Very often there aren’t any shortcuts. The best way to save time is to anticipate all of the things that may happen on a gig, and be prepared to instantly step in and handle each situation as it arises.
Very often time is critical. With extremely busy artists, there often isn’t any time for something not to be working. Everything should be functioning at the beginning of the gig. This means that your job is to anticipate, to the best of your ability, everything that could go wrong – and everything that the artist could possibly want.
Having all of your equipment ready to go along with spares can make for smooth sailing. Having a quick solution for anything that may occur will let others know that you are ‘on top of it’ and able to react quickly to rectify any problems that may come up. Knowing when to step in and bypass something in order to get it online quickly can be a valuable skill.
If you’ve ever been in a situation where an entire stage full of important artists are all waiting for the headphone feed from the remote truck located outside of the venue, you can see the entire production slam to a halt. Everyone is waiting on that headphone feed. One simple thing can shut down an entire production. The clock ticks, and it’s break time for the crew, and the whole segment is shut down.
Having an alternate solution in a split second can make or break an event. Being aware of open lines, signal flows, and having a variety of options will make a tremendous difference in such situations. We’ll look at some of these options in this segment.