PERG Newsletter: January 2025

     

| PERG News: January 2025 | 

In This Issue:

PERG Updates

RENTAL GUARD, Coffee Breaks, PERG Calendar events, Protocol and more. Read more...

Letter from the PERG Chair

PERG extends our heartfelt support and solidarity to all those who continue to be affected by the devastating situation in California. Read more...

Identity Verification, ESTA Announces Major New Member Benefit

Plaid’s slogan is, “More customers, minus the fraudsters.” Plaid uses a streamlined process that takes only a couple minutes and provides information that can tell you if a new "customer" is a risk. Read more...

Thoughts About PERG in 2025

Now, more than ever, it's vital that the rental industry come together as a community. I am inviting you to join us at our live events at NAB, Cine Gear, and our other events, where we can connect face to face, share insights, and discuss the anticipated return of our industry. Read more...

The Return of Ryan Roman and Other Reasons to Use the QCA

Ryan Roman’s name appears in sixteen different reports on RENTAL GUARD. He is what you might call a regular. Between June 2022 and 2023 Roman tried to hit almost every rental company out there. Read more...

PERG Member Survey

PERG ran a six-question member survey between Jan 7 and Jan 21 for the purpose of getting member input on PERG programing for 2025. There were 38 respondents to the survey. Here’s what we found out. Read more...

EWI Candidates Turn Learned Skills into New Careers
EWI Candidates Turn Learned Skills into New Careers by EWI Coordinator, Alison Cupples, was published in Protocol, Winter 2025. EWI is about to begin its third year providing grants to rental companies and bringing diverse employees into the workforce. Read more...

In Protocol:

• Getting to net zero production: part 1 by Guy Holt
  Given the climate emergency, getting to net zero in the production of entertainment events must be a top priority. Read more in Protocol...

• Getting to net zero production: part 2 by Guy Holt
  In part one of this series, we discovered that it is possible to get to net zero production with battery energy storage systems (BESSs) that can be paralleled to increase capacity and runtime. Read more in Protocol...

BTS Announces New Webinar on Dealing with Substance Use in the Workplace

The Behind the Scenes Mental Health Initiative announces a new webinar Dealing with Substance Use in the Workplace: Why and How We Should Help. Read more...

PERG Updates

| PERG News: January 2025 |

 

PERG Coffee Break - Sony BURANO Firmware Version 2

February 5th, 10 am Pacific, 11 am Mountain, 12 pm Central, 1 pm Eastern

Join us as Sony gives PERG members a preview of the BURANO’s new firmware coming in March. BURANO Version 2.0 will include additional recording modes, added support for SDI output, proxy recording and more. Sony’s team will share where the BURANO is currently being used, who has tested the firmware, and more.

[REGISTER]

PERG Public Calendar. Did you hear about a PERG a Coffee Break or a training event or user group meeting, but you don’t know when it is? Check the PERG Public Calendar. 

Suggestions. Did you have an idea you’d like to suggest to PERG? We are all ears. Talk to a peer on the PERG Council or shoot Harry an email or post something on the PERG General Slack channel. Want an invitation to join PERG’s Slack channel? Please contact the PERG Manager.

Did you know? Did you know that you get a subscription to Protocol with your PERG membership? Protocol is a unique quarterly publication—a technical journal for professionals in the entertainment technology industry featuring columns and articles on business, technical topics, standards issues, certification developments, trade shows, and PERG programs. This issue of the PERG Newsletter features two excellent stories from Protocol’s Winter issue. Every member should receive a physical copy of the journal. If you aren't, let us know!

RENTAL GUARD. In our recent survey, 21% of PERG members said they are not sure if everyone at their company is receiving alerts who should be. Over the past two years, many rental companies have had personnel changes. Consequently, PERG deleted RENTAL GUARD accounts that bounced emails. Are the appropriate people at your company still receiving RENTAL GUARD alerts? Go to Missingequipment.org to re-register.

Letter from the PERG Chair

| PERG News: January 2025 |

January 14, 2025

To our friends, members, and colleagues in Los Angeles. The City of Dreams. The City of Angels.

PERG extends our heartfelt support and solidarity to all those who continue to be affected by the devastating situation in California. Our thoughts are with each of you—whether you’re dealing with the impact of the fires directly or standing alongside loved ones and neighbors during this challenging time.

We stand with you in solidarity and are ready to offer any assistance we can, whether that’s through resources, support, or simply being there for one another.

We are PERG. We are community. 

Sally Spaderna,
Koerner Camera.
PERG Chair, 2025

Identity Verification, ESTA Announces Major New Member Benefit

| PERG News: January 2025 |

See a Demonstration at PERG Coffee Break
Until now, sophisticated automated identification verification services have been out of reach for many ESTA/PERG members. Plaid is one of the leading services trusted by over 8000 leading brands. ESTA is thrilled to make the service available and affordable to ESTA members by a special arrangement with Plaid that leverages our collective buying power as a trade association. 

PERG will be hosting a Coffee Break demonstration on February 11th. We’ll demonstrate the verification process, show the results that Plaid provides, and describe the on-boarding process for companies that are interested in having their own Plaid dashboard.

February 11th, 10 am PT, 11am Mountain, 12 pm Central, 1 pm Eastern

[REGISTER]

Level-up Your Fraud-Detection Powers
Plaid’s slogan is, “More customers, minus the fraudsters.” Plaid uses a streamlined process that takes only a couple minutes and provides information that can tell you if a new "customer" is a risk. We are hopeful that access to Plaid will greatly enhance new-customer vetting procedures, save staff time, provide greater peace of mind, and help save companies from serious losses due to fraud. If you detect a bad actor, you can share that information via RENTAL GUARD and benefit the entire community.

What Does Plaid Do and How Does it Work?
The Plaid system confirms a customer’s identity information in less than three minutes, while simultaneously analyzing a wide range of risk signals. These include device and IP checks, email checks, phone checks, stolen and synthetic identity risk scoring, network risk checks, and behavioral analytics. 

To verify a customer, your staff generates a link in Plaid that you email or text to the customer. Plaid uses a photo of the customer’s ID and a selfie to check against regulated data sources. Plaid checks whether email and phone number are new, disposable, or associated with a data breach. It detects the use of VPN or Tor for time zone and geolocation mismatch. It looks for fabricated, manipulated, or stolen identity information. And it performs behavioral analysis on things like typing speed, accuracy, and method of data entry to identify behavior typically associated with risky individuals, fraud rings, or bots.

What do I Get and What does in Cost?
When members enroll, they are provided their own easy-to-use Plaid dashboard, co-branded with your company logo along and ESTA's logo. There is an annual fee of $500 for the account, plus a fee per verification (see below). ESTA creates log-in credentials for as many of your employees as you wish so they each can create verification links and check results. You can customize your company's dashboard with the risk rules you want Plaid to use and set to your risk tolerance level to create a consistent go/no-go determination across your company.

You can send the verification link to the customer via your email client or, for a small additional fee, send the links via SMS via ESTA's SMS service provider. ($5/month, billed quarterly with your verification usage billing).

Fixed Fees

• Plaid Account  $500/yr.
• SMS link sending  $5 per month, billed quarterly (Optional)

Per Use Fees (billed quarterly)

• U.S. IDs  $5/verification
• Canada and UK IDs  $6/verification
• IDs frsom all other countries  $8/verification

In a recent RENTAL GUARD report, a Sony Burano was rented and not returned. The paperwork was flawless, the references checked out, the insurance was verified, and the credit card went through. The reason the rental appeared normal was that the person renting the equipment was using a good fake ID of a real person. A Plaid verification would have identified this fraud. The fraudsters would not even have been able to complete the verification. In fact, it is quite likely that when you tell fraudsters that they need to complete an ID verification, that they will never complete it and just disappear from your Friday afternoon.

Thieves have become better and better and personifying producers. Rental companies need more sophisticated tools to root them out. We are very hopeful that Plaid will give them that boost!  

Thoughts About PERG in 2025

| PERG News: January 2025 |

Now, more than ever, it's vital that the rental industry come together as a community. I am inviting you to join us at our live events at NAB, Cine Gear, and our other events, where we can connect face to face, share insights, and discuss the anticipated return of our industry.

PERG events and meetings provide an invaluable opportunity to hear from one another, share experiences, and think about strategies that can help everyone navigate these challenges. Your participation and insights are crucial as we work towards revitalizing our industry.

PERG’s theme for 2025 is community—the central role of professional rental companies within their production communities. If your marketing folks are posting about an industry event you are hosting, training you are providing, a food drive you are holding, or other leadership you are demonstrating, let PERG know. We want to show how rental companies all over the country serve their communities. We have opened a Slack channel dedicated to communicating with our social media director. Let’s connect.

PERG is eager to reflect and amplify the commitment of our members to their communities because we need our production partners to recognize that there is no substitute for professional customer service, technical knowledge, depth of inventory, and ability to source equipment. There is no replacement for the training and knowledge that the community gains from the rental houses. For many years, rental companies have seen market forces increasingly eating away our resources and threatening the profitability and health of rental businesses. Now is the time that producers, UPMs, DPs and crew recognize that we are their partners in production, that we support them, but that we too have suffered hit after hit over the past few years. We need our partnership to have some give and take. Their expectations of us are high, and so are our expectations of ourselves. But it is more than a possibility that if things go on as they are, there will be a decline in service and consolidation in the industry. We are focused on demonstrating the excellence of our members and working with our partners in a spirit of mutual respect. The rental community has a responsibility to find the right business model to meet our needs while maintaining the culture of excellence that is our guiding principle and that our clients depend on. Navigating this is very tricky, but it is what we must do, for our future, and that of the production community.

The Return of Ryan Roman and Other Reasons to Use the QCA

| PERG News: January 2025 |

Ryan Roman’s name appears in sixteen different reports on RENTAL GUARD. He is what you might call a regular. Between June 2022 and 2023 Roman tried to hit almost every rental company out there. Rental companies know his name, they don’t even have to check RENTAL GUARD’s Watch List. It is like a bad joke that is still being retold again and again. “Oh, not that one again!”

Yet Ryan and other criminals are still making the rounds, renting equipment from small rental companies, private owners, and peer-to-peer marketplaces and disappearing with the equipment. 

Our concern is not that PERG members are going to fall for Roman anymore, but that, given layoffs over the past two years, that rental companies may no longer have their staff registered to get RENTAL GUARD alerts for the NEXT Ryan Roman. I have removed a great many names from RENTAL GUARD’s registry over the past six months because the alert emails were bouncing. Later this year, when the industry starts to get busy again, every rental company will want to have all the appropriate people registered to receive alerts, report questionable customers, and (please no) make theft reports if necessary. You do not want to be hassling with registration when you are dealing with all the fallout of an equipment theft, you just want to make the report.

Many rental companies have joined with local networks to communicate fraud information to other houses they are friendly with. That’s great, as far as it goes. However, to make a real impact on theft, we need the whole industry to be aware of identified threats. We need people in New York to know about the guy who just hit a company in LA (or anywhere in between), and vice versa, because he could be at their doorstep tomorrow. The way to do that is by making a Questionable Customer Alert in RENTAL GUARD. 

Theft affects everyone. It affects insurance rates. It affects availability of hard-to-find gear. It makes our industry less profitable. RENTAL GUARD has been successful in enabling companies to avoid fraud, to involve law enforcement, and sometimes to even recover equipment and make arrests. Companies can push back in a meaningful way when we work together. The way to handle theft that involves the least cost and hardship is to avoid it in the first place. Everyone knows, once the equipment is out the door, the chance of recovery drops significantly. For this reason, the Questionable Customer Alert is probably the most important feature of RENTAL GUARD. We urge everyone to use it whenever you reject a client because they seem suspicious.

If you are not a member of PERG, consider joining so you can access the member-only fraud detection features of RENTAL GUARD (among other reasons!).

PERG Member Survey

| PERG News: January 2025 |

PERG ran a six-question member survey between Jan 7 and Jan 21 for the purpose of getting member input on PERG programing for 2025. There were 38 respondents to the survey. Thanks to all those who participated! Your input is essential and appreciated!

Here’s what we found out.

NAB. 45% of people who normally attend NAB plan to attend this year. 26% who normally attend say they will not be there this year.

Cine Gear. 66% of people who normally attend Cine Gear plan to go this year. 13% who normally attend say they will not be there this year.

Coffee Break Ideas. We asked for your ideas for possible PERG Coffee Breaks. Here are some of the ideas we received: 

• Emerging software and A.I. tools, technological advancements for the rental industry, and how the technology will shape the future of rentals
• Cooperation among competition, market consolidation. Strategic alliance professionals. It’s time that rental houses start to merge in order to remain strong in an ever-challenging industry.
• Fighting fraud, fraud trends, and evolution 
• Crew Gear. The eleven-hundred-pound gorilla in the room. Evaporating rental house revenue as a result of third party supplied gear.
• State of production in So. Cal. Effect of fires on production in So. Cal.
• Inventory management systems
• New equipment, technical updates, and technology trends
• Continued Rental Works User Group meetings
• Now when the industry seems to be changing so dramatically, it would be helpful to hear from industry visionaries as to what the road ahead might look like.
• Ensuring film/tv production remains in the US and avoids going abroad for cost or logistic reasons.
• Career change opportunities… within the industry or in order to leave it. AI training and support.
• Current Industry status, news, and ideas
• New battery technology for lighting. Address lifecycle (longevity of product), care, compatibility issues, user training, etc.
• Focus on lighting & grip
• Business practices
• Production Safety
• Healthcare for employees
• Ways that member companies are driving revenue and business health outside of Film/TV
• Insurance and Rental Contracts
• Focus on Camera Gear
• Focus on Lenses
• Employment issues
• What is most important to customers when working with suppliers
• Industry equipment QC processes
• Vetting unknown rental customers techniques 
• How much insurance do rental houses really need 
• Dealing with influx of owner operator equipment and rental house equipment.
• Speakers are not important to us. Just look forward to seeing everyone.
• Equipment manufacturers experts presenting a look "under the hood" as to how to maintain and optimize life expectancy of their offerings.

Plaid. Rate your interest in having access to Plaid Identity Verification service. Overall, 74% if respondents were very interested or extremely interested.

•  32% Extremely interested
•  42% Very interested
•  18% Somewhat interested
•  8% Not at all interested

PERG EWI. If PERG launches a new round of grants in April, how likely is your company be hiring in Q2 and Q3 and to apply to participate in EWI?

• 6 companies say they will apply.
• 10 companies say they are likely to apply.
• 22 companies are not likely or will not apply.

RENTAL GUARD. Are the appropriate people at your company still receiving RENTAL GUARD alerts?

• 21% are not sure if everyone is receiving alerts who should be.
  (Go to Missingequipment.org to re-register.) 
• 66% said the appropriate people are receiving alerts

EWI Candidates Turn Learned Skills into New Careers

| PERG News: January 2025 |

EWI Candidates Turn Learned Skills into New Careers by EWI Coordinator, Alison Cupples, was published in Protocol, Winter 2025. EWI is about to begin its third year providing grants to rental companies and bringing diverse employees into the workforce. Netflix, the program’s sponsor, has committed to continuing the program through 2025. The new round of grants will be launched in April at NAB. Rental companies are encouraged to sign up NOW, if you may be hiring in the 3rd or 4th quarters of 2025 and interested in participating in EWI. 

[Read the article in Protocol.] 

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BTS Announces New Webinar on Dealing with Substance Use in the Workplace

| PERG News: January 2025 |

The Behind the Scenes Mental Health Initiative announces a new webinar Dealing with Substance Use in the Workplace: Why and How We Should Help. 

We have all come across a situation where someone you worked with showed clear signs of problematic use of drugs or alcohol in the workplace. Have you wondered why you might want to help – and how you could help? Have you wondered if you have obligations based on your position? This webinar, developed by our Substance Use Task Group, will provide answers to some of these questions and help prepare you to take positive action. 

Substance misuse has reached epidemic proportions in our society and in our industry. If you haven’t already, it’s very likely you will encounter someone with this problem in your workplace – it could be anyone: a co-worker, a manager, someone who reports to you.

• Do you know how to recognize the signs and symptoms?
• Do you know why you should start a conversation with them and how to do so?
• Do you know the resources and treatment options available?

This interactive webinar, developed by industry professionals with lived experience and an addiction specialist, offers tips and tools to assist you in responding to this situation.  

Topics include:

• Why you should help
• What is addiction and how to recognize the signs and symptoms
• Having a conversation with the person you are concerned about
• Following up with treatment options and industry resources
• What if the person doesn’t want to stop?
• Brief overview of union and employer obligations

The webinar will be held on Monday, February 10th at 7pm EST. Please register in advance to be sent the login link at btshelp.org/workplace. 

You can see all the Behind the Scenes resources on alcohol and substance misuse at btshelp.org/substanceuse.