[Doctor Internet]

Event Technicians General Chat - Version Coil your Cables.
Being a event technician, whether part time, full time, or just for one show is great fun. It doesn't matter if you're stage, LX or sound, for most shows, everyone gets on and has a great time.

The definitive list of what not to do.

The Parcan Fryup.


How to mic up an amp.


Outdoor Lighting.


The golden rules.
Sound

• Turn your headphones DOWN before adjusting any setting, otherwise you'll blow your ears off (speaking from experience)
  
• Mute then fader. Unmute your channel, with your fader at 0, then increase your channel volume.
  
• You're never prepared for the drunk idiot who says "Hey I have one of these." and starts messing with your channels.
  

Lighting

• If your rigger is bad, wear hard-hats.
  
• Don't worry if the audience can't see, if there's a lot of light and good sound, they don't give a shit.
  
• If it doesn't work, check the patch.
  

Stage

• The amp is always heavier on the night.
  
• Requirements for band members can (and will) change on the night - Keep spares.
  
• If batteries can run out, they will.
  
• If a mic-stand can droop, it will.
  

What are the jobs?
Depending on how big your place is, there'll be a variety of jobs.

• Rigger - Getting the lights hung and focused.
  
• LXO / LBO (Electrics / Lighting Board Operator) - Programming and running the desk.
  
• Lighting Designer - The guy who points and says "I want rose-purple-yellow-green light at that exact spot with a focus if 59 degrees.".
  
• Chief Electrician - Fancy title. They run the lighting.
  
• Sound Board Op - Makes sure that the band can be FUCKING HELL MY EARS.
  
• Monitor Op - A Sound Board Op that works with the monitors for the bands.
  
• Radio Mic Operator - Makes sure the radios mics are operational.
  
• Stage Crew / Stagehand - Moves shit on stage / Builds the stage / Destroys the stage.
  
• Stage Manager - Runs around making sure everyone and everything is working.
  
• Asst. Stage Manager - Runs around making sure people are doing what the SM told them to do.
  
• Tech Director - Sits around drinking heavily.
  

Of course, in smaller places, these jobs will be rolled into one.
For example, in my place, I am the Rigger, LBO, Lighting Designer and Chief Electrician, and the other tech is the Sound Board Op, Monitor Op, Radio Mic Op and also a rigger.

Standard Brands/Equipment
Lighting
In lighting, you get 5 main types of "dumb" light: Flood, Par, Fresnel, Spot / Profile, Followspot.
Par (Can)

The Par Can is the most simple fixture. It's a PAR lamp, inside a can. Hence, Par Can.
The width of the beam is decided by the lamp, so to change the beam shape, you have to change the lamp inside the can.

Floodlight

The floodlight is used for "flooding" an area with "light". They often have room for colours / gobos, but provide large amounts of light across large sections of stage.

Fresnel

The Fresnel is used as a mid-range between profiles and floods. They have some control over their direction and beamshape, but less than a profile.

Profile/Spot

The profile has the most control. You can adjust the focus with one knob, the zoom with another, the shape of the beam with the "barn doors" (the four handles halfway down), as well as putting gobos / colours on the end.

Equipment
Your Desk is one of the most important bits of equipment you'll use. Learn it and respect it, and it will reward you. Unless your Desk is a Jester Zero88, in which case it will fuck you over.

Jester
Jester are a good company, for basic equipment. They sell a 24/48 (24 channels per row, 48 dimmable channels) desk with a good number of features for around £1000, and a 24/48-30 Motor Desk (24/48, 30 assignable fixtures, which can be motor lights or regular lamps or whatever) for £2000. That being said, whilst good for the price, they are limited on the features (not supporting the full DMX-MIDI specification, poor handling of effects / chases)

ETC
ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls) do good stuff. I've used their Element console, and my god. It's a joy to work with. That being said, they are more expensive than the Jesters, with their Element retailing at around £5000.

Avolites
I haven't used them personally, but I know people who rave about them. Then again, they are top of the range, with their Arena console selling at £15,000.

Sound Desks
Ey, don't think I forgot about you sound guys.

Behringer
It's good value for money, if it works. Behringer makes all sorts of shit, from studio gear to live. One of the main consoles is the X32, a 40 input, 18 output, 25 bus, 25 fader digital desk. It currently retails for around £2000, but is a good console. Unless it breaks... Or someone breaks it Ey @Barkles

Soundcraft
Under-appreciated, their analogue consoles are some of the best if you're on a budget, but also scaling well to higher price-points.

Mackie
Mackie made the best studio desk, the 32.8.2, 32 channel, 8 bus, 2 output mixing desk. It had two routes through the desk, which you could assign to two different inputs. A really nice idea, as it allowed mixing and mixdown on the same desk...

Allen and Heath
A&H make the best sound desks. No argument.
I've used a GL-2800 that's been in a cupboard for five years, and it works perfectly. High build quality, good designs, and the best digital desks on the market, with the GLD series, the (now ended) iLive series,
and the new dLive series.

In terms of competitors, the only people who come close for digital desks are Yamaha.

And finally.
Oh, you got to the end? Didn't expect that. Uh...

Got anything to say to Event Techs? A thank you for getting your event running. Complaints about how we're all a bunch of uptight assholes who yell at you for playing with our equipment when it's worth more than your house? Trying to get into Event Techy'ing but don't know how to? Please, post a reply.

[Barkles]

Internet you've written a very long thread that 99.99% of people have no idea what you mean LMFAO

None the less I admire the dedication

[Dick]

Just looking at the images and not reading any of it, it's basically telling my your very expensive hobos by using like propane casisters to heat food and have expensive sound/lighting equipment for some reason.

[Barkles]

Just looking at the images and not reading any of it, it's basically telling my your very expensive hobos by using like propane casisters to heat food and have expensive sound/lighting equipment for some reason.

You can earn more working in Tesco a lot of the time so yeah that's accurate

[Doctor Internet]

Look again @"Sours". That's not a propane canister. That's a Par Can.

[Dick]

Same thing

[Doctor Internet]

:o

I'll have you know good Sir, they are not the same thing.
A Par Can will output 1000W of power. That would heat 1kg of water up by 1 degree every 4.2 seconds. That's boiling your a litre of water in 5 minutes!

On the flip side, a good gas cooker has an average power output of 3kW. Consider it this way, if you divide the power output by the energy density of propane, you'd find a number. I don't have any paper, so I won't bother finding out how much money you're wasting using propane vs heating everything on a light.

~~Science~~

[Dick]

stfu internet. <3

[Night]

Sours, don't be rude.

Well done Internet. I for one - oh who am I kidding, I understand none of this :^)

[Jen]

I do LX myself.

And it is the same as for sound there is always that drunken person that "Has one at home" and messes about with it.

Checklist for rigging
-Is it safe
-Will it burn
-Is it good enough
-Does it do the job
-Does it actually work

And as for patching

What ever looks good and sounds right, and if the director isn't shouting at you with "Why aren't you doing that" then you are probably doing it right.

As for the performance

-Final checks
-Tea and cake
-Script
-Quick run though the scene lights
-Head Test
-Comms Check

And just give it a shot.

[Doctor Internet]

I do LX myself.

And it is the same as for sound there is always that drunken person that "Has one at home" and messes about with it.

Checklist for rigging
-Is it safe
-Will it burn
-Is it good enough
-Does it do the job
-Does it actually work

And as for patching

What ever looks good and sounds right, and if the director isn't shouting at you with "Why aren't you doing that" then you are probably doing it right.

As for the performance

-Final checks
-Tea and cake
-Script
-Quick run though the scene lights
-Head Test
-Comms Check

And just give it a shot.

LX rules, SFX drools (sorry barky).
In all seriousness, I'm in work today, so I'll grab some pictures of our kit while I'm there.

It's amazing what sort of stuff you can pull off with terrible equipment.

---

As with the drunk guy, I was observing a BETC Level 3 Music Tech class. They had to use a A&H PA12 to rig up a "simple" PA (LCR, Mono FB, Mic + Stereo Backing Track Input, Outboard Effects)

The first thing the teacher did was walk over to me and say "You used the board last, and didn't bother zeroing it. Go mad."
Fucked up everything on the desk, except the Pan, which I set to hard left (which looks like 0 for any other rotary, I am a devious swine.)

Then he took half the class outside, and said "You're at a big festival. You are the manager of the band. You are the H&S rep. You are a lighting tech... The rest of you are drunk. Have fun."
The other half of the class had to setup this PA, whilst being harassed by these "drunk" people, with the manager just going "Yeah yeah, he can't hear himself mate. Nah mate, sounds a bit shit."

Then half way through setting up, one of the crew didn't squat to pick up the speakers, and the "H&S rep" started yelling at him about proper lifting technique.

Took them 20 minutes to work out I'd hit the bypass switch on the external compressor.

Amazing class, hilarity to observe, but also great for teaching you what happens in the real world.

[Doctor Internet]

@"Sours".
A 300ml cup of water (standard cup of tea) contains 0.3kg of water, and is around 20 degrees. To get to boiling point, it requires 100 kJ (0.3kg * 70degrees * 4200J/degree/kg).

This means that a 1kW Par will take 100 seconds to boil your cup of tea (a touch under two minutes), and use around 0.03 kWh of energy to do it.
British Gas's standard energy tariff is 14p per kWh. This means that your cup of tea cost you 0.4p. Damn inflation.

Now, let's look at a gas burner.
We already know our energy.
Energy / Energy Density = Mass Burnt.
100x10^3 / 46.4x10^6 = 0.002
6kg of Calor propane is £21, so gas costs £3.50/kg.
£3.50/kg * 0.002kg = £0.007 = 0.7p

So take that @"Sours". Using our lighting equipment as a cooker is cheaper than using a gas burner. Science!

[Riggs]

I have a little bit of Event Lighting

[Doctor Internet]

I have a little bit of Event Lighting

I've moved up from lighting tech to SM, which is quite nice for me at this point.

[richie]

ok u are light man well done we don't care <3

joking don't warn me jesus