Almost lost a client's keynote footage at a convention center in Denver

I was editing on-site at the Colorado Convention Center last spring and my external drive got corrupted mid-export. Now I always carry two backup drives plus a laptop copy for every gig. Anyone else have a close call like that at a venue?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan96916d ago

Denver convention center is actually in Denver, not Colorado. But whatever. Lost footage is a nightmare. I had a similar thing happen at a hotel in Chicago. Not corrupted but accidentally formatted the wrong card. Now I do the same thing. Two SSDs. Plus a cloud upload before I even leave the building. Big venues have weird power issues too. Surges happen. Always unplug drives properly before moving. One more tip. Check your cable connections. Loose USB cables look fine but can corrupt mid transfer. I switched to locking cables after losing a wedding reel.

the_alice16d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain on that. I had a similar disaster at a wedding shoot in a hotel ballroom - the power flickered during my transfer and I lost about an hour of ceremony footage. Took me months to rebuild trust with that client. Now I actually bring a small UPS battery backup just for my transfer station. It's saved me twice at venues with iffy wiring. And yes, cable connections are a silent killer. I had a cheap USB cable that looked fine but was intermittent - lost a whole batch of reception photos. Switched to Anker cables after that and never looked back.

ryan_barnes14d ago

The locking cables are a game changer, never thought of that.