Welcome to episode one 40 of the Mods Scenes podcast. This is your host, Stephen, and I’m thrilled to be chatting with you today about stage backdrops. And specifically today, I want to talk about modular stage backdrops and, uh, one of our competitors, atomic design. So atomic design is a great company they’re based out of Lititz Pennsylvania, and they’ve got a couple of, uh, locations around the world. Uh, they really do have an incredible product. Um, they have great designers and I honestly, uh, love some of the stuff they create. Um, obviously the two of us create different things, uh, but I want to kind of go over some of their hardware and specifically how it works and, uh, how their processes are a little bit different than monsoons, uh, um, based on my personal experience of using their product. Um, just to give you a little bit of insight between the two of us, uh, so you can make your best decision when looking to rent a, uh, stage backdrops.
Uh, one of the big things that distinguishes us from our competition is the fact that you can purchase your stage backdrops. Uh, atomic design, uh, does not do purchasing on their products. They only do rentals. Uh, so it’s a, uh, which is great if you just want to use it once in a blue moon. Uh, however, if it’s something you’re going to use on a tour or use multiple times in a row, uh, typically purchasing is a better option, uh, or at least a more cost effective option. Um, so, uh, let’s, let’s jump into the hardware a little bit. So, uh, atomic has a really cool hardware system. Uh, their hardware system uses a compression latch. Uh, so it is a, uh, it’s a metal, it’s a metal bracket. Um, and then on the bolt, there’s a bolt that goes through it that has a rubber washer on it.
And on the back, it has a little, uh, catch a little like a electronics latch. So you push that connector through the front of your payment, through the back of your panels, and then you flip over the latch and it walks it all together, uh, which works pretty well. Uh, one thing that I, uh, I have found can be an issue with it, however, is corners. So like three-way corners. So like the top of a tower or the, the corner of a wall segment, um, those latches can be difficult to overlap sometimes. So if you try to, you know, you do your first two and it’s pretty easy, and then your third one, it’s hard to actually get a lap latched and, uh, and, uh, completely, uh, enclosed so that, uh, so that the it’s a fully locked in, um, because there’s just not enough physical room for those to overlap very well there.
Um, so whereas our hardware, our, our corner connectors, for example, uh, so they’re, uh, they’re in a fire rated plastic and in that fire rate of plastic there’s bolts that are made, they’re made into the plastic, uh, the plastics clear. So the connectors are clear. Um, so you can see through the connector, that’s another difference between ours and Atomics hardware. Tom’s hardware is all painted white, uh, which is cool. Um, but obviously if you use it in place where there is, you might potentially see it, um, it’s a negative, I would, I would say. Um, but, uh, with our, with our corner connector, for example, so our corner connector, you don’t run into the same issues of not having enough room to bolt everything together, uh, to, to put everything together. Um, for example, the, uh, our corners, uh, actually sit up in the corner of the panels and our bolts push through the panel.
And on the outside edge, you tighten down a cabinet. So, uh, from a visual, it looks almost the same, uh, but the process gives you a lot more control over making sure that, uh, making sure that you have enough room you’re, you’re not trying to fight it to get it together. Um, so yeah, so that’s one, uh, one big difference. Uh, another difference is, uh, floor basis. So, uh, atomic uses four bases with all of their products. So in order to be able to use a atomic, uh, tower, let’s use a wall base or a floor base, uh, with our products, we don’t actually have it set up that way you can use it with or without, uh, which makes it, uh, easy if you’re, especially if you’re looking to do something super lightweight, uh, and be able to move it and ship it, uh, pretty easily.
Um, we also do offer a four base, however, uh, one of the cool things that’s a difference about our four basis is, uh, like our tower basis. For example, they have a pre pre drilled holes for, uh, 20.5 and 12 inch trust. So, um, you can actually take our, uh, you can take our products, our towers, and you can either set them, you know, set them on the ground and put a truss up through the center of them. Um, you can put a truss up through the center of them to be able to put a light on top of or say, um, or something like that. Or you can also take the, uh, uh, take our tower basis birthday. So hanging them instead of, uh, instead of actually using them as tower basis. So they will work as a, uh, uh, as your starting point for a, uh, for a tower.
So you can hang those, uh, directly. So you have a 20 foot tall, 20.5 by 20.5 trust. That’s obviously a pretty big trust. It’s pretty tall. Um, and so you want to cover the whole thing. You can use that tower base at the top, flipped upside down and bolted on to the trust to just build your scenic straight down, and then your trust acts as your structure for that. So, theoretically your limit is the height of your trust. So based on the height of your trust is how tall you can actually go with, um, with your towers. So that’s a pretty cool, uh, unique feature. Uh, there’s also drill holes, uh, for you to be able to, um, to add on weights to your basis. So say you’re in a place where it’s, uh, it’s really windy, or you have somebody who’s really concerned about potential of something being knocked over by both say, uh, a rowdy participant, uh, you know, say it’s a game show or something on, on TV, whatever it, whatever it might be.
Um, you can actually, we have a, we have a bolt that set to the center that is works perfectly for adding on additional weight. Uh, so typically we’ll use like a heavy duty pipe and drape base. We’ll just put a single bolt right through the center there and tie it into the pipe and drape base. And we can easily add, you know, 50, 75 pounds to our tower base, uh, without having to ship it. Uh, we’ll just get the base locally from, you know, in house AB or from a lot of people already have that in their inventory. So they’ll just throw an extra one on, uh, or typically, you know, if you’re working with a plaster or another company, a lot of times they’ll lend you a base. Uh, so I hope that’s, uh, that, that shares a little, but, uh, um, of, uh, of the details.
Let’s see, what else? Um, so, uh, Atomics material, let’s, let’s chat about that a little bit. So, uh, we, we just, cause there are connected differences, a little bit discuss their bases a little bit. Uh, let’s talk about their materials. So there, so atomic design uses a, uh, like tannish material. So it’s an off-white, it’s not actually a true white, uh, so which is, uh, good in the fact that, um, it’s good in the fact that, you know, if you get a little bit of dirt on it, it’s not that big a deal because it’s already kind of gray, uh, like a grayish tan. It’s hard to just, it’s, it’s kind of like a grayish, it’s not really quite tan, but, uh, so that’s grayish color, you know, it takes dirt better. Uh, but we, uh, with our products and stage backdrops, we actually go through clean every single product when it comes back every single time, uh, in our products, uh, like a true white.
So, uh, you get a brighter, a brighter look with our products. Uh, they reflect more light. Um, they do show, uh, they do show like dirt more. Um, but so, and she’d get them directly from us. It should be no problem. Uh, and if you purchase them and you want to clean them yourselves, uh, we’ve got a couple of simple ways to do that. You can just use a magic eraser, what at a little bit, um, and most dirt and dust and debris and, uh, will come off, uh, oils even should come off, uh, as long as it’s not like tons of motor grease. Um, and with that, you can take it off with like a, a simple solvent, uh, and then clean it with the, um, the magical racer afterwards. So, uh, I don’t, I don’t personally know how you would clean an atomic panel, um, because I haven’t used one, I would assume that using a magic eraser is going to change that gray color a little bit, but I don’t really know to be honest.
Um, so I can’t talk, uh, knowledgeably to that. Um, uh, let’s see. Uh, so what else can I tell you about atomic design? So atomic design, uh, we are differentiated a little bit by our customer service, so, uh, atomic design and does huge shows. So, uh, they do the VMAX, they do, um, tons of different tours. They do large custom events. Uh, like one of the gals they do is the Robin hood gala, um, tons and tons and tons of large corporate stuff. Um, which is great. Uh, however, uh, because of that, a lot of times, uh, smaller and mid level clients kind of get lost in the shuffle a little bit, but in my experience, probably not, probably not all the time and probably not everyone, but I do know on some of my shows, uh, that we’ve used them in the past, uh, before I owned mod scenes that, uh, that was something that happened, uh, and not particularly for me, but for other clients I worked with.
Um, so we do our best to, uh, never let that be. Uh, never let that be a thing. We, uh, uh, we’re typically back to you within a day with a full quote, uh, if there’s ever an issue, we’re happy to fix it. Um, you know, we are human, so we’re not perfect. Uh, but, uh, from what I’ve been told, um, at trade shows and through our customers, our customer service is definitely a couple of steps above. Um, I mean, we strive to be like a luxury five-star hotel. So, um, our goal is to make the entire process for you super easy, um, and super simple and really enjoyable. Uh, we want to put the fun back in stage design. So, uh, another, uh, another difference between us is, uh, anytime atomic is sending a product, they send it via freight. So it’ll go into a large case and go on to a truck.
Uh, so that’s a, that’s a fine way to ship something if you’re shipping a lot of it. Uh, but for us, a lot of times, most of the time we’ll send our stuff via FedEx ground, uh, that makes it a lot easier to receive at the venue. So if that’s a hotel or convention center, it’s a lot easier to receive those FedEx packages. Um, it’s also lot easier to pack up. You don’t have to, uh, put the crate onto a pallet or, or wait for a freight truck, uh, that may or may not have liftgate. Uh, we make sure that everything is easy so that you simply, uh, simply goes out with the FedEx shipments and, uh, return labels are included in the boxes. So you just stick them on and send them right back to us. Uh, so yeah, so that’s a little bit of a difference there.
Um, but yeah, and again, atomic is a fine company. I really love their design stuff. I really love what they do. Uh, we do operate in a little bit different markets as we, we do a lot of corporate events, but we also do a lot of church stage designs. Um, and that’s really, our focus is making sure that we’re serving, uh, churches and to medium clients. Um, so yeah, so I hope this has been a helpful podcast. It’s taught you a little bit about the differences between us. Um, I love for you to, uh, to actually do a comparison for yourself though. I don’t take my word for it. Uh, call atomic, get, get some pricing. Uh, I’d be happy to give you some pricing and lets you do a side-by-side comparison of the products, the pricing. And, uh, I think you’ll see that, uh, at least in my opinion, uh, which I think is bad, which is backed by data.
Our prices are cheaper. Um, our service is great and uh, we really want to help you. So I would love to, uh, to continue a conversation about your next stage design and how we can help you best. Uh, and again, uh, go ahead and compare us, uh, check out atomic design, uh, check out, uh Mazzi and see how we compare. Uh, thanks again for tuning in. And if you have any questions, please shoot us an email and you can email me at Stephen and Mod Scenes, or you can call our office, which is (530) 723-6421. Thank you again for tuning into the Mod Scenes podcast about stage backdrops and have a wonderful day.
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