Well it’s that time of year again! This year we’ve got Matt from IT cross-training with us as we (quite literally) show him the ropes. First thing we’re up in the wings of the Great Hall, where we adjust the height of the stage lights and bring down the curtains so we can attach the stage dressing and put the banner up. After that we’re onto the floor lights for the stage. These are static and seperate from the main stage lights we control from up in the projection booth. They just add a splash of colour to the curtains round the back of the stage.
This year we’re in a bit of a rush – partially thanks to yours truly as I was on holiday for the week prior – however as much as people were concerned I assured them that the day we had to set up was more than enough now we had good solutions in place!
One of those being the previously mentioned GLD-80 digital desk. Sadly due to being a complete muppet I recently deleted all the scenes from it (including a useful graduation-based one) when I updated the firmware – but thankfully it’s an intuitive interface once you get your head around it so we had it up and running again in no time.
Once the mics are tested and the system is up and running smoothly we can breathe a sigh of relief. We’ve been getting faster at this process every year and it seems to keep running smoothly, but it’s still a good feeling knowing you’re ready to go in advance.
The ceremonies themselves went largely without issue, but there’s also a bunch of other events I end up working on around the ceremonies. One of which is the childrens’ choir performing in the Atrium, which has now become a regular staple of the ceremonies. This is a good opportunity to get the Behringer X32 out, which keeps earning it’s keep as a useful portable solution for a whole host of events. This time we used a couple of venerable AKG pencil condensers, although using the Atrium’s own PA system is a challenge as there’s not a great deal of headroom. Thankfully the kids belted it out on the second take and managed to rise above the noise of the busy atrium floor.
The kids’ choir performed on the first two days between the first two ceremonies, so due to not having a lot of staff to cover this whole event I was legging it down from the projection booth to ensure that it all set off smoothly.
Another additional event is the VC’s dinner – where the same space in the atrium is converted into something of a restaurant and there are speeches from some of our more senior staff. Thankfully from an AV perspective this is an easy gig as there’s only a single microphone required.
Although I forgot to get a picture, there was also some mobile VR setups showing a virtual tour of the university as a promotion for the dinner guests to check out. While part of me was saying “well my GearVR is better”, I have to admit it’s nice seeing the university embrace such tech for promotions – I’ve been a fan of VR since I got hold of one of the old Oculus devkits and hope to get my own system running again as soon as I can afford one.
Friday had the least external events but was probably the busiest day with 3 long ceremonies to get through. Once we’re done we decided to get all the 2-man jobs and heavy lifting out of the way – rather do it now than have to get in Monday morning and have to do it.
Thankfully though everything went without issue or major incident, and we’ll be back to do it all again in December!