Tweet
Just a little New Years rant.
We do the same show with the same artist every NYE. They try to do an official countdown with a video element that starts at 30s, displays 15s, and then counts from 10s down.
Every year it's the same damn struggle, getting the artist to stay on schedule and "be ready" for the countdown. Some years they will not have all the guests on stage yet for the important song, some years they sing the song early, and the countdown interrupts it. There have been various technology tools tried over the years to help him such as an ipad by his set list counting down for the whole show to midnight. Cue lights at his feet to flash for a 1min warning. There is even a DSM of the countdown video (but nothing on it until 30s).
Most of our production staff have given up and decided it's best to just do the countdown whenever it seems like the stage/artist is ready to do it, midnight be damned. Though how you know they are "ready" always feels like a best guess. But from a technical point of view this seems completely ass-backwards. Everyone has phones out for photos and knows what time it is.
We could add more tools like a DSAN speaker timer counting down from 10min to give him a longer warning... in place of the ipad. But the more tech you add the more risk things are out of sync and he looks at the wrong reference for shouting the countdown with the audience. All our time of day clock options don't show seconds except the ipad method. Only a speaker timer in timer mode would show seconds and give him a longer heads up than the 30s video. But even with the proper references he'll often mistake the pre-countdowns as countdowns to his cue, not countdowns to midnight (which is 30s after the cue).
What they probably really need is in-ear monitors and the VOG mic from the monitor mix station used to give them appropriate warnings and standbys. But no in-ears with this band.
Alas. Thankfully i'm not doing it this year. My co-video department person is having to experience the wormhole that is NYE at the Paramount.
We do the same show with the same artist every NYE. They try to do an official countdown with a video element that starts at 30s, displays 15s, and then counts from 10s down.
Every year it's the same damn struggle, getting the artist to stay on schedule and "be ready" for the countdown. Some years they will not have all the guests on stage yet for the important song, some years they sing the song early, and the countdown interrupts it. There have been various technology tools tried over the years to help him such as an ipad by his set list counting down for the whole show to midnight. Cue lights at his feet to flash for a 1min warning. There is even a DSM of the countdown video (but nothing on it until 30s).
Most of our production staff have given up and decided it's best to just do the countdown whenever it seems like the stage/artist is ready to do it, midnight be damned. Though how you know they are "ready" always feels like a best guess. But from a technical point of view this seems completely ass-backwards. Everyone has phones out for photos and knows what time it is.
We could add more tools like a DSAN speaker timer counting down from 10min to give him a longer warning... in place of the ipad. But the more tech you add the more risk things are out of sync and he looks at the wrong reference for shouting the countdown with the audience. All our time of day clock options don't show seconds except the ipad method. Only a speaker timer in timer mode would show seconds and give him a longer heads up than the 30s video. But even with the proper references he'll often mistake the pre-countdowns as countdowns to his cue, not countdowns to midnight (which is 30s after the cue).
What they probably really need is in-ear monitors and the VOG mic from the monitor mix station used to give them appropriate warnings and standbys. But no in-ears with this band.
Alas. Thankfully i'm not doing it this year. My co-video department person is having to experience the wormhole that is NYE at the Paramount.
Comment