Merry Christmas and goodbye 2020!

May your days be filled with peace, hope,
and joy this Christmas season.

It’s that time of the year again where I (Duh, the Lamb) (And Darcy the ridiculous Dog-- I like to think I’ve been more involved with the company this year, so I’ve added some edits to try to compensate for Duh’s un-baa-rable humor.) try to give you a quick update about what happened here at Lambda throughout these last 1,460 days of 2020. ​

The new year started with a baa-ng for Lambda. We moved into our new shop (after getting a new woof) and before we knew it, the shelves were filled with equipment and for the first time, Trevor was warm, Ryan wasn’t allowed to put car parts on the floor and nobody had to crawl into the attic to get to their desk. There’s more coffee than anyone should drink, fluffy blankets and a highly debated microwave rule…

This year brought some unexpected changes for Lambda, but we wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who kept us going! We couldn’t have made it through this year without you and we hope the service and content we’ve worked to create has made a difference for your business too! Here’s to next year!

With every changing day, Lambda has worked hard to make the changes necessary to meet safety guidelines this year. We know our Christmas letter is wildly popular, so, in honor Covid and the spirit of trying to social distance and quarantine, the jokes herein will be strictly INSIDE jokes. Stay safe! We’ll always be here for ewe.

At the end of 2019 we were about to start a huge install at Summit Church in Colorado. We had already spent months designing, ordering and building the system, so when January came around the entire month was scheduled out for the actual install. If you didn’t see some of the system highlights, be sure to check out our blog! We got to play with all the fun things for this one!
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As we moved into February, we finished up a portable church system for New Life East. It was such a success, we’re building another one exactly like it. Lambda finished up Summit Church and moved straight into a projection upgrade for The River Church in Durango. It was fun to see the difference and visual improvement in their room.

Another significant milestone for Lambda happened in February. Lambda went from contracting out their work to hiring our first employees! Jewell was a good choice, obviously, as she’s been the employee of the month by a lamb-slide ever since (and can we mention the classy pumpkin spice candles?). Trevor, as it turns out, is the Most Interesting Man and has some hidden talent (Have you seen Lambda produced advert???). Later in the month, Matt joined the flock bringing muffins and graphics to the team. Now that Lambda has actual employees, the HR department has been busy. I hear Covid needed a mask when it met Chuck Norris. Too bad we didn’t hire him too.

And now we’ve come to March…you know what happened in March. The end. 2020 got a virus; one we couldn’t uninstall. And we’ve looked into the reset button; the Science is impossible!

**Oh, March was my most favorite month ever! Duh can be such a wet wool blanket sometimes. My best life was during quarantine! My humans didn’t leave for weeks and they were so bored I convinced them to feed me dinner in courses. It’ll be fun, I said! It’s just temporary, I said! I won’t get spoiled, I said! Ah, the Covid life for me!

Anyway, the lockdown was great for those who were looking to gain quarantine 15, but some of us in the company still had work to do. In only a week before we were shut down, we were able to get nine churches set up with video and streaming for the first time ever. The team then spent the shutdown writing tech tips for streaming, taking support phone calls, and most importantly spending time doing training. And we may have had a case or two of Corona…the beer that is. After all, it is 5 o’clock somewhere.

When April rolled around, what is usually a very busy Easter season, was quiet. We continued to expand our online services offering easy scheduling for video support calls with a tech and coming up with a plan to reopen. As soon as the lockdown lifted we installed more video systems for Forestgate Presbyterian, Centerpoint Community, Austin Bluffs Evangelical, as well as several schools throughout District 20. We continued working with clients, adding an LED wall in California with PixelPro, and adding more video and streaming options for the Navigators and Mountainview Christian.

Which of us is the most boring? The Lamb…Duh…
As June approached, we had run into a problem. Due to the shutdown and the high work restrictions the manufacturing industry was hit hard. Not only were they months behind in production, but the entire country had placed orders for AV equipment. Backorders were longer than the line for toilet paper at Costco. 

While we waited on bigger pieces, we started drawing designs and fixing more technical problems to keep systems going while we waited for gear. It took a while to get gear in, but by July we were able to help Village Seven Presbyterian Church and Austin Bluffs create their own broadcast rooms. They wanted to take their new video gear seriously and saw the benefit of building a solid base for their teams to work from for years to come.

In August we rushed to put together another portable church system for Zeal church and helped to launch the startup. The team also created awesome instructional cards for their volunteers to set up the equipment. If you haven’t seen or herd of the resources or booklets Lambda has put together this year, you’re missing out! They are, as I like to say, very cashmere. The finest wool get anywhere. Check out our resources page on our website today.

As schools looked towards starting their next semester, we helped them install new projectors and provided several service calls to make sure everything was ready to go. We also had a pretty unusual day. We made a sale to NASA! Ah, yes, putting our men on the moon, no big deal. What would have made it better? If we could have sold them a Constellation.

September brought the launch of Zeal church with training sessions and also an increased need for tech staffing at a few locations. Ryan thought it would be a good opportunity to try to train our Admin, Jewell, on the basics of camera operation. Personally, after watching the filming day of Lambda Support adverts, he’s right, she has a long way to go before reaching AV nerd status. ​

In October we had fun working for D38 school board and helped them enhance their streaming and setup for virtual meetings. HR and Admin also had to declare an indefinite state of emergency at the shop in order to use the microwave without Alexa. It was hard for some to accept, but for the wellbeing of all, it needed to happen. And let’s not forget when Ahab the service vehicle got to take Admin out on the town. The Admin figured making some deliveries with Ahab, with his Taco Bell odor, wouldn’t be very fun, but to her surprise they got along very well. I’m only slightly jealous I couldn’t go too.

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When November rolled around we finally started receiving some of the equipment we had ordered and were able to schedule two important jobs for the beginning of December. The first was a major video upgrade for New Life church and the second was a complete video system upgrade for Mountain Springs Church. Just in time for Christmas! Though they both still have to wait for more cameras to arrive, we were excited to get them a usable, updated system to use for their Christmas services.

Business looked different for everyone this year, but we are thankful we were able to help keep people connected virtually this year and for everyone who chose Lambda AV. We hope you stay safe and healthy and we wish you the Merriest Christmas!! See you next year!

Duh, the Lamb (And Darcy)

For the whole Lambda Team
Fleece Navidad!