Why am I doing this? Years ago I had very little skill at operating and coordinating a productions Live Sound Reinforcement Requirements. Now that I’ve understood and attained skills in handling most production types, I thought I’d share my experience to save you from possible grief in the future.
When I get the call to operate a production, I’d always ask who are the Sound Designer and Production Manager. If the answer is nobody, or the design has been pre planned by someone else, I’ll move on to ask what the system detail/design is.
I’d work backwards from the time scheduled for Sound Check, and plot in the “pre planned” system design. Analysing the channel count; space; and time, I would have a very good idea (based on experience), how much time I’ll need to get the system ready before the artists/presenters arrives to set up for sound check. The idea is to have everything ready BEFORE they arrive, avoiding the situation where everybody is standing on stage waiting for Sound to finish setting up, scrambling to flush through the system checking lines and feedback issues. Continue reading “Budget Time”