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour wasn’t the only ‘tour’ that the guys found themselves. Peter and Rob travelled to Arizona to design and create a location for a touring installation for Google. Teaming up with both Amazon and Google really shows how awesome their team’s work is and just how successful they’ve become!
The LUX team have also invested heavily in digital integrations and creative technologies using the Touch Designer visual development platform by Derivative, letting them offer more to their clients.
We used this concept for our project ‘Please Feed the Lions’ at Trafalgar Square with Google Arts & Culture and Es Devlin, as well as a top-secret-location immersive dining experience created by a company called Gingerline.
Over the past decade, the team has been based in various locations, moving around to accommodate the large volume of equipment they’ve amassed over the years. Now based just outside Peterborough, the team are in a prime position at the heart of the country, allowing them to supply all over the UK.
We now find ourselves working for big names, such as Google Arts & Culture and Amazon Prime, and have travelled around the world working on various different projects. We are also exploring further in to the digital world and working on developing new systems.
Development and Growth
We understand that every business has different needs and we all need a level of flexibility to successfully manage our operations, and the team at LUX are no different. The way Current was designed and built and the features that are implemented into the software are done so with our industry in mind, and we provide the tools that give each business a level of fluidity for their processes within this all-encompassing system.
The tools in Current are so easy to use that as the business grows, we have started providing internal training on the processes we have developed, and none of our newbies have had any trouble navigating around the system. The reassuring thought is that Current support has almost instant response times so if we do find ourselves in a rut, communicating with the team is easy.
Current also provides flexibility across documentation, with quotations, rental agreements, invoices and even email templates. The team at LUX customise their documentation by targeting data within their system and pulling it through to different documents accordingly. Our open API adds another layer by providing people with the tools to create further customisation of their own.
We’re looking to coordinate staff holiday sheets and freelance bookings with documents in the near future. As the business grows it’s even more important that we stay on as few different systems as possible with a high level of automation.
Customers are at the heart of our product vision and drive all of the development on Current. Over the years, we’ve worked with the team at LUX Technical and other rental businesses to build new features designed specifically for rental businesses.
Using their online forum, the Current RMS user base can give feedback for system development and this allows Current RMS to be transparent about their future roadmap - an integral part of trusting that Current RMS will still be a product you want to use for years to come.
A huge thanks to the team at LUX for sharing their journey with us and giving us an insight into the daily operations of their business. If you’d like to experience first hand how Current RMS can benefit your rental business, sign up for a free 30 day trial today and book in a free online training session with one of our friendly Product Specialists.