My friend Tim Kay and I were on the AV Nation Podcast “The IT Factor” this week, discussing the confluence of AV and IT with regard to live events.
Episode 49 of the AV Nation podcast IT Factor, featuring Tim Kerbavaz and Tim Kay
Talon Tech Tip: The Basics of a Public Address System
I recently received a message from a long-time client asking for help understanding how to amplify voices at a socially-distanced, outdoor event. They knew they because their very small audience was all separated from each other and from the presenters that they needed microphones for their event, but were unsure how all the pieces worked together. This article came out of offering one client some basic help understanding how the pieces of an event sound system (often called a “Public Address” or “PA” system) fit together.
In general the basic components of a public address system are the microphone(s), the mixer, the amplifier, and the speakers. Sometimes one or more of these components are combined in all-in-one units.
Talon Tech Tip: Video Captions
Case Study: Closed Captioning with Redundant Stream Paths
In late October, I was working with a long-time client on the latest virtual iteration of their recurring live developer conference series. This is a major tech company that has a strong commitment to web, product, and event accessibility. I’ve been involved in event and video accessibility for almost a decade. Having a client who shares this commitment makes this client a pleasure to work with. I’ve been designing live closed caption workflows for this client for about 5 years. The scope and systems have evolved over time, but their commitment to accessibility overall and captioning specifically is admirable.
Advice for Independent AV Technicians - Sound Design Live Interview
I was recently a guest on the Nathan Lively’s podcast Sound Design Live discussing ways that independent AV technicians can adapt in the face of Covid-19. It’s designed for AV industry professionals, but it’s got some general advice that might be useful to other folks in the event space. This video also has some background on me, which clients may find interesting.
Improving Virtual Meeting Attendee Engagement with an Interactive Coffee Break
Let’s take this online
In mid May, the staff at Veloz, a nonprofit organization focused on electrifying transportation in California, came to me with a challenge. Their July member meeting, scheduled to be an in-person round table in Downtown Los Angeles, was going to be impacted by COVID-19 travel restrictions. Like most event planners, they wondered how to take the meeting online. The conference involved 50 members around a table discussing state policy, industry marketing, and increasing member investment. How would we move it to an online format while maintaining the networking, conversation and attendee engagement of the in-person meeting? How could we make members feel valued and invested in the organization without being with them in person?
A Music Festival, in this Pandemic?! How Mutek.SF shook up the virtual event scene
Mutek is an internationally renowned electronic music and digital arts organization that hosts annual festivals in cities globally. The relatively new Mutek San Francisco chapter was faced with a challenge for their 3rd annual festival in May 2020: In the face of Covid-19 should they cancel, or find a way to translate an engaging, creative community festival to a virtual event.
Mutek San Francisco hosted Nexus, their 2020 online music festival, using a bespoke virtual community event platform custom built by Currents.fm for the event. Nexus combined live video streams, video-on-demand, a gallery of online Open GL artwork, live workshops on a variety of creative topics, and community-submitted art, music, and live video streams from the SF Bay Area and all over the world.
Not Quite Live Stream: A Virtual Event Video Playback Solution
I got a call this week from a client asking “how do we do an event that looks like a live stream, but is actually pre-recorded?”
Lots of the virtual events I’ve been working on have had pre-recorded sessions, if not been fully pre recorded, so I thought I’d share how I’ve been handling playback for Zoom calls or Live Streams.
Presenting the Class of 2020 (Virtually)
I got a phone call in March from a long-time-client - can you make our graduation virtual?
When Da Vinci approached me to reimagine their graduation as an online event, I knew their event needed more than a pre-recorded video or a teleconference link. Working with school administrators and district officials, we got permission to build a studio in a classroom and broadcast their event live from the high school campus. Over June 10th and 11th, we transformed the media classroom into a studio with pipe and drape, lighting, a few lecterns, two vans full of video equipment, and 4 technicians: Technical Director, Graphics Operator, Robo Camera Operator, and Producer/Show Caller, all all positioned to preserve safe social distancing.
24 Months and Beyond: The Event Industry in a Post-Social Distancing World
2021 : An Events Odyssey
“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine.” -Governor Newsom of California, April 14, 2020
"Large gatherings such as concerts and sporting events may not be approved in the city for at least 1 year... It's difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands anytime soon, so I think we should be prepared for that this year," -Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles, April 15, 2020
This is about what I was expecting, but for those of us who make our living in events, it means we’re likely out of work until mid 2021 or beyond.
I’ve honestly been expecting that timeline for a while now, so while it’s devastating news, it’s at least somewhat validating to have more official certainty on that point.
Our industry is extremely adaptable, extremely flexible, and extremely nimble. Show business will still exist now and in the future - there are too many of us addicted to the craft for it to disappear. Online productions will fill the gaps, creative technologies and solutions will be more and more common, and communication, education, and entertainment will continue.
Live from Quarantine - The New Normal of Live Events
Live Events are changing and we’d better keep up
Watching The iHeart Living Room Concert for America presented by FOX on Sunday evening, I was struck with the overwhelming sense that this is the “new normal.” This is what a live event looks like now, at least in the immediate future.
Clients have been calling me all week, assessing how to put traditionally in-person events like galas and graduations online. As an events professional, my job is to bring the expertise, technology, and teams to execute my client’s vision, whether that’s projection mapping an abandoned cement factory, holding a benefit concert in a downtown intersection, or figuring out how to hold a graduation or a gala fully online. Events bring people together over shared goals and shared connections, teach and share knowledge, reinforce social bonds, and build communities. The challenge now is how to convey to an online audience the messages and emotional impacts we experience live and in-person. This is the problem I hear over and over again among my peers, friends, and even competitors as our whole industry grapples with connecting services to our communities during COVID-19. How do we continue to educate, inspire, and bring joy to our audiences in this time of social distancing?
Death by Dongles
If you give presentations regularly, chances are you’ve had a video adapter mishap more than once.
Perhaps you worry as you head to a new venue: Does the room have the right video connection for my laptop? With so many devices and so many competing connection standards, can you be sure you’re prepared and have the correct adapter before you present?
Here are a few suggestions for making sure you have the correct adapter for the job and some ideas for organizing your adapters.
7 Questions About Event AV Your Team Needs to Ask
Microphone Tips from the Pros
“Is this thing on?”
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard someone announce this uncertainty into a live microphone to a room full of attentive listeners.
Microphones: Using one should be simple, but event attendees and presenters are often confused when you hand them a mic. Where do I hold it? Where do I set it down? And the eternal question, "IS THIS THING ON?!"
Hopefully this blog post will help clear up some basic misconceptions about microphones, and help make you a microphone pro.
11 Quick AV Tips
Before your next meeting, take a look at these 11 AV pointers.
Starters
- When you walk into a meeting room, make sure you know where the light controls are, where the microphones are, and who to ask if you need help - you don’t want to be scrambling if there’s a problem during the meeting.
- If you have an onsite technician, make sure they know who will be speaking - give them an agenda so they can follow along and be prepared for the next part of the meeting
Thank Goodness for the ADA: An AV Guy’s Challenge for 2016
Last week, I fell and hurt my leg. It’s not a serious injury, and I’ll be fine in a week or two, but it’s eye opening to see how much harder it is to work and live in a world designed for people with two working legs. I’m really grateful for the accessibility features of public buildings, particularly door openers and easy-to-grab handles and railings. Because I’m suddenly using these features, I’m noticing how often they are not there. In one venue, I came up against exterior doors and restroom doors without automatic door openers, room doors without easy-to-grab pull handles, and aisles between chairs and tables that were not wide enough to maneuver crutches through.
Click Through to Read More
You want how many microphones?
“You want how many microphones?”
I’ve found myself asking clients that question on many occasions. Big board meeting. National membership meeting. Round-table committee discussion. Meetings where there are 30 to 100 people who all need to be able to hear and be heard.
I’ll be honest -- you cannot have 50 microphones live at once in one meeting room without digital processing and expect to not have feedback. There’s no way one sound technician can manually keep track of who’s speaking and who’s up next and keep it all going smoothly. It’s not going to be pretty. And think of how many cables you’d need!
Luckily there’s a solution that lets everyone have a mic, prevents feedback, and keeps technicians from ripping their hair out.
It’s called an Audio Discussion System, or alternately known as a “Congress” or push-to-talk system.
What Causes Audio Feedback?
What is feedback?
Ouch! That screech you hear from the sound system when you hold the mic wrong? That’s Audio Feedback. No, no, not negative comments -- Audio Feedback is when sound from the loudspeakers comes back into the microphone, creating a “feedback loop” and causing an awful howl.
Here's a video explaining what feedback is and how it works...
Presenter's guide to preventing AV problems
Have you ever launched full-swing into a great multimedia presentation, only to have the technology fail in the middle of your talk? Have you been left wondering, “Why won’t my video play?” or “Why won’t my file open properly on this computer?” We know we can’t always be there to help, so we’ve developed this guide with our best tips to help you make sure your own presentations go off without a hitch.
You're prepared for your big presentation, with backups in hand, but what do you do if you encounter problems at setup, and don’t know how to fix them?