Audio Team

Basic Department Description

• Theatre A/V provides the skills and gear needed to put on large events in theatre. We make all the behind the scenes magic happen.
• For department staff, a knowledge of sound/lighting/video/rigging/power and general theatre knowledge (cues, blocking, etc..) are recommended but not required. We need staff with a willingness to learn and follow direction. They should also be mindful of safety procedures. During setup and teardown, additional hands will be required who can lift heavy objects.
• You can reach the lead at [email protected] or via telegram @nullreff

Yearly Responsibilities

• Determine technical requirements for events happening in theatre and design a setup that will fulfil them. Requirements should be prioritized as “required”, “good to have” and “extra”.
• Contact hotel (via liaison), rental houses (Scooby) and other staff to determine what is freely available and what must be paid for. Create a list of gear and a budget sheet. If over budget, cut down on “extra”, and maybe some “good to have” requirements. If too many “good to have” items or any “required” items would need to be cut, contact the executive team to discuss increasing the budget or cutting expensive events.
• Once the design is finalized, send out orders to get final quotes and submit costs to the executive team.
• Once the programming department has finished finalizing the schedule, determine layouts for all the events. Determine when changeovers need to happen.
• Prepare tech for the event (download files onto playback laptop, pre-program lighting, etc..)
• Contact volunteers and make sure we have a primary and secondary staffer for audio, lighting and video.
• Make sure all gear is properly packed and ready for transport. If logistics is required, notify the logistics department of what needs to be transported.
• Make sure that there are plenty of expendables available (gaff tape, earplugs, spare lamps, haze fluid, etc…)
• Contact the organizer of events to discuss cues and figure out what needs to be set up before rehearsals.

Your Department on the Website/in the Conbook

• Make sure the list of staff is up to date so it can be published in the conbook.

6 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• General idea of requirements for theatre.
• Preliminary gear list, design and budget.

3 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• Full volunteer team for running FOH (leads and seconds).
• Layouts for events and a preliminary schedule of when hotel needs to change over.
• Solid list of gear, design and budget.
• Notify rental houses of what you want (but may change depending on what’s available).

1 Month before con, what do you need to have done?

• Room layouts and changeovers sent to the hotel team.
• Gear roster sent to logistics and confirmation with A/V crew transporting their own gear.
• Final rental list and budget.
• Send in final staff list for conbook.
• Start prepping gear for transport.
• Start talking about cues for events and rehearsals.

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) got inputted into the system for their hours.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next years’ chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)
• Make sure all equipment made it back to the right owner.

Break down of contacts:

• Main Contacts: Theatre, Hotel, Logistics, Programming
• Executive Contact: Programming Lead
• Outside Contacts: Scooby (gear rentals)

Department Inventory and Ordering Resources

• Stagevison (via Scooby) - Sound/Lighting/Rigging Rentals
• Kheetah - Video
• Nullreff - Lighting (Washington)
• Foxworth - Sound (Washington)
• Kay Fox - Video/Lighting (Washington)

Do's and Don'ts of the Department

• People will try to change and schedule things last minute. Just roll with it.
• Scooby won’t know what he can give you until around a month or two before the con. Give him a general idea of what you want and he’ll make it happen.
• Bring multiple paper copies of the room layout and rigging.
• Always have someone watching FOH during the dances (people like to mess with the volume).
• You only need one projector screen and it doesn’t need to be that big.
• Put the haze machine on the side away from the door, get approval before turning it on.
• The hotel (Executive) only has a limited number of staging sections available. These have to be stacked in order to make a stage. Would highly recommend renting staging instead if the budget permits.
• You have two power distros available, one typically used for sound and the other for lighting/stage.
• Video village in FOH takes up at least two tables. Sound and lighting can fit on the same table.
• Speakers will probably be on the far sides of the room rather than where you want to put them due to limited space.
• There are some dead zone for radio reception, including where FOH usually is.
• FOH will most likely be on the right side of the room rather than center.
• Rigging lights to the overhead truss is a pain with the stage in the way. If you can fit it, getting truss lifts would make things much easier.

Other Resources

• Lighting software: [[1]]
• Audio playback: [[2]]
• Cameron Sandbeck (Scooby) provides rentals for most of our equipment: [[3]]
• Ray Aberle provides rentals for other fur cons in the states: [[4]]