The "help" were from "Branding by Air" and were just there as part of the inspection. They were just checking the tension on the "emergency release line" as this the first flying of this banner and it tends to stretch.
I fly for Redding Air Service out of Northern California, we had numerous obligations in the LA basin and flew the helicopter down for them. (Our helicopters do very little work in Redding--we tend to be all over the country, Redding is just our home base)I am now in Salt Lake City with that helicopter.