# Greetings from across the pond



## plastical (Nov 9, 2008)

Hello. My name is Peter, and I do a lot of Lx, Sound, and a bit of everything else (as well as playing 'bone and piano) here in the UK. I've been at it around 6 years. I've found this forum from google and found it very useful; I hope I can give back as well as take away!

FWIW, I 'do tech' {read: fix things when they go wrong / are assisted in going wrong} at a secondary school (ages 13 - 19} in England. We have a fairly small dedicated space, a large empty space, and a fairly small gymnasium which are used for performance. Kit wise we have a Yamaha LS9-16, AVOLites Pearl Expert, 24 ch of dimming, *mindblock* i forget how many w of sound power (8 srms [yamaha amps], 4 powered monitors, and some old peavey system that sounds like absolute junk), a reasonable selection of luminaires (about 30), a couple of radio mics and a paultry selection of static microphones. I am striving to rectify this...although the person who controls the money (the bursar) is, at best, described as a tightwad...! (when it comes to this sort of thing, the school tends to do things in three quarter measures...get impressive kit, have it installed okay, but forget things like a decent number of mics, or enough XLRs, or 5pin XLRs for DMX, or...)

The Man (headmaster) likes things to look impressive, but doesn't care how it happens, and the resident director is skilled at acting but knows little about sound, lighting, pryo, what is possible, what isn't, what will drive all the techies up the wall, etc. The MD is very talented and is a great guy but often fails to hear things from the audience's point of view. We have two teachers that like to 'oversee' operations, a sound man and a lighting man. The sound man is a master of delegation, the lighting man, a master of procrastination. I have to balance everybody and make sure stuff gets done. (Which usually means me doing it). And then we have the ruddy school photographer. I don't know why he is surprised when I bite his head off when he tells me to "move, I'm taking a photo" whilst positioning microphones. *fume*. 

I realise that this post has been too long...for that, I apologise!

Regards,

Peter Bridgman


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## arik52 (Nov 9, 2008)

Hey Peter, welcome to CB! Hopefully you'll get a lot out of it, I know I have already. 

Who's works on the productions, just the staff you listed or a number of interested students as well? Do the lighting man and the sound man oversee/instruct, or design and do the work? 

Also, I'm sure we all sympathize with your frustration of ignorant personnel like the photographer you described, but hey, what's being a techie if not accepting people like that and doing our job of fixing everything anyway?


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## plastical (Nov 9, 2008)

well the obviously the Director, MD, Wardrobe Mistress, Properties Manager and SM are all staff, and there is a 'committee' of D+T teachers that make the set, but tbh everything else is run by the students. The lighting and sound guys are theoretically in charge, but the students 'make suggestions' which are nearly always accepted. The teachers then go off and persuade the director, bursar, etc, and when the kit turns up, the stuents install, connect, set up, program, test, EQ, soundcheck, run...under the supervision of the teachers!


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## cdub260 (Nov 10, 2008)

plastical said:


> I realise that this post has been too long...for that, I apologise!



If you think your post is long, you should see some of ship's posts.:shock:

Welcome to the booth! Try not to have too much fun on the forums.


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## lieperjp (Nov 10, 2008)

cdub260 said:


> Try not to have too much fun on the forums.



Because if you do, you'll never leave!

Welcome. It's great to have you here.


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## plastical (Nov 11, 2008)

Don't worry, I've seen some of his already...

Thanks very much for the warm welcome everyone


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