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Two years… Thanks to you, what began as an adventure between four friends – with nothing but our savings and our passion for the industry and the people in it – has grown into a great success, with nearly 700 visitors and 1300 articles read every day, and 3000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. It’s a great story, really…
It all started three years ago in a lovely house in Colombes. From the name to the format and from the editorial line to the early drafts of the layout, Soundlightup took shape in September 2011, thanks to the tenacity of its four founders with an indisputable conviction: that the entertainment and event industry needed a modern, responsive and powerful tool that was also affordable. Times are tough.
The decision was made early on. Soundlightup would be both free and rich in content that would be worthy of a real magazine, a daring choice and not conducive to restful nights. We used our savings to acquire high-performance tools to put together a laboratory that could guarantee reliability and accuracy in the measurement of light and sound and write our first articles, news items and product tests to replace the false text of the draft layout, the famous Lorem Ipsum…
Soundlightup went on line in complete anonymity in late December 2011 featuring, all told, a story about the musical comedy ‘Dracula’, with the celebrated duo of Plisson & Bellote at the helm of the audio. As the magic of the web dictates, from the first day some readers began to show up on our old statistics software (which was as imperfect as it was unpredictable) and this precious info cheered us up. It was not until April 24, 2012, however, that we opened up all the sections and began to communicate. SLU was born.
We then started looking for writers. Our criteria? Good writing, technical knowledge and proven experience in the field. This combination is not easy to find, but we have been lucky. We can boast a team of five writers: Isabelle Elvira, Serge Babkin, Stéphane Mocret, Pit Shot and Tristan Szylobryt – all perfectly honest and brilliant, and all overflowing with imagination to bring you content that is lively and diverse in form, yet highly precise in function.
But what would a great story be without fairies, elves and dragons? They all came to check out our new baby in the cradle. Let’s forget about the paper dragons and talk, most importantly, about those who have believed in us from the beginning and who have provided us not only with heartwarming words of encouragement, but also with our first budget: Evangeline, Cecile, Gioia, Séverine, Richard, Bruno, Thomas, Jérôme, Olivier, Antony, Philippe, Yvan, Xavier, Stéphane, François, Guy, Daniel, Charles, Pio, Didier, Lionel, Leo, Markus and others… It is thanks to these people that the caterpillar has become a butterfly because – we must face facts – our business model is based solely on advertising and, without fuel, a machine quickly grinds to a halt. They understood this and were there for us, and they have our enduring gratitude.
Soundlightup is and will remain free, with unlimited access around the world from any computer, tablet or smartphone to the complete body of these years of work. All of the articles are also indexed and interfaced with our database, which now offers the largest French-language reference source for the equipment, the events and, most importantly of all, the men and women who bring them to life.
Very soon you will be able to post your classified ads and, especially, your job opportunities on the website most widely read by sound, lighting and video professionals – one extra chance in these sluggish times.
We won’t forget that more and more of you are coming here to read what we write. At the risk of repeating ourselves, we would gladly go to the moon to record the squeak of the LEM and to measure the derating of the sun, but we would feel quite lonely behind our keyboards without our readers.
So, thanks to those of you who tell us their stories and to those of you who read them a little more every day. Being a journalist and serving as a conduit for talent and passion is a wonderful job. Our third year begins today and, more than ever, we will work to be your eyes and ears. Do not forget your hearing protection!
