Triax
I remember fitting many triax connectors to triax cables for a 1553B test rig in the late '80s. Ahhh, those were the days. I wouldn't want to do it again, that's for sure.
If you think you know all about the O2 Arena having visited it when it was called the Millennium Dome, then think again. When the site was sold to entertainment biz AEG in 2004, it was gutted and turned into a concert venue; all that remains of the original structure is the tent. Today, its owners claim it’s the busiest live …
When I worked at the Brits back in 2000/2001 there were cables everywhere. Everything seemed very temporary - in fact one year we had cables leading out the back to a transit with a temporary studio in it. And we were responsible for output to the BBC radio stations...
I've done rigging for local theatre work before, and network cabling for offices but this is a whole new level.
Brilliant article, it covered everything I didn't realise I wanted to know, from connector types to what a CCU was etc.
More like this, and lots of beer for the people trying to keep track of what cable goes where!
O2 is one of the modern generation of venue where the site is compehensively precabled for broadcast use. The idea is that minimal cabling needs to be done within the venue, the OB trucks "just" plug in to the interface panels. Much quicker for all concerned and less disruption to the venue. Enables faster turnaround between events.
"This video contains content from SME and Warner Chappell, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Good thing too, as I was about to stop spending money on music and/or entertainment forever as soon as I was able to watch this short excerpt from a 17 year old awards show. You win this round content producers...
To know I should have stayed in AV and not moved to IT exclusively.
Brings back fond memories of a job I loved, and loved to learn, with real tangible results at the end and a warm fuzzy feeling that is not just the beer in the pub after a long hard working gig.
I will go and cry on my keyboard for a while now
awesome article
Yeah, me too.
To think I was on the lighting team of the original production of "Smike", and got asked back to school to do the lighting for school plays once I was at Uni. So I must have had something. But the lack of jobs in the broadcast industry in '76 took my career on a different trajectory. I should have hung around the stage world, done some volunteering, but hey, we all have 20/20 hindsight. Then bad decision no. 2 - walked away from an engineering job in particle physics research for the bright lights of IT manufacturers. Noooooooo,,,,,,,,
When I did the BRITS in 1987, the bit of the lighting rig I operated (the vari*lites) were run by a 6 processor control console. When I did the show in 1988 (Adele has nothing to complain about, Rick Astley never even made the stage for his award that year, and even then the Who ran into the News by at least a minute) every single one of our lights had a 68000 processor in them. It was a fully distributed control system capable of controlling 1000 moving head units. These days almost every piece of lighting equipment plugs directly into an Ethernet network, So the fact that the video industry is only 10 years behind is newsworthy?
The coat's for Mick Kluczynski, who went to advance the Big Gig in 2008.
PS A BRIT is an award given out by the British Phonographic Industry Aka BPI. As well as the BRIT Awards, the is also a BRIT Trust and a BRIT School.
Good article. While incoming crews might have an easier time rigging in a place like the O2 arena, most venues have no such luxuries - if you want to run a cable from one end to the other, you have to pull it in yourself. And this is hard, shitty work. A good crew might have to pull in many kilometers of cable. Interestingly, even in a venue like the O2 that has a good built in infrastructure, many crews prefer to start from scratch with their own (trusted) gear.
I agree with Clam's comment too, over the years I've seen the most hilarious fuck-ups caused by gear, including a bad genny switchover fault that borked our expensive HD projectors, most of the audio and quite literally blew up the GFX OB truck. The resulting crisis production meeting during an early ad break was a total shitstorm. People screaming and ripping up scripts etc.
Finally, many people will not be aware that the terms of the broadcast license usually include a few seconds "profanity" delay. This is the nuclear option however. It might not be justified to cut the TX and show a cartoon if Jarvis Cocker gets on stage and waves his arse about, but perhaps would be if someone threw a petrol bomb at James Corden....or maybe not.
As an occasional AV tech this is just what I wanted. Great production, shame about the host - the joke about the Adele speech being cut short was the most unfunny thing ever (and showed by distinct lack of laughs from the O2 audience). I agree with the point about using your own kit - a radio station I OB for usually uses 80% my kit as I know and trust it (leads and IT particularly - their folio mixer is about the one thing in the OB case I rate).