Video that connects

HANDS ON: Christopher Hubbard, owner of Emergency Production Inc., is seen in a 12,500-square-foot warehouse working on the custom audio, video and lighting equipment his company provides for events. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
HANDS ON: Christopher Hubbard, owner of Emergency Production Inc., is seen in a 12,500-square-foot warehouse working on the custom audio, video and lighting equipment his company provides for events. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

In early March, Emergency Production Inc. planned a “massive” video display for up to 5,000 guests at an annual sports-analytics conference hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ESPN.

“We use video to build scenery and texture into the event,” said company owner Christopher Hubbard. “We build in a high-definition video – it could be static, it could be playing. It all depends on what’s appropriate.”

“We are known for our custom work,” he added. “Especially for the larger events, we will custom-fit everything.”

As the owner and technical director of Emergency Production, the Westborough, Mass., native studied at the business school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst between 1994 and 1995. Drawn to math in all its forms, he left “to pursue the dream” to work in audio engineering, he said.

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Back then, with mentor Rod Libbey, owner of Emergency Sound, as his guide, he helped engineer sound for band concerts. Today, while concerts remain one division of the company’s services, it’s events for corporate institutions, trade shows and business meetings that constitute the bulk of the work.

“I started [working] in the world of concert touring,” he explained. “I formed [my] company in an effort to stay home more.”

He launched Emergency Production in 2006, in Cranston.

Originally, Hubbard was doing sound engineering or tour rigging for lights, sound systems and the video equipment that hangs above the audience and stage. But he saw a market for corporate events and today claims clients that include Fidelity Investments and the Professional Beauty Association.

He applies his love of math in this line of work: from calculating weight and load for the rigging and hanging of hundreds of thousands of pounds of structures, to working hand in hand with engineers on audio frequencies, gain and feedback.

Hubbard handles day-to-day operations and is the face of the nine-person company, relying on project managers, an operations director, office administrator, warehouse staff and sound and video engineers. In addition, the firm partners with staging companies and equipment vendors.

Growth, he noted, has been “exponential.” In six years, Emergency Production went from using a 1,500-square-foot warehouse to one measuring 12,500 square feet. The equipment is “100 percent owned and paid for,” he said, noting, “If another recession does hit, we are safer than most.”

The firm’s “can-do” attitude, offered at a competitive price, is what has perpetuated its success, Hubbard said.

“[Clients] say, ‘Can you do this?’ and we say, ‘Yes,’ and figure it out,” he said. n

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