On Site Policies

All Onsite personnel will be equally responsible for minimizing accidents within our workspaces.

These responsibilities include but are not limited to working in compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations, operating in compliance with Quest’s safe work policies and procedures and using or following the measures put in place to maintain a healthy work environment.

We trust that all of you will join us in a personal commitment to the highest possible Health & Safety practices with the utmost of concerns for accident/loss prevention as a way of life.

In accordance with the Smoke Free Ontario Act, smoking is prohibited in the workplace, including all enclosed areas and vehicles. Smoking is not permitted within 9 meters of any entrance or exit outside the building. Smoking is only permitted during designated break times and in the designated smoking areas outside of the building. Smoking should be done in a private area away from clients and event attendees. Everyone is also to adhere to any venue smoking policies. It is expected that everyone will observe the policy.

Onsite personal under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the job can pose serious health and safety risks both to themselves and their fellow workers. To help ensure a safe and healthy workplace, Quest reserves the right to prohibit certain items and substances from being consumed during working hours, unless medically required. The following expectations apply to all on site personal while conducting work on behalf of the Company, whether on or off Quest property:

• Contractors are expected to arrive at work fit for duty and able to perform their duties safely and to standard.
• Contractors must remain fit for duty for the duration of their shift.
• Use, possession, distribution, or sale of drugs during work hours, including during paid and unpaid breaks, is strictly prohibited.
• Contractors are prohibited from reporting to work while under the influence of recreational cannabis and any other non-prescribed substances.

At the beginning of all events an onsite safety plan should be established, logged in the site safety plan form, and communicated to all onsite personal. The purpose of the safety plan is to identify any site and/or operational safety hazards that on-site personal might encounter during the work shift, identifying emergency exits, communicating the location of onsite first aid kits and establishing an offsite muster point should an emergency evacuation need to happen. All workers that show up to the job site at any point should review the safety plan with the show lead.

In the event of an emergency that requires the building to be evacuated, employees are asked to find their closest emergency exit to exit the building safely. Once outside, employees are asked to meet at the designated muster point established in the onsite safety plan so attendance of onsite personnel can be taken. Onsite personal should always familiarize themselves with the nearest emergency exit to where they are working. Onsite personal should follow the onsite facility procedure. Upon leaving the facility, Onsite personnel must call the 24hr support line or report to the designated supervisor for the site to confirm that they have evacuated the facility safely.

Quest is committed to promote a safe and healthful work environment, including emergency preparedness. A first aid kit is available on the job site in case of any medical emergency. Onsite personal should familiarize themselves with first aid equipment available at their worksite before they begin working.

If a jobsite injury occurs, please follow these steps:

Your personal safety is of utmost importance to us at all times. All Onsite personal are expected to wear the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment to perform their tasks safely. This may include: hard hat, steel toe shoes, high visibility vest, fall protection equipment, safety glasses, and special clothing. Onsite personnel are required to bring all Personal Protective Equipment required to do the job. Onsite personnel are encouraged to seek clarification if they are unsure of the tasks required for the day. Onsite personnel who show up to the site without the required Personal Protective Equipment will not be permitted to work and sent home without pay.

Any employee or contractor who is at risk of fall hazards while working are required to hold a valid certificate of completion for the Working at Heights training. This includes any employees or contractors using ladders, scissor lifts, climbing, and rigging. Anyone found working at heights without a valid certificate will not be permitted to work.

Only trained employees and contractors are permitted to work with power/high voltage. Employees and contractors who are performing a task that are not qualified to be working with power, should contact the project manager or lead immediately.

At Quest, we adhere to five basic safety rules when using power tools:

• Keep all tools in good condition with regular maintenance.
• Use the right tool for the job.
• Examine each tool for damage before use and do not use damaged tools.
• Operate tools according to the manufacturers’ instructions.
• Use the right personal protective equipment properly.

It is essential that all Quest Audio Visual onsite personnel report to each job at least fifteen minutes prior to the commencement of work. This allows everyone to locate the call’s meeting point, prepare for the workday and be ready to begin work at the prescribed time. Call times are an estimate and actual shifts might end earlier or later.

It is expected for all onsite personal is on time for all calls. Being late for a call is unprofessional, cost loss of profits and tarnishes Quest Audio Visual’s reputation to both its clients and other onsite personnel. being late to a call is grounds for being sent home from a job without pay. Repeated late, sick, or cancelled calls is grounds for losing your freelance/employment status with Quest Audio Visual. If onsite personnel are going to be late, sick or need to cancel a job for any reason follow the below steps:

1. Call the onsite lead or project manager ASAP to let them know you will be late, sick or need to cancel. If it is within 2 hours of the call and you are the onsite lead call the crew ASAP and ensure they understand their individual tasks they need to preform until your arrival.
2. If during standard office operating hours (8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday) call the labour booker who booked you. If outside of standard operating hours call the Quest Audio Visual 24-hour emergency phone line with details.

Best Practice
If your lateness will influence the ability for Quest Audio Visual to deliver on our client’s expectation, assist us in finding a solution. For example: assisting in finding labour that can replace you.

On site personnel are entitled to a 15min break at 2.5, 7.5 and 12.5 hours and a 1 hour walk away meal break or 30 min meal provided break at 5 hours 10 hours and 15 hours. It is up to the individual technician to ensure that he or she has taken reasonable steps to accommodate the clients schedule and/or challenging setup/strike schedules.

A lot of events will have food and drinks set out for the attendees under no circumstances are you to take anything from food stations unless asked to by the client.

All Quest Audio Visual on-site personal are expected to meet minimum hygiene requirements while on a call or representing Quest audio visual.

• Maintain personal cleanliness by bathing daily.
• Oral hygiene (brushing of teeth) required.
• Use deodorant/antiperspirant to minimize body odours.
• No heavily scented perfumes, colognes, and lotions.
• Clean and trimmed fingernails.
• Wash hands after eating or using the restrooms.
• Wash hands after having a cigarette.
• Clothing must be clean, pressed, in good condition and fit appropriately.
• Socks or hose must be worn with shoes.
• Neat and well-groomed hair, sideburns, moustaches, and beards (no artificial colours e.g. pink, green, etc. that would be deemed unprofessional).
• Moderate make-up.
• Secured long hair (hair must be tied back to prevent potential for being caught in equipment).
• Clothing must not interfere with the safe operation of equipment.
• No dark glasses (unless prescribed by a physician).
• Limited jewelry and no dangling or large hoop jewelry that may create a safety hazard to self or others (a general rule of thumb is that if a pencil can be passed through a hoop earring it is not safe to wear near operating equipment).
• Body piercing must be limited to three per ear.
• Other visible body piercing is unacceptable, unless demanded by religion / culture.
• Tattoos that are perceived as offensive, hostile or that diminish the effectiveness of the employee’s professionalism must be covered, and not visible to staff, customers, or vendors.

Every event has a dress code.

Always be prepared to work outdoors and bring clothing that allows working in the elements for extended periods of time.

The dress codes are as follows:

Show blacks

• Black Casual Clean Work Cloths:
  • Black Pants (Black Cargo Pants, Black Jeans or black shorts).
  • Black Quest Shirt or Plain Black shirt NO LOGO, NO CUT OFF SLEEVES OR PANTS/SHORTS.
  • Black Steel Toe Shoes that are in acceptable condition NO RUNNING SHOES, NO FLIP-FLOPS or SLIPPERS.
  • If working outdoors’s dress appropriately for the conditions with non-offensive clothing.

Dress blacks

• Black Business Casual:
  • Quest pressed black dress button down shirt or Quest pressed polo shirt.
  • Black pressed dress pants.
  • Black or brown polished dress shoes.
  • If working outdoors dress appropriately for the conditions with non-offensive clothing.

Formal coat and tie

• Men:
  
  • Conservative style suite coat or blazer with a dress shirt, tie and dress pants, in a dark or neutral colour.
  • Black or brown dress shoes.
• Women:
  • Conservative style dress slacks and coat, with a light shirt or blouse.
  • Practical dress shoes (no high heels or shirts).

• The standard dress code is show blacks for setup’s and dress blacks for operates.
• If you do not have an appropriate Quest shirt it is your responsibility to let your labour booker know and arrange to have one provided prior to the start of the event.
• It is never acceptable to where a competitor’s logo when on a Quest Audio Visual show site. This applies to all Quest Staff and vendors. Including freelancers and third party labour provider technicians.
• All Techs should show up to site in proper uniform/dress code. If the need to change on site is required, it should be done as soon as possible and in a private area like a bathroom stall where there is no chance of a client or other personnel related to the event seeing the change.

CHECK WITH YOUR LABOUR BOOKER OR PROJECT MANAGER IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT THE PROPER DRESS CODE FOR THE CALL.

FAILURE TO WEAR APPROPRIATE CLOTHES TO WORK MAY GET YOU SENT HOME FROM JOB WITHOUT PAY.

Unless otherwise instructed by a Quest Audio Visual Manager, every technician is expected to come to each job with the tools required to execute all aspects of the position to which you have been assigned. Technicians are not expected to bring power tools or major diagnostic tools to the job. Technicians are expected to carry the tools that are required for them to do their assigned job. Failing to do so may lead to dismissal. The tools listed below are required to do the work at the Quest Audio Visual Standard. You should not only carry these tools, but they should be in good working order.

Standard tool set

These tools must be brought with you to every call, regardless of assigned call.

1. Hard hat
2. CSA-approved safety shoes
3. High visibility safety vest
4. Safety glasses
5. Tape measure – 25 foot minimum
6. Screw drivers – #2 Philips and #2 Flat Head a 4 in 1 is fine
7. Crescent wrench – 8 in
8. Knife – big enough to cut sash cord, small enough to carry with you at all times
9. Flashlight – dmall and powerful
10. Pen and notepad
11. Black Sharpie

Audio visual tools

In addition to standard tool list.

1. Leatherman or other multi-purpose tool
2. USB flash drive
3. Tweaker (Philips and flat)
4. Needle nose pliers
5. Circuit tester – Edison plug with 3 glowing LEDs
6. Board tape & electrical tape

Rigger tools

In addition to standard tool list.

1. Rope ½” to ⅝” – length to be determined by venue working
2. Full body harness – in good condition
3. All necessary tickets and certification documents
4. Lanyard
5. Auto lock steel carabiners (minimum 2)
6. Multi loop 5ft
7. Laser measure
8. Crescent wrench 8 in (wide mouth, must open to 1 ⅛”)

Keep the tech table clean and free of clutter. Do not keep any open drinks near equipment. do not leave trash, food, or dirty dishes in your work area. At the end of each day, tidy your work area to be clean and presentable. To prevent loss, make sure that you lock up or hide all laptops, microphones, perfect cues, or anything that can easily be picked up and taken.

Proper handling of all assets is the responsibility of all onsite personal. The nature of our industry requires fragile audio visual equipment and other items to be handled frequently compromising the safety and lifespan of the equipment. All onsite personal are expected to treat all items with extreme care. Here are some suggestions on how to keep equipment safe and good working order:

• Always keep equipment in cases when not being used.
• Always ensure equipment is well secured and not able to tip if need to put down.
• If you need to lift a heavy or awkward item ask someone to help you.
• When taking screen surfaces do not rip off.
• Take time to gently pull off one button at a time.
• When handling light coloured fabrics such as spandex or drape wash hands first or if available use clean gloves as to not leave dirt marks on the material.
• If need to even drape pleats do not attempt to pull the drape from the ground as this can rip the fabric at the seams. Instead use a latter to even the pleats at the cross bar.
• When folding fabrics or screen surfaces use a tarp or drop cloth so the material will not get dirty from the ground.
• Ensure everything is in a case before it is loaded in the truck. If for any reason a case is not available take extra care that the item is packed in a blanket or put in the truck in a way that will avoid damage. Putting the item in the cab with the driver can sometimes be a good solution.
• If an item comes in the manufacturing cardboard box or on skid, keep the skid and/or packaging in good condition and well stored for the out. Extra care should be taken when moving or transporting anything not in a hard case.

Missing equipment can be an issue from time to time for various reasons. It is important that you identify that you are missing items as soon as possible to ensure the issue can be rectified as soon as possible.

If you are missing items, follow these steps:

1. Check the shipping manifest the first thing you should do is check the shipping manifest that was sent down with the equipment (it should be in the show folder). The shipping manifest is a log of everything that was scanned onto the order. All cases on the manifest are listed with a description of the case and serial number or case number. All items that are packaged into a case are listed below the case line. If you do not find the item you are looking for there is a good chance the item was not sent. proceed to step 3. If you do find the item(s) you are missing on the manifest there is a good chance the was sent. follow these steps:
   • Reference the case header the item was found under.
   • Find the physical case the manifest references your item to be in.
   • Thoroughly search the case for the missing item pulling out all other contents if necessary.
   • If you still cannot find the item proceed to step two.
2. Take some time to search other cases and ask the other onsite personal whether they might have moved the item out of the case or have already used it. If you cannot find the case you are looking for take a look on the dock or anywhere the case could have been pushed while moving in. if you still cannot find the item proceed to step 3.
3. Determine whether you can get by and not sacrifice safety, the event and deliver on the client’s expectations without having the item sent down. If you still need the item sent down, go to the next step.
4. To avoid multiple truck runs, find out if anyone else on the crew is missing anything they need.
5. Call the Quest Audio Visual–24 hour phone line and explain the situation. Please be detailed describing what you need, the steps you have already taken and how much time there is to get the item to job site.
6. Keep in contact with 24-hour line to ensure you get the item as quickly as possible.

You might have equipment that is not working as expected or not at all. Troubleshooting is a process for investigating, determining, and settling problems. Understanding and following a systematic and logical troubleshooting process will minimize the time required to identify and correct the problem of even complex systems.

Here is how we would like all on site techs to approach troubleshooting:

1. Stay calm. Do not let the client or event attendees feel that you do not have control of the situation.
2. Act quickly and efficiently. Time is always of the essence the trouble shooting may take longer than expected, replacement equipment may need to be sent down or you may be holding up the event.
3. Look for obvious problems. Obvious problems would be things like your mixer is muted or turned down, the video switcher is blacked out, TV monitor is on the wrong input, etc.
4. Identify all components of the system starting from the source for example microphone or laptop through to the signal for example speakers or TV monitors. Identify all processing equipment such as audio mixers and video switchers. Also identify all cables patch and adapters.
5. Toggle power on to all components. Starting at the signal working back thru the source, turn all power off (if a piece of equipment has no power button, unplug power to the unit). Once all equipment is off wait 10 seconds and begin to start turning equipment back on in the opposite order starting at the source thru to the signal. As equipment turns on look for any warning or clues that will get you closer to solving the issue.
6. Check cables, patch and adapters are connected. Ensure all cables are seated properly at all connection points, look for loose connections and physical damage at the heads of cables like missing tabs, bad pins, etc.. as well as damage to the cable such as cuts and kinks. If you do find any damaged cables replace the cable and follow the faulty equipment procedure in this document.
7. Isolate the problem. If the problem persists you want to start narrowing down what the issue could be. The best way to do that is eliminating what is not causing the problem. Do this by using something that will generate a source. bypass everything in the system and plug the item you are using as a source directly into the final signal piece of equipment. If you get signal output as desired, you know that piece in the chain is not the problem. Repeat the same process adding the next component between the source and signal until you find the point in the system that fails once you put it back in line. Once this happens you have most likely found the problem or part of the problem. There might be more than one problem in the system, continue testing until you isolate all issues in the system.
8. Check input and output connections. Once you have isolated where the issues is in the system check to make sure that you are connecting to other devices through the proper inputs and outputs.
9. Factory reset. Sometimes equipment such as production switchers, mixers or even tv monitors can have been used in a not standard way from previous use. It often helps to factory reset the piece of equipment to its factory setting to clear any setting which might be causing a problem.
10. Set and recheck your settings. After you factory reset a device you may need to adjust the setting. Ensure all setting are correct.
11. Get help. If you are still having issues or are unsure of anything get support. There are many ways to get support bellow are a few resource you can use while on site.
12. Ask a supervisor for help Ask other onsite technicians Call an offsite technician Read the manual Search user forms online for solutions Call the manufacturer support line Call the Quest Audio Visual 24-hour emergency line 12. Replace the item. The last option is to replace the faulty item.

Faulty equipment received

Never assume any piece of equipment is faulty. It could be a simple thing like a bad cable, wrong settings, or user error. If you do determine a piece of equipment is faulty either by signs of obvious damage or by follow the steps laid out in the Troubleshooting section in this document, please take the following steps.

1. Determine whether you can get by and not sacrifice safety, the event and deliver on the client’s expectations without having the item sent down. If you still need the item sent down, go to the next step.
2. To avoid multiple truck runs, find out if anyone else on the crew is missing anything they need.
3. Call the Quest Audio Visual-24 hour phone line and explain the situation. Please be detailed describing what you need, the steps you have already taken and how much time there is to get the item to job site.
4. Fill out a Quest Audio Visual faulty equipment form and tape it to the case that the faulty equipment is put back into. Quest Audio Visual faulty equipment form can be found in the show folder.
5. Clearly mark the faulty equipment with a faulty equipment sticker. Quest Audio visual sticker can be found in the show folder. If no sticker is available use tape and mark “NFG”.
6. Keep in contact with 24-hour line to ensure you get the item as quickly as possible.

Providing exceptional customer service

As Quest Audio Visual on site personal, you are often asked to show customers how to use equipment, coordinate your efforts with other event staff, and meet the needs of customers.

Quest Audio Visual expects its onsite personal to always provide exceptional customer service. To provide exceptional service, you must have both strong technical skills and equally strong customer service skills.

Quest Audio Visual customers work next to you, forward phone calls to you, and ask for your assistance every day. In one way or another, everyone you interact with is or potentially is a Quest Audio Visual customer – meaning everyone deserves exceptional customer service from you.

Excellent customer service is a sign of true professionalism. Professionalism takes thoughtful consideration, so be mindful of it in every customer interaction you have. Remember that positive body language and how you interact non-verbally with the client is very important. Ultimately, your customers will have more confidence in your abilities, and you will enhance the reputation of Quest Audio Visual as a whole.