The real ‘Men in Black’

Most people have been to a concert once or twice; some people that I know have been to every concert put on by a certain band. The music is loud, the fans are cheering and singing and the band puts on a spectacular show. No one sees the unsung heroes of concerts unless there is a problem that must be taken care of. No one considers the amount of time or effort it takes to put on an event of that magnitude. These guys are the men in black, the invisible workers, the roadies, the riggers, the light designers, the audio hounds and the video gurus, all of who are known collectively as "the techies."

If you have ever been to a live event, you have undoubtedly been affected by the technical work. You know when the technical aspect is not right; the sound is bad, microphones quit working, you can't see the performers or screens, or videos stop in mid- play. But do you recognize when the technical aspects are right- Most people simply consider it a wonderful event and move on to the next one, leaving the techies without recognition for a job well done.

What does it take to put on an event of considerable size- How much effort is put into that two-hour concert you pay so much money for- More than you know. I have been working on large-scale conferences and events for nine years now, and my preparation time for events will easily quadruple the amount of time of the actual performance. One concert can easily take many hours to set, all for a grand two hours of show. I remember talking to someone who worked on a large name rock band that played at RFK stadium on a Friday night. For that event, there were three crews of 24 technicians who worked eight-hour shifts to comprise a 24-hour work schedule for three full days before the concert. That translates to 1,728 labor hours of work to set the lights, sound systems, video systems, pyrotechnics, rigging systems, staging and crowd control. That is a lot of work for two hours worth of music! And that is just the set up. After the concert the same crews labor for many hours to break down the equipment and get it ready to roll to the next city for the next concert. Thankfully breaking down equipment goes much quicker than setting it up.

So lets focus more on smaller local events like the Fall Festival that takes place on Oct. 31 every year at Culpeper Baptist Church. The sound system used for the band and puppets can take up to two hours to set up and may require up to three technicians and a few band members. For the Youth National Day of Prayer that occurred last May, it took four technicians and most of the band members to squeeze the setup time into one hour. That left a measly five minutes for sound check before the event kicked off.

Tech work takes a lot of time and effort to make things happen. And because you are working with electronics that have been transported and handled many times, you sometimes find that something may not work right after being set up and hooked up. So building in time for troubleshooting is really important and can make or break an event. It is hard to be one of the men who spend a few hours late at night to solve a problem in the equipment.

Three years back when I was working for Marriott, I found one of those problems, which I call "gremlins." I was finishing a video system setup around 8 p.m. after working since 6 a.m. and as we fired up the projectors we discovered a lot of wavy lines — called "noise" - in the image. My boss and I stayed an additional three hours to find out it was an issue with one of the major switching devices.

The job is not quite done once you have everything set up though. Now that you have everything set, you need to operate the equipment for the event! Most events require a few people to run the equipment during the performance or other program features. Some events are really intensive and require rehearsals that last hours by themselves. Personally, I have spent upwards of 18 hours in set up and rehearsal one day prior to the event followed by a four-hour event and seven hours of break down.

It is easy to take technicians for granted and I am often really happy to remain unnoticed due to solid tech work. Next time you go to an event, take the time to notice the technical work being done. Technicians often prefer to remain hidden, but we do appreciate being thanked for the hard work after a job well done.

Brian Dunn can be reached at .