Staging Equipment and your Production Team is the foundation for success
“Anything that can go wrong will.”
- Murphy
Have you ever had that sick feeling in your stomach when the presentation does not go right? When you CEO is up at the podium and the sound is lousy, the PowerPoint is not working right and the screen is too dark? And the crew is sitting back reading magazines while your meeting is going down the tubes?
The foundation of a successful meeting is working with top of the line equipment and a top notch production team. There is limited compromise here. The old adage, the chain is as strong as the weakest link was never truer. Yet we see time again, meeting professionals practically ignoring or diminishing the importance of the production team and equipment.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to meet with 40 meeting professionals at an industry round table. I was to address their questions and concerns on audio visual and production. I was not at all surprised when their questions came in the form of complaints about how bad of an experience they had with AV. Their issues were all over the board, but they all had one thing in common – AV was not treated with the same importance as the décor, linens, food & beverage. They chose what seemed to be the cheapest and easiest route.
There is a general sense there is little difference between audio visual equipment and the production crew. Nothing can be further from the truth! There is a right way and there is a wrong way and there is very little forgiveness when the wrong way is unknowing chosen and disaster strikes.
Meetings come in all shapes and sizes. Each meeting poses a series of requirements and constraints which need to be address in order to deliver a flawless event. There are rules of thumb, must most only get you so far and again cannot take into consideration for example, the acoustics in a room.
However, no matter how large or small and meeting is, they all have one thing in common, someone is ultimately responsible for the outcome and results generated from the meeting and their job might be riding on the success of the meeting.
The goal of just about every meeting is to change the way your audience feels about any number of subjects. They walk in the room feeling one way and you hope they walk out the room feeling another way. What happens in between will determine if they walk out feeling the way you want them too and therefore show an ROI from the event.
Let’s take a look at how to avoid disaster and come away looking like a super hero.
Partner with a trusted and experienced Producer. I know this might sound self-serving, but an experienced meeting producer who takes a strong interest in your success is extremely valuable. The Producer is the like the conductor of an orchestra knowing how all the pieces come together to make a perfect show. A Producer is resourceful, connected and knows enough about all aspects of a meeting to hire the right crew for your project. The producer will help keep the project on budget and on time. Bottom line, they are usually the one who is accountable for the success of your event.
Establish a realistic budget for your project and share it, don’t keep it a secret. A meeting is analogous to building a house. You would never ask an architect to draw of plans to build you a house without first providing a budget. Just like designing a house, a 3 hour general session can cost $5,000 to $500,000 and up – way up. It is not based on the number of people sitting in the room or the length of your meeting (but both do impact the budget).
Involve your Producer in the site selection and planning process. Every venue poses constraints which may not suit the needs of your production and dramatically impact your budget. While planning your meeting, your producer will guide you and come up with creative ideas to maximize your budget and stay on target.
Before you sign the contract with the venue, ensure there is enough time for the production team to load all the equipment, set everything up and rehearse. Depending on the size of your event and the amount of production, it can a day to a week to set everything up. The production crew is actually designing and creating a cross between a theater and production studio. Short changing the setup can lead to disaster. Again, your producer can help you if you are not sure.
Be very careful not to compromise on the staging equipment. There are vast differences between just about every piece of equipment used in a meeting. There are way too many variables to cover in this article and once again your producer will be very helpful here. One thing for sure, insist on having back ups wherever possible, especially with the projectors, microphones, computers and video decks.
One of the most frequent questions about the crew I hear is, Why do you need so many people, followed by, why are they so expensive, then, can’t one tech guy just do it all?
If your meeting involves presentations, presenters, audio cues, video cues and lighting cues, you have a LIVE show on your hands. In a live show environment the opportunity for things to go wrong are high. Even the major evening news shows and major productions such as the Academy Awards have their fair share of mistakes.
The production crew is made up of specialists. Each one is a pro in their area. Lighting Directors are not Audio Engineers and a Projectionist is not trained to tune a room for maximum acoustical sound quality. You would never ask your Plummer to carpet your house or allow a flight attendant to fly the plane your on.
Having the best crew of your show is like having an insurance policy. Even in a simple meeting, things go wrong and at that moment what matters most is how quickly with the least amount of distractions can the issue be resolved.
Even if you meeting is small and you are using the venue audio visual department, pay to have a tech assigned to your show exclusively! This will avoid the embarrassing and extremely frustrating situation of waiting for a tech to arrive.
The production team is usually in the background. When everything is going right, nobody really pays attention. A really good team makes it all look so easy. But when it goes bad everyone turns their heads to the tech station in the back of the room.
Allow me to illustrate my point. Once while flying Southwest into San Jose California, the landing was so smooth, you could not tell when we left flight and landed on the ground. I look around the plane. Not a single person nodded with approval, put down the paper or looked at the neighbor and said, “Wow, what a landing, I wonder who is our pilot is?” In other words, not a single person was distracted from what they were doing. The landing was perfect and nobody noticed.
Let’s take a look at the various crew members a live event might have. Each and every show will require different crew, and for the purposes of this article, I am going to address the primary positions.
Producer – the producer is like the conductor of an orchestra. The Producer meets with the client to understand their goals and objective for the event and translates that into a plan and a production. Their job is to pull it all together and to ensure all the pieces fit together, manage the budget and ensure success.
Creative Director – The Creative Director takes the goals for the event, the type of audience, venue and comes up with the theme, logos, treatments, programming, media elements, scenic ideas, color schemes, etc…
Technical Director (TD) – The primary role of the TD is to ensure what is being planned and dreamed up can actually be accomplished successfully. The TD interfaces with the venue, unions, electricians, building engineers, fire marshal and others to ensure success and budget integrity. They create schematics of all aspects of the event. Mundane issues such as cable runs, load-in, dock schedules, safety, and rigging are all managed by the TD. Often times the TD will also “call” or direct the show.
Production Manager/Coordinator. In our organization, this is the main client contact, the keeper of the production book which contains all the details of the event. They interface with the venue, coordinate logistics and too many other things to enumerate in this article. Suffice it to say, my client’s usually call this person “their best friend”.
Lead Audio Engineer or A1 – Bottom line, the A1 is responsible to ensure the sound is as near perfect as possible. Each and every venue and event has different characteristics and therefore requires a plan. The number, type of speakers and placement will make or break a meeting.
Audio Technician or A2 – the A2 usually backs up the A1. Not all events require an A2, however larger the venue and especially the more presenters your program has will determine if you need an A2. This is especially true if there are panels, multiple presenters who are using wireless devices and moving on and off the stage. The A2 will run backup microphones on the stage if there are any issues.
Lighting Director or (LD) – The Lighting Director is an artist and architect with light. Not all meetings require and LD, but when there is a scenic involved and moving lights (also called Intelligent Lighting), an LD is usually also required.
Projectionist – A good projectionist will make the image on the big screens look the best possible and ensure proper running of the projects throughout the event. There have been vast improvements in projection technology, but it is still one of the weaker links and prone to failure (remember to insist on backups!).
Video Engineer – The role and need for a video engineer will depend on the scope and scale of your meeting. For example, if your meeting has multiple tape sources and live cameras, the video engineer works with the many different sources to make them look their best. The video engineer will also work the seamless graphics switcher which switches between computers, video decks and live cameras.
Presentation Specialist – Besides your producer, the presentation specialist will come into the most contact with your speakers and usually the speakers are under duress. Therefore it is critical to have a calm, cool and collect presentation specialist. They will work with the presenters to make last minute changes, respond to requests from the stage and help to keep the presenter on track. For larger shows, you may need more than one person supporting presentations. For example, there might be one person who is just making changes and then sends the presentation to the show computers.
Riggers – You may never see the riggers except on your bill. Due to insurance and other reasons, many venues require the use of their authorized riggers. A rigger hangs or attaches audio visual equipment to points in the ceiling usually using a steel pole or truss. They must also remove it at the end of the show.
Stage Hands – Just like the riggers, you may only see stage hands on your bill since they are long gone by the time the client shows up. Stage hands help to unload the truck and push the equipment from the loading dock to the show area (this may not apply in a union venue). They also help to set up everything, but are usually released until the strike. Stage hands are invaluable to speed the load in and strike process helping to avoid overtime or expediting a shorten load in time.
Summary
Every meeting is a performance and you, your client or your organization is on the stage being examined by the audience. When something goes wrong, at best it is just embarrassing.
I had a client who tried to save money by using an unknown local company. While the CEO was address the audience who was made of employees, the wireless microphone failed. The onsite techs could not fix it and there was not a back up plan in place. The CEO ended up shouting the rest of her presentation.
Recently, we produced an awards show for a significant and prestigious non-profit organization. After the event was over, one of the attendees who were also a sponsor commented to me, “This was one of the best run shows I’ve ever been to. It was like the company who produced the Academy Awards was running it. It was tight, the video and graphics changed seamlessly, the audio was perfect and the lighting was outstanding. There were no distractions whatsoever”.
As a producer of live events, this was music to my ears. And this attendee did not even see the challenging part of this event. The doors opened at 7:00 pm and we did not have access to the room until 2:00 pm. The load-in was very difficult and to make it even more challenging, there was an event with 800 people right before our event!
When something goes wrong with a meeting and it is AV related, it can ruin the event and possibly your job. Let’s face it, if the flower arrangements are not perfect, the meeting will still go on, but if the audio does not work, or your CEO’s slide don’t come up…I think you get my point.
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