Tech Crew

My graduating class during our annual 'Ingle Dusting', where we use all available subwoofers to shake the auditorium and dust the rafters- and have a bit of fun using the knowledge we gained over the prior 5 years.

RIT Tech Crew is an organization on campus that does sound, lights, and power for almost every event on campus. They do small things, like a couple speakers and a podium in a lobby, all the way to huge productions with week long load-ins for major concerts, commencement, or orientation.

I spent 5 years working for Tech Crew learning everything about the audio industry- coiling cables, sound system troubleshooting, Dante and Dante patching, running 400A Cam-Lok feeder, ETC Eos, why we want to use a large diaphragm dynamic mic (like the Beta 52a) for a kick drum, and so so much more. By the time I graduated from RIT I was one of two Senior Technicians and a trainer to teach the new hires about all this stuff.

As a Sr. Tech and job chief, it was my responsibility to plan, pack, execute, and tear out any job I was signed on to- as well as provide leadership for anyone on my crew, which could range from 1 person with no experience to a crew of 6 with mixed experience, possibly including other technicians.

Above: running lighting for Commencement on an ETC Gio@5Below: Lights and sound simultaneously for a dance production

Tearing out usually involved driving everything back to base with one of our two tractors. Here I'm pulling an unusually large train from a larger annual campus event we support.

This job was effectively a degree in audio engineering, taught through 5 years of experience and without the actual degree part. But throw in loads of information about power and lighting systems too, and a sprinkle of rigging and a splash of live TV production if you were interested. It was not unheard of for Tech Crew graduates to abandon their actual degree and go off to work for touring shows, theaters, ETC's headquarters, bars, festivals, or other places that need sound and lights.

Just a general campus band in a lounge area run on an analog system. Most of our setups were analog.

I no longer work in the industry, but I can't just throw away all the knowledge. So I have a project planned to use it again. Stay tuned.

This was a particularly fun event, where we brought in an external production company (they had more equipment) to put on a major concert for Offset. I helped with all sorts of things, including getting the amps set up, getting mics and cables up, stage changes, tear out, and everything else.

Crew call was 8am. We had the rigging down and trucks packed up by 4am. Just a cool and casual 20hr shift, no biggie.

RIT Glassbox Theater

This was a blackbox theater my school put in during my Senior year. As one of the few experts on lights around, I was recruited to build a basic control system. I re-patched everything and put it all on a magic sheet, and programmed a few basic macros and buttons so the returning crew could have a baseline to work off of and change for show needs.

150+ fixtures across 4 universes, hung and focused according to the rep plot.