Who is responsible for video in theater?

[DavidB123]

Hello,

 

Im currently doing a study as to where the responsibility of video lies in theatre.

 

I understand there was a similiar topic before but any fresh insights would be brilliant.

 

If anyone out there is a video designer, or has to take responsibility for video within thier role if you could pop me an email just so I could have a few minutes of your time that would be brilliant.

 

So guys if you have any opinions on the matter Im specifically looking at:

 

- Job titles who take the responsibility

- Methods of control (Does lighting fire AV or vice versa?)

- Varieties of AV (projection all the way to LED walls, are they controlled by the same guy?)

- The emergance of video integrated fixtures such as Digispots.

 

 

I realise this topic is extremely subjective and theres no easy answer, but I welcome all of your thoughts and opinions on the matter.

 

Many Thanks,

David Baldwin.

[Unfathomable]

Just had a couple of productions in that had AV in. (200 seat Theatre space)

 

The first was a dance show with AV from 3 projectors, two on the floor and one in the grid pointing down. On that one the company's technician took responibility for LX, Sound and AV, using DVD players to play to each projector.

 

This weeks is a Road safety show aimed at teens, with one projector (using our house one) and they have an AV guy using VJ software on his laptop. He takes AV cues from the SM as does LX and Sound.

 

Hope that helps a bit.

[Bryson]

Obviously, this is all highly variable from company to company, production to production. It all depends on how much video there is, and how integrated into the show it is, but in general:

 

 

Job titles who take the responsibility

Well, it falls firmly in the electrics department, so ultimately, the Chief Electrician. Depending on the show, there may or may not be a dedicated video tech assigned to it, or it might be an additional item for the Lighting crew or maybe the Sound crew (less often).

 

Methods of control (Does lighting fire AV or vice versa?)

Neither! In my experience it tends to be operated by a dedicated operator taking cues from the (D)SM. I have also done shows where the lighting and video were timecoded and triggered by the audio.

 

Varieties of AV (projection all the way to LED walls, are they controlled by the same guy?)

Well, if there's a video guy / crew, then sure. That's even more dependant on circumstances than the other questions (Which are pretty dependant on circumstances!)

 

The emergance of video integrated fixtures such as Digispots.

I've never had that kind of money. (Not even when working cruise ships where money wasn't short...) I doubt much theatre does.

[kitlane]

If anyone out there is a video designer, or has to take responsibility for video within thier role if you could pop me an email just so I could have a few minutes of your time that would be brilliant.

 

When Derby Playhouse was still in operation I was, for a long time, the person in charge of video. I was really the Production Manager but as video started to be used more it evolved into me doing it. It got to the point where I couldn't do both so my job title changed to "Head of Production & Creative Technology". I still had overall responsibility for all things technical but there was a new Production Manager, giving me more time to devote to video and investigating other new technologies.

 

When I left for pastures new, a Head of Video was appointed.

 

- Job titles who take the responsibility

 

In our case ultimately a 'Head of Video'. Probably quite forward thinking for a medium sized Rep.

- Methods of control (Does lighting fire AV or vice versa?)

 

When we started, usually a dedicated Op. Too much to do to incorporate into someone elses job.

As we got better at it we triggered using Show Control methods. During Tech and previews by me, thereafter usually the LX Op. The system was set up so it was just another GO button. Occasionally, if we needed to synchronise cues then one system could trigger another. Any of Video, LX or Sound could trigger the others plus if necessary stage effects etc.

 

 

- Varieties of AV (projection all the way to LED walls, are they controlled by the same guy?)

Usually just a variety of high power LCD projectors. Often onto unusual surfaces (smoke, water, people, the set). Very occasional use of slide projection. Did one show 10 years ago with a CRT video wall

 

- The emergance of video integrated fixtures such as Digispots.

Never had to the budget to play with them much. Would love to use them and can probably think of a few applications. But generally I could probably spend the extra money on more/brighter standard projectors and get better results.

[cedd]

- Methods of control (Does lighting fire AV or vice versa?)

- Varieties of AV (projection all the way to LED walls, are they controlled by the same guy?)

- The emergance of video integrated fixtures such as Digispots.

 

In all instances that I've worked on a production involving video, it's come from the lighting side of things.

 

4 basic setups we've used come to mind.

 

"Back to the 80's" - Robe's 'Stage Cube' video walls doing low res video playback. One digispot projecting onto the surface of one of these video walls to give higher res video.

"Wizard of Oz" - 2 x digispots image stitched to cover the cyc. DVD player at the lighting desk controlled playback to both spots, whilst any shuttering or video effects were done by the digispots via DMX.

"Bat Boy" - clips were uploaded onto the digispots via USB and called up as clips via DMX. We also used the gobo layers and inbuilt effects such as fire. All by DMX.

"Boogie Nights" - 3 x projectors and a media server. Again triggered by DMX.

 

In each case control was by the lighting operator, either using a dvd player or the lighting desk. The main deciding factor actually came from an audio point of view - if you're using the digispot for playback, you've got to get the audio back to the sound desk from the grid, and I don't recall the digispot having an audio out (though may be wrong - can't find details of the model we used). If you're using a DVD player then it's next to the sound desk and then there's a video feed to get up to the grid.

 

As an aside, a sound engineer I know tends to bring a lot of video kit with him - purely for MD's video feeds. this can be a couple of cameras and several screens. Not seen by the audience, but perhaps worth thinking about. Is it generally the sound guy who does this or is this guy a one off?

[richb]

If you are hoping to hear from any video designers though...drop the 'AV' reference! In my experience of dealing with them the use of 'AV' (they're not very keen on the 'A'!) will rile them as quickly as the Sound dept get antsy if they're over 20yrds from a Starbucks! B-)

[Congresstech]

If you are hoping to hear from any video designers though...drop the 'AV' reference! In my experience of dealing with them the use of 'AV' (they're not very keen on the 'A'!) will rile them as quickly as the Sound dept get antsy if they're over 20yrds from a Starbucks! B-)

 

I don't think 'AV' riles them as much as calling them vidiots. They most certainly don't like that.

[mac.calder]

There are as many opinions on who is responsible for what as there are people involved in theatre - and peoples opinions will change based on the production too...

 

For example, when I was on my last few ships I was heavily involved in Video, and we needed to work out where the line was drawn as far as what falls under Broadcast control vs. my control. As LX tech, show control fell under my banner and all the vision gear was connected to the show control system, we also had media servers which were controlled by my lighting console. It was a fairly complex division of responsibility, but the basic premise we used was all playback and projection gear which is not connected to my lighting desk, any physical media and any cabling carying graphics fell under Broadcast control, the show control network and all cables and programing of the show control video aspects fell under my banner. With the media servers, as they were on my desk, the hardware was my responsibility, but from the VGA out ports back to the projectors was all Broadcast...

 

In corporate AV, LX techs generally have little to do with VX systems- at most the use of a media server for lighting effects really.

 

Smaller theatres, it often falls entirely under LX's umbrella - as it involves a device that emits light :-/

[Unfathomable]

Smaller theatres, it often falls entirely under LX's umbrella - as it involves a device that emits light :-/

 

 

All too true, on the rare occasion that more than one house tech attends a show, We have the LX in charge of Video, Light and Power.

[Shez]

As an aside, a sound engineer I know tends to bring a lot of video kit with him - purely for MD's video feeds. this can be a couple of cameras and several screens. Not seen by the audience, but perhaps worth thinking about. Is it generally the sound guy who does this or is this guy a one off?

 

In larger scale touring musical theatre, the video feeds of the MD that are distributed around the circle front are generally handled by the sound dept.

[GridGirl]

I work in a company which has two spaces - a 123 seat studio and a 291 seat main house. We're using video more and more these days, and generally we have a dedicated video designer whose job it is to source, film, edit and burn down to DVD all the footage that we're using. We did do a show last year where the head tech for the show found the footage - but it was one small piece of stock footage readily available to buy on the internet (fireworks display) so all he had to do was burn it down. Rigging the projectors normally gets done by the LX crew on rig day. Anything like conductor monitors also falls under the jurisdiction of the head tech - although it's pretty easily done now as we installed a decent video patch panel and breakout boxes a couple of years ago which makes everything better!

 

Currently we use DVD to play back, but this is not ideal and we're looking at alternatives - have tried Qlab but it just didn't work happily for us, probably because we don't currently have a Mac with the processing power to get it to work seamlessly. I did a gig with the Sydney Dance Company recently and they were using Watchout to drive their projections and sound - very, very powerful (but also very, very expensive!). We run a one-operator system (unless we have radio mics, of course) and so the operator is triggering LX, sound playback and video. We've just bought a new lighting desk which will happily drive the likes of a Hippotizer, so we may end up going down that road if we can find the dosh.

 

I can't really comment on varieties of AV - we use projectors pretty much exclusively, and have never had the money to try a video integrated fixture, much as we'd love to!

[DavidB123]

Hi guys,

 

Just to say a big thank you for all of your responses, its all really usefull stuff and Ill be sure to post up my study when its complete for anyone who is interested.

 

On a final note, I have yet to cover the cost implication of video vs set. If we start to see whole sets being replaced by video, would this be cheaper, more expensive or around about the same?

 

There seems again to be many factors to take into consideration, such as start up costs of video vs touring a large scale set.

 

Once again any opinions or thoughts would be most gratefully recieved.

 

Many Thanks.

[LXbydesign]

Just a quickie -

 

I think video / projection INTERGRATED with set is a brilliant thing - classic example 'Martin Guerre' (spelling?), but I would be very sad if video / projection / LED replaced a physicaL set altogther. Its not gonna happen - at least I hope , not in my lifetime!!

[roadie56]

In the company where I work,video and further AV stuff is all part of the same dept: Image.

The different departements interact according to the events plots,regardless of being a convention,a live concert,congress,whatever.

 

Presently I work with data projectors of all sizes,seamless switchers and further related gear,while some other mates take care of cameras,dvd's and all sort of equipement,but all in all we're in the same dept.

 

I hope it helped!

[mackerr]

In NY video is generally under lighting. Whether it is projection or LED panels, or some other display technology, images on stage are lighting. There may be a video designer, but they will work with the electrics dept.

 

Video monitoring on the other hand falls under the sound dept. The conductor camera, and any other cameras for automation monitoring, or any other back stage camera used for monitoring is operated by sound. On the last 2 musicals I worked on we had 16 and 6 cameras, and 40 and 25 monitors looking at those camera shots.

 

Mac