In the past couple of seasons, we have re-focused our attention on the very important matter of worker safety.

            Ashen White has developed a unique in-house training program which closely follows the procedures recommended by the “Ministry of Labour”, to encourage safe operating practices on our job sites.

The training program, which involves direct front-office training seminars for all technicians, and ongoing training and monitoring for site staff, was implemented prior to the end of our busy 2007 summer season. Safety supervisors are now assigned on all work sites that have more than three workers; and annual updates for our training manual are provided to all staff.

            Ashen White also provides “free of charge” hard-hats, gloves, ear and eye protection, fall arrest hardware and other physical protection equipment as may be required to ensure safe working conditions for our technicians. We use the comprehensive in-house safe-working guide as our primary training manual. This manual coupled with free copies of the “Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations for Construction Projects” and the “Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act and Regulations for Industrial Establishments” now help our staff to know what they need to do in order to ensure that their working environment is as safe as possible.

            Our efforts to provide a safe work environment will help to ensure that our valuable customers will not be saddled with the legal liability implications and emotional trauma of a having a worker injured at their show site. This is a valuable service that Ashen White provides to our customers, while also ensuring that Ashen White qualifies to advertise itself as a safe worksite employer in the Province of Ontario.

            If you are not already using Ashen White for your “Installation” and “Production” requirements please keep in mind that, according to the Ministry of Labour, promoters and event planners will be liable for injuries that occur on their job site if their sub-contracted service providers are not ensuring that their technicians are following the rules as required by the “Occupational Health and Safety Act of Ontario”. Please be careful, injuries can occur at any time from myriad possible hazards.

We also strongly recommend that you contact your production provider and ask for evidence that they are following all the regulations of the “Occupational Health and Safety Act of Ontario” and that they are providing their technical staff with all the training and safety equipment that they require for the safe completion of their work.

            We are happy to announce that at the time of writing this newsletter, there have been no injuries of any kind at any of our job sites, or at our warehouse, for over fifteen months. We look forward to continuing this excellent safe operating record for the foreseeable future.

            Ashen White provided all the audio, lighting, video, staging and technical staff to more than one-hundred large and small events over the busy 2008 summer season. The addition to our rental stock of 16 MAC2000-II moving head profile fixtures and some very special truss hardware allowed us to design and implement some really exciting and creative show designs for our customers this year. Please visit our “project gallery” to see some of our recent show pictures.

            In November of 2008, Ashen White provided a large scale line-array system and a huge 300,000-watt conventional lighting package, complete with 250 sections of truss on 80 rigging points with dozens of moving head fixtures, to a corporate customer for a sit-down dinner and dance evening. The set-up took three days with a staff of over twenty-five technicians and riggers; the strike took ten hours with a staff of over thirty technicians and riggers. The outcome was a total success. Please contact us for more information about that event.

            Despite the fact that the recession is here, our summer 2009 season is shaping up to be just as busy as usual. Our regular customers are contacting us to ensure that the necessary equipment and technical staff are booked for their events and we are getting many calls from new customers to enquire about receiving quotations for possible new shows.

            We would like to remind new customers that even if you are satisfied with your current production provider, we would be happy to provide you with a quotation to help ensure that you are being treated fairly from a pricing and “quality of equipment” perspective.

            Also, we are encouraging customers that we are always looking for some challenging jobs that will stretch our equipment and staff capabilities and help to create new growth opportunities for our company.

Related Files to news item #1:

 Production Feb 2009.pdf (436.7 Kb)