Tag Archives: Convention Center Halls

AV Stuff

12 Meeting Rooms, No Waiting

Last month, with a little hole in my schedule, an old work contact brought me in to oversee the set up and running of a small series of technical symposium breakout rooms for a scientific conference in New Orleans.

This Sign points the way to Hall B and 12 constructed rooms for specific topics in science.

Fortunately the scenic company completed the rooms earlier than scheduled so I set to work setting them up. And rather than having to do it in one day we had 2 full days to work on it.

The rooms were all the same. 2 wireless mics, a Allen & Heath digital audio console with a digital stagebox, 4 powered speakers, 16 x 9 Fastfold Screen and Panasonic projector with a very short throw lens.

I split the teams up based on their strengths and we tackled the rooms systematically. 2 people on speaker set up and taping, 2 audio techs working on the wireless and console at the tech table.. 2 video techs working on laptops and projection.

These 12 rooms were handled by a crew of 5, 4 other techs and me. It was fairly simple to keep the presenters happy.

There were a couple challenges as presenters wanted to present from their own laptops for various reasons (mostly having to do with the IT security of their devices) and we faced resolution mismatches on the projectors but once we identified this it was easy enough to correct.

At the end of the event we started to strike the systems as the rooms finished up and by the end we completed the strike 4 hours early freeing up my strike crew for other duties with the larger conference crew.

I don’t usually handle breakout room crews but this gig was a good reminder I could still do it.

Lighting, Uncategorized

Meet the Truck, Find the Gear, Build a Show

Every once in a while I get a call to sub into a load in or a show. Often it’s for a fellow LD that I know well. Sometimes it’s just a random meeting in a convention hall or ballroom.

Early in March I was called into that situation. The LD who was going to run the show couldn’t make the load in because the client moved the date up and he was on another show.
No Problem.

The kind folks who booked me for the show sent me a gear list from the production company. The console was a HOG4 so it was easy to get a patch up. The gear was a mix of moving Wash and Spot fixtures. I asked a few questions of the Production Manager and was off to the races.

We quickly laid out the truss and got it hung and floated.

Laid out the couple dozen strip lights for the drape.

Easy peasy.

Lights on a truss.
Easy enough to build out a plot on a truss.
Lighting

On the Exhibit Floor

Booth Rig Set up

One type of job I’m just getting into is building and focusing booth lighting rigs. It’s a different world when the plot comes from a room somewhere and is clearly the product of hours of phone calls between the booth client, the scenic company building the booth and the in-house lighting design team of a big lighting company. It’s a different way of working that requires you work thoughtfully, collaborate with the scenic team and exercise patience as the elements of the build spring up over the hours it takes to implement a design.

Then it’s time to focus and make the lights work as the designer intended and make the appropriate and necessary changes on the ground.

And then the people come and you do the day to day maintenance of the rig.

I didn’t think I would like doing booths. But they have become a good distraction from the usual General Session days.