Raven Production Management Company of New Orleans continually challenges its employees to bring revolutionary production solutions to all of its clients. From the smallest nightclub events to entire festival sites, Raven is there to tackle and enhance the experience with state-of-the-art sound equipment, avant-garde lighting systems and cutting-edge video performances.

Raven excels at creating memorable experiences for patrons and artists alike, from basic stage arrangements and portable refreshment containers to multi-level risers and platforms. The team works to create a next-level experience and is constantly outdoing itself across all fields of event production. The company website photos alone bring to life what extraordinary talents the company offers.

New to the Raven arsenal are the construction of arena and concert container units that will be used at several Los Angeles area events and across the country. Raven PMG has ordered 13 Schweiss Doors bifold liftstrap doors for these container building units. The custom doors are 13 feet, 3 inches wide by 7 feet, 2 inches tall, with manual latches and a 145-mph wind load. The doors also have white liftstraps and white motors. The outside of the bifold doors are clad in an aluminum composite material panel to provide a flat surface at a more reasonable price than a thicker aluminum panel. Schweiss Doors advises, when you desire larger panel modules or panels with greater impact resistance, ACM is the way to go.

These permanent “containers” measure 15 feet high, 15 feet wide and 15 feet tall. They are very versatile and used for much more than storage or as an event food concession or portable product sales buildings. The unit designed for Bud Light has an interactive photo booth, as well as an adjacent area for patrons to enjoy a cold one.

Chris Berends, a Raven PMG partner, says they operate out of one location in New Orleans with 12 fulltime employees and about 30 subcontractors.

“Basically, we were contracted with Live Nation, one of our biggest clients, to build out 13 different sponsorship buildings for 13 of their amphitheaters,” Berends says. “What Live Nation will in turn do, is take those sponsorship buildings and try to sell or rent them to different sponsors. The first one that was rented out this amphitheater season was to Bud Light. This coming season, I’m hoping all of them will be rented out to 13 different sponsors and permanently installed in different locations. I know they’ve already locked in a couple sponsors for next season.”

Live Nation Entertainment is an American global entertainment company, formed through the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It owns, leases, operates, has booking rights for and/or equity interests in a large number of U.S. entertainment venues.

"This was pretty extraordinary in the fact we prefabricated 13 buildings in our shop and deployed them to 13 locations throughout the U.S.,” says William Nemitoff, fabrication director. “Normally, we’re an event fabrication company. We build a lot of structures for events that are temporary. This involved a lot of the same methods and practices we use on a day-to-day basis for temporary structures like a video, wall, lighting and such.”

They discovered Schweiss Doors by perusing the Internet, searching for different doors. There was a Schweiss canopy style bifold door in Brooklyn, N.Y., that caught their attention on the Schweiss Doors website. They believed it would be the perfect solution for this project.

“It was from an aesthetic, design and quality standpoint that we went with Schweiss,” says Nemitoff. “From the inside and the outside, when the door is in the up position, the motor is basically tucked into the door, giving a minimal view of it. The white straps and white motor added to the clean look. With a hydraulic door, you would see the hydraulic arms from the outside. Schweiss has the safety and the electronics figured out. I really appreciate all the safety decals and manuals.”

One wall is glass and the others are R-panel construction. The rear wall has an air conditioning unit and electrical panel on it. The front wall above the bifold door has a 5-millimeter video wall.

“Budweiser used it for brand activation,” Nemitoff says. “They turned it into a dynamic photo booth that creates a GIF; basically, it’s like an array of cameras that take sequential photos to create a moving image. The technology blends these photos into one moving image. It’s more for promotion of a brand than for selling anything, but it could be used for sales purposes.”

With over 10 years of experience, Raven is happy to work with clients in any capacity, from rental all the way to turnkey production management. Fabrication is what separates Raven PMG from its competitors. A team of “mad scientists” works around the clock to bring the most farfetched ideas to life, using cutting edge technology and battle-tested methods. This laboratory is the heart of Raven and leaps at the opportunity to explore and invent. Innovation is key to a successful event and with each new idea comes a new set of challenges, the fuel that drives Raven.

“The focus of the containers is to make them flexible as possible with ample power inside,” Berends says. “For instance, Bud Light brought in a 360-degree camera that had special requirements. We put in a hardline Internet connection and all the lighting up above can be replaced with whatever fixtures the client may want.

“One of the things we did for Live Nation was design a bunch of different strategies for using the containers. We created designs for what it would look like if it were a rock ‘n’ roll café, a virtual reality location and another was a karaoke bar. Basically, it’s something Live Nation can use to make it appealing to their clients.”