Author: Greg Kamprath

Or “What is the difference between 4:3 and 16:9?” “Why should I care about aspect ratio?” Suppose you’re having a meeting for all your top executives and they’ve spent a lot of time putting together presentations with spreadsheets and charts and graphs. The day of the event the first executive loads her slide deck, but…

Or: “How can I lower my AV costs?” I had talked to a client about their event, this was the first time this particular meeting was being held. It was a few days, with a general session and four breakout rooms along with a special awards gala. I put together a proposal and sent it.…

Or “What is an ellipsoidal?” “What is a stage wash?” There’s a lot of jargon in the audio visual world. A “leko” is a term used to refer to an ellipsoidal reflector spotlight. These are very common fixtures. They’re often used for a “stage wash”, or basic lighting of the presentation area.

Or “Why do I need an EQ?” or “How do I prevent feedback?” Early in my career I worked at a company where I didn’t have a piece of equipment: an equalizer. I did ok on events with one podium microphone and a wireless handheld. But then I had a panel using eight wireless lavaliers,…

Or “Do I need a mixer?” A mixer combines the audio signals from more than one microphone and adjusts their volume. It can also combine other audio signals (“sources”) like sound from your computer, DVD audio or music from an MP3 player. How do you decide when you need one?

Or “Why is X provider so much more expensive?” or “Why is my bill so different this year?” I recently sent an event proposal for $20,000 and the hotel AV provider’s quote was $30,000. (And their total was after a 30% discount.) On the other hand another recent proposal was $14k and we lost to…

Or “What are moving lights?” “What is automated lighting?” So you’re planning an event and want to impress some executives. You’ve already put uplights around the perimeter of the room and ordered a gobo of the company logo. What’s next? If you want to take things to the next level you might consider intelligent lights.

Or: “What do I do if the ceiling is very low?” or “How do I make sure everyone can see?” At one property I worked at, the highest the ceilings got were 12 feet. But the room also had chandeliers, so the usable height was closer to 9 feet. So you could only fit screens…

One time I was working an event for the Bermuda Department of Tourism and wasn’t paying close enough attention. I took a gobo out while it was still hot and got half of the word “Bermuda” burned on my hand, kind of like that guy from Indiana Jones. Does that answer your question of what…

Or “Do I need a switcher?” The previous presenter finished. My colleague went up to help the next speaker. Everyone in the room watched as they removed one laptop, wrapped up its power cable, unplugged the mouse, plugged in the new computer and switched the video cable. The next presenter’s laptop came up on the…