Getting Ready- the Real Setup

With coffee in hand the Collaboration Class Members meet early on Saturday, Oct 31 at the Frederick Loewe Theater. We are doing our rehearsal "setup"for "Across the Ether" (Across the Ether is a four-way production across the continental U.S).- Tom Beyer and Dr. Gilbert are chatting quietly - and I feel ready to run some cable!! (By the way, The theater has an 9ft Steinway grand on the stage - and it's a good sized "house", which can hold 500 people approximately... much , MUCH bigger than the class room on the 7th floor.

From my notes:
The first thing I learned was that the schematic - the sketch of the suggested setup, was being changed....and time and scheduling is of the utmost importance, as we had to make our first test of the internet connections by 12:30/right after lunch- so, as not to waste any time, the class members who were there, assisted Tom Beyer(TB) with equipment needed at the stage.
From the 7th and 8th floors, we moved two projectors, the large mixer, 3 cameras with tripods, the boxes containing DVA's, switches, tech table lights, the video mixer ( mixer 2)- one huge cable chest(which was exclusively video cables ) and another huge case we brought - all audio cables and extra power strips. Three new Mac Pro computers in their boxes came too. Hand carts were on the scene-- (I love hand carts)- I called the big one a "Dolly"- and Tom quickly corrected me- "no, it's a hand truck"- I have used these to move music equipment and large
pieces of furniture -and always thought the two names were interchangeable-yet an hour later,
I realized that a dolly is something different-yes, so much of a profession and being professional is knowing the vocabulary...And certainly, in the AV world -there is a huge and important one.

TB called out several tasks to be completed- tripods set up and cameras set up were among those- I did the tripods, and, since I was operating camera 1, I made it my job to "meet camera one" - to get it onto the tripod, get it power, get familiar with the zoom capabilities -and most importantly, what type of cable was it going to require - I had never used this video camera in class. I saw that I had a choice between a composite cable connection to B&C and the S.Video type. Camera one also was further from the tech table - another factor to consider. From our classes with TB, I knew that B&C cable transferred "info" over longer distances with more clarity /quality than S.video and certainly composite cable. TB spent a few moments with me
to go over the procedure; Composite into B&C - composite cable (short), an adapter -to B&C -and B&C would take the signal to the tech table....we learn by doing

Meanwhile:

Video Cables had to be tested and placed in piles according to type: B&C, Composite, S.Video - video cables are stiffer than audio- and to handle them correctly is an art in itself. While several class members completed that task, I assisted at the tech table ; the dark cloth had to be secured with artists tape - ( and every simple sounding task like the latter, can be hugely important) - TB (Tom Beyer) explains; in a dark theater, the cloth has to be up -so that we can have easy access if searching for a cable connection underneath..Outlets tested: TB gave me the task of testing all outlets in the house- and all power strips -
another task that must be completed before laying the cable...