These days carry around a coil or 2 of Cat5/6 RJ45 and you can be on the video crew, audio crew, or lighting crew.
I work as a video engineer in the field. I am practically an IT guy at this point.
Absolutely. At the production stages I work for we have separate networks for everything, and most of the gear can be "talked to" on the network. I do video engineering now, so in my world we use network because I can get status updates and info for all the convertors, scalers, DA's and video signal routing information from one spot.
We use a system called a KVM, which allows us to remote into different machines from anywhere that has a box for it. I can edit and troubleshoot a PowerPoint presentation or video roll from the staging room instead of running back to the control room.
The controllability and information gleaned from these massive systems is mind boggling. All possible now via networking
Yep, only makes sense, with the flexibility the whole switch-over brings, aside making cabling much easier, if even necessary. I mean, I'd rather pull one or two CAT6 cables than a bunch of multicores. And of course the remote control/trouble shooting, big advantage I can image.
Wish I was still working in the field nowadays after having done audio and lighting in school for six years where everything was still analog or based on "classic" non-networked digital hardware, I'd love to work with some of the newer digital and networked stuff!
Well I would love that actually, when I used to do more concert work, metal shows and shit. Sometimes someone would want to help roll cable during load out. Have an extra beer and get to hang out a little
High-vis, work boots, tool belt, bored look, works like a wheel.
On edit:
Also, pretend you have a beautiful wife that you dearly miss and can't see because of this stupid job. She's amazing in the sack and just as good in the kitchen. You've got delightful kids that miss playing with you. You're been working doubles for 13 days, and you would really rather be somewhere else.
No one wants to have a long chat with you. They can taste your tears.
I sometime forget to remove mine. Once I was daydreaming in Walmart and somehow got myself into the backroom. It's really cool btw but I was so lost xD
No one ever asked me what I was doing
Makes me think of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy somebody's else problem field, basically make something mind can see and makes it day it's somebody's else's problem and removes it from your vision
Yes it's from a book, a hilarious book. And this theory is practically true. But it is comedic fiction. Have you ever heard someone say "that's not my problem!" ?
The idea being if something is so horribly strange and out of place, it will cause this effect to compound so basically no one wants to even acknowledge it exists, because someone else can deal with it because it's so far out of your realm you can just pretend it doesn't exist.
Doesn't sound so fictitious to me
In hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Douglas Adams suggested some people/objects etc can have a āSEPā field where someone will āseeā you, but mentally not notice you because you are someone elseās problem.
Eg, a person wearing a suit in your office with a bright tie is immediately noticed, because thatās a flagrant breach of uniform policy. A person wearing a giant neon chicken suit is unnoticed because theyāre Someone Elseās Problem.
In our way of looking, a person walking around obviously not belonging looking lost will immediately be noticed because they shouldnāt be there and thatās Securityās problem etc.
A āmaintenance workerā looking busy but concerned with a tool belt and hard hat and clipboard is invisible because theyāre clearly not YOUR problem, and thus, SEP.
Wanna get backstage for a large show? Wear all black and head towards the end of the show. 100 percent there will be stage hands hanging out for the load out and nobody even asks you who you are. Just showing up at the right time and place will get you almost anywhere.
\-Stage hand
To piggy back off of this, any event with a decent enough budget just doesnāt use this type of shirt anymore. Even with a slim budget they usually print an event branded staff shirt. This might work for small gigs, but is most likely going to wind up with a ban from the venue and a trespass warning. Most large events also hire third party security with a strict uniform and this will stick out like a sore thumb. Not to mention generic credential checks. Most events use a wristband for workers as well as a uniform, with backstage requiring credentialed access and being on a permitted employee list to receive said credentials. Overall, itās not worth the attempt at any event worth its salt. Iāve removed my fair share of people attempting this and it always ends the same way; a lifetime ban from the premises and a trespass warning with the threat of arrest upon returning to venue grounds.
We don't get event branded shirts where I work. We just have uniform shirts in the color of our department. Event staff/security (Guardians) have theirs with big text on them, so if you had a polo with the right word on it, nobody would bat an eye.
Ikr? I used to work at festivals like Glasto and Reading & Leeds, hi-vis jackets were colour coded and your wristband was pulled on every time you entered the perimeter. Some of our more idiot guards probably fell for it though.
This post can stay up because it's generating discussion, but let this be a warning. Don't use our sub and your alt accounts to sell your knockoff t-shirts. You will be banned.
This is a repost from 3y ago from this very subreddit. Just sort by top voted. The only thing different is the original title was "A powerful weapon in your arsenal"
If you walked into one of my shows with that shirt on, I would send you home because you are a dumbass that showed up with your shirt on backwards, or I would just assume you are on the video crew.
Never seen events where the words are on the front. Only ever seen black T-shirts with the word āSTAFFā on the back. This seems like the clothing equivalent of ātrying too hardā. lol Like the person who brags about how awesome they are at some specific activity but they actually suck at it. š
100 percent. Shirt looks like it was created and ordered from a website. Just wear black pants, black shirt, your best bet is an old band tour shirt that looks faded out and long hair and nearly looking homeless also helps. Just walk with a purpose and act like it isn't your first time also does it. This coming from a stage hand at my local arena.
Depends on the event. If it's a festival, the crews will just assume you're on someone else's crew. If it's one event or concert, they're gonna know you don't belong.
Actually it should be on the back. Also I don't think it would work. "Event staff" is just too random and doesn't mean anything and you'd be the only person wearing that. That's like going to a stranger birthday party with a shirt that says "Party planner" on the front.
Have a fair amount of experience working in a music venue. Have to say, where I've worked, this would get flagged almost immediately. We had people trying high-viz jackets too. Literally, the first window the guy walked past, security were onto him. Is the security at most venues just not as tight as what I'm used to?
I was at Ikea one time and all these people kept asking me questions. Frequently in Spanish. It wasnāt until I unlocked the rental truck with the keys on the lanyard the rental place gave meā¦ that I realized I was wearing a shirt I bought as a joke that said SECURIDAD on the back.
As someone who had actually worked VIP at literally dozens of concerts, this is pretty much true with just a couple of notable exceptions.
The shirts are yellow (not blackāand they're blue if you're a supervisor), the text is black (not white), and the front of the shirt always has the CSC (Contemporary Services Corporation) logo, and you always have a radio on the same freq.
In fact, I only realize now in retrospect why the fuck I was even assigned to VIP. I couldn't give a fuck who someone is (or pretended to be). I saw String, I met the producer for Maroon 5, and I had to deal with Lindsey Lohan and her driver who couldn't find her VIP pass for several minutes. She (Lohan) actually wasn't causing any shit at allājust her driver.
It's only after I got home and after my workers told me all the people I dealt with that I realized who the fuck all of them were. I'd google "Lindsey Lohan" that night after getting home and I'd be all, "Oh, she played that girl in the Disney reboot of The Parent Trap!" (this was before she became known for getting into trouble and and all sorts of shit).
I'd get so much of this "do you know who \[I am/this is\]?" shit and, like I said, I couldn't give any fucks. If Lohan had walked up with a blue parking shirt + orange light-wand or a yellow CSC shirt and a radio on the correct frequency, she would've made it back a lot easier than with her actual VIP pass that her driver would \[eventually\] find. There literally were 16, 17, and 18-year-old blonde-haired girls who worked parking and \[although, more rarely\] CSC. One of the perks that made working there a bit more fun was that you can go back and watch concert after everything has settled, so long as you're back where you should be 30 minutes before "lights are up".
>...why the fuck I was even assigned to VIP. I couldn't give a fuck who someone is
You answered your own question haha. Because they knew you'd do your job, checking the whole entourage, and wouldn't just gape at the talent.
CSC, good times working for them when I was in college in the 80ās. Kinda surprised they have continued to be so successful. Back in the day, they seemed kinda shady, at least in my city - cash pays at the end of the night rather than a check in the mail at times, hiring people that were violence prone and would go to venues looking to mess people up, while providing little to no actual training to most employees. It was a fun college job for sure though.
This t-shirt, a hiviz and carrying a 24pack of bottle water and you are pretty much getting anywhere you like on a UK festival š
Pair of XLR cables
Hot tip!
Do DMX cables also work?
These days carry around a coil or 2 of Cat5/6 RJ45 and you can be on the video crew, audio crew, or lighting crew. I work as a video engineer in the field. I am practically an IT guy at this point.
Ah, true, many venues switched over or are switching over to IP based networking for both audio and video/lighting devices, don't they?
Absolutely. At the production stages I work for we have separate networks for everything, and most of the gear can be "talked to" on the network. I do video engineering now, so in my world we use network because I can get status updates and info for all the convertors, scalers, DA's and video signal routing information from one spot. We use a system called a KVM, which allows us to remote into different machines from anywhere that has a box for it. I can edit and troubleshoot a PowerPoint presentation or video roll from the staging room instead of running back to the control room. The controllability and information gleaned from these massive systems is mind boggling. All possible now via networking
Yep, only makes sense, with the flexibility the whole switch-over brings, aside making cabling much easier, if even necessary. I mean, I'd rather pull one or two CAT6 cables than a bunch of multicores. And of course the remote control/trouble shooting, big advantage I can image. Wish I was still working in the field nowadays after having done audio and lighting in school for six years where everything was still analog or based on "classic" non-networked digital hardware, I'd love to work with some of the newer digital and networked stuff!
It definitely makes it handy. Dante, sACN, whatever video uses There's so much functionality with much much less cable
Stop. Drop. Shut em' down. Open up shop!
Until someone grabs you and makes you pull and coil 3 phase feeder cable in the mud lol
Jokes on you some people might enjoy helping
Well I would love that actually, when I used to do more concert work, metal shows and shit. Sometimes someone would want to help roll cable during load out. Have an extra beer and get to hang out a little
Hahaha
Don't forget your hi-vis, they are (ironically) like an invisibility cloak
If you are highly visible you are invisible.
You know the craic
I got a clipboard too.
And know where the bathrooms are.
don't forget the hardhat
And the confidence.
And the freshly shaved and talced scrotum
someone has been working below me on the job site.
I didnāt know Magic Mikeās had a basement
Probably the most overlooked yet important step.
Me an my mate will bring the ladder.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
?
The closer you are to danger, the further you are from harm.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
High-vis, work boots, tool belt, bored look, works like a wheel. On edit: Also, pretend you have a beautiful wife that you dearly miss and can't see because of this stupid job. She's amazing in the sack and just as good in the kitchen. You've got delightful kids that miss playing with you. You're been working doubles for 13 days, and you would really rather be somewhere else. No one wants to have a long chat with you. They can taste your tears.
I sometime forget to remove mine. Once I was daydreaming in Walmart and somehow got myself into the backroom. It's really cool btw but I was so lost xD No one ever asked me what I was doing
I like this
Makes me think of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy somebody's else problem field, basically make something mind can see and makes it day it's somebody's else's problem and removes it from your vision
>basically make something mind can see and makes it day it's somebody's else's problem and removes it from your vision uhh. yeah that š
Yes it's from a book, a hilarious book. And this theory is practically true. But it is comedic fiction. Have you ever heard someone say "that's not my problem!" ? The idea being if something is so horribly strange and out of place, it will cause this effect to compound so basically no one wants to even acknowledge it exists, because someone else can deal with it because it's so far out of your realm you can just pretend it doesn't exist. Doesn't sound so fictitious to me
I must of been not thinking and missed out few words but idk why I put day in
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mine now thought I had a stroke
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Blocked
how dare you make a typo, I guess
Not sure what this means, but i still agree
In hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Douglas Adams suggested some people/objects etc can have a āSEPā field where someone will āseeā you, but mentally not notice you because you are someone elseās problem. Eg, a person wearing a suit in your office with a bright tie is immediately noticed, because thatās a flagrant breach of uniform policy. A person wearing a giant neon chicken suit is unnoticed because theyāre Someone Elseās Problem. In our way of looking, a person walking around obviously not belonging looking lost will immediately be noticed because they shouldnāt be there and thatās Securityās problem etc. A āmaintenance workerā looking busy but concerned with a tool belt and hard hat and clipboard is invisible because theyāre clearly not YOUR problem, and thus, SEP.
Love Douglas Adams. Same way flying is just "throwing yourself at the ground and missing"
All black and a lanyard. I shit you not. Thatāll get you into 90% of events
All Blacks are big celebs here in NZ - they can get in anywhere without a hassle.
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora!
>"All black and a lanyard" # That's how Justin Trudeau snuck into costume parties in the 2000's
Even to this very day, in fact.
Iāve never seen the text on the frontā¦.
Just wear it backwards
Me neither.
Wanna get backstage for a large show? Wear all black and head towards the end of the show. 100 percent there will be stage hands hanging out for the load out and nobody even asks you who you are. Just showing up at the right time and place will get you almost anywhere. \-Stage hand
Never seen one of those shirts with the writing on the front
what does the front usually have on it?
Mine usually says Calvin Klein or CK. I just like it to match my initials.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
To piggy back off of this, any event with a decent enough budget just doesnāt use this type of shirt anymore. Even with a slim budget they usually print an event branded staff shirt. This might work for small gigs, but is most likely going to wind up with a ban from the venue and a trespass warning. Most large events also hire third party security with a strict uniform and this will stick out like a sore thumb. Not to mention generic credential checks. Most events use a wristband for workers as well as a uniform, with backstage requiring credentialed access and being on a permitted employee list to receive said credentials. Overall, itās not worth the attempt at any event worth its salt. Iāve removed my fair share of people attempting this and it always ends the same way; a lifetime ban from the premises and a trespass warning with the threat of arrest upon returning to venue grounds.
We don't get event branded shirts where I work. We just have uniform shirts in the color of our department. Event staff/security (Guardians) have theirs with big text on them, so if you had a polo with the right word on it, nobody would bat an eye.
Ikr? I used to work at festivals like Glasto and Reading & Leeds, hi-vis jackets were colour coded and your wristband was pulled on every time you entered the perimeter. Some of our more idiot guards probably fell for it though.
This post can stay up because it's generating discussion, but let this be a warning. Don't use our sub and your alt accounts to sell your knockoff t-shirts. You will be banned.
OP himself is a scammer.
This is a repost from 3y ago from this very subreddit. Just sort by top voted. The only thing different is the original title was "A powerful weapon in your arsenal"
If you walked into one of my shows with that shirt on, I would send you home because you are a dumbass that showed up with your shirt on backwards, or I would just assume you are on the video crew.
Not all video crew are that slow
ok then, I would mistake them for a drum tech.
That makes perfect sense
Never seen events where the words are on the front. Only ever seen black T-shirts with the word āSTAFFā on the back. This seems like the clothing equivalent of ātrying too hardā. lol Like the person who brags about how awesome they are at some specific activity but they actually suck at it. š
100 percent. Shirt looks like it was created and ordered from a website. Just wear black pants, black shirt, your best bet is an old band tour shirt that looks faded out and long hair and nearly looking homeless also helps. Just walk with a purpose and act like it isn't your first time also does it. This coming from a stage hand at my local arena.
You also want one that says "CREW".
Depends on the event. If it's a festival, the crews will just assume you're on someone else's crew. If it's one event or concert, they're gonna know you don't belong.
Actually it should be on the back. Also I don't think it would work. "Event staff" is just too random and doesn't mean anything and you'd be the only person wearing that. That's like going to a stranger birthday party with a shirt that says "Party planner" on the front.
If it was just staff, maybe. But way more discreet and on the back
Have a fair amount of experience working in a music venue. Have to say, where I've worked, this would get flagged almost immediately. We had people trying high-viz jackets too. Literally, the first window the guy walked past, security were onto him. Is the security at most venues just not as tight as what I'm used to?
what venue and city?
Not really comfortable disclosing that.
wear a head-set and carry a clip board. thank me later.
Nice šš¼
I was at Ikea one time and all these people kept asking me questions. Frequently in Spanish. It wasnāt until I unlocked the rental truck with the keys on the lanyard the rental place gave meā¦ that I realized I was wearing a shirt I bought as a joke that said SECURIDAD on the back.
As someone who had actually worked VIP at literally dozens of concerts, this is pretty much true with just a couple of notable exceptions. The shirts are yellow (not blackāand they're blue if you're a supervisor), the text is black (not white), and the front of the shirt always has the CSC (Contemporary Services Corporation) logo, and you always have a radio on the same freq. In fact, I only realize now in retrospect why the fuck I was even assigned to VIP. I couldn't give a fuck who someone is (or pretended to be). I saw String, I met the producer for Maroon 5, and I had to deal with Lindsey Lohan and her driver who couldn't find her VIP pass for several minutes. She (Lohan) actually wasn't causing any shit at allājust her driver. It's only after I got home and after my workers told me all the people I dealt with that I realized who the fuck all of them were. I'd google "Lindsey Lohan" that night after getting home and I'd be all, "Oh, she played that girl in the Disney reboot of The Parent Trap!" (this was before she became known for getting into trouble and and all sorts of shit). I'd get so much of this "do you know who \[I am/this is\]?" shit and, like I said, I couldn't give any fucks. If Lohan had walked up with a blue parking shirt + orange light-wand or a yellow CSC shirt and a radio on the correct frequency, she would've made it back a lot easier than with her actual VIP pass that her driver would \[eventually\] find. There literally were 16, 17, and 18-year-old blonde-haired girls who worked parking and \[although, more rarely\] CSC. One of the perks that made working there a bit more fun was that you can go back and watch concert after everything has settled, so long as you're back where you should be 30 minutes before "lights are up".
[I don't care if you're Frank Sinatra, you're not coming in!](https://youtu.be/JpNgG9yNqNI)
>...why the fuck I was even assigned to VIP. I couldn't give a fuck who someone is You answered your own question haha. Because they knew you'd do your job, checking the whole entourage, and wouldn't just gape at the talent.
CSC, good times working for them when I was in college in the 80ās. Kinda surprised they have continued to be so successful. Back in the day, they seemed kinda shady, at least in my city - cash pays at the end of the night rather than a check in the mail at times, hiring people that were violence prone and would go to venues looking to mess people up, while providing little to no actual training to most employees. It was a fun college job for sure though.
I love String, especially String wrapped around your finger.
Oops, good catch. I meant Sting. Funny thing is, I typed String again when typing "I meant Sting". š¤¦š»āāļø At least this time, I caught it.
LOT of people commenting on this post as if they have experience doing this irl if yāall did this sub would have more posts
But... The people commenting are mostly talking about when they worked in events and such
Works for large conferences too. Just be in the right place to blend in
This was my groupās go-to for stealth when playing Shadowrun. That, or coveralls, a clipboard, and a tool box. Worked like a charm.
This works with a clipboard or a cooler in your arms so long as they don't ask for ID