Show dictionary

The language of show day

Event production has a vocabulary that nobody teaches and everybody assumes: FOH, strike, advance, backline. This dictionary defines each term in plain language, notes where touring, corporate, theatre, and broadcast usage differs, and shows how it sounds on a real show call.

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"Copy" / "Good copy": Radio acknowledgment: message received and understood. "Copy" ends more conversations than any word in production; "go for [name]" starts them.
"Flying in": To fly something in is to lower it from above (from the fly system or a motor): "fly in the mid truss." The opposite is flying out. Borrowed by crews for anything arriving quickly from elsewhere.
"Hot": Hot means energized or live: a hot circuit, a hot mic, a hot clamp fresh from a lamp. The warning "that is hot" outranks whatever else was being said.
"Kill it" / "Lose it": To kill something is to turn it off or strike it: "kill the hazer," "lose the podium." Unambiguous by design; nobody says "kill" about anything ambiguous over headset.
"Walking": Said of anything traveling across the site with a person: "the podium is walking," "your handheld is walking to stage." Also the polite way to say a tool left without permission: "my C-wrench walked."
10 out of 12: A 10 out of 12 is a technical rehearsal day in which performers may work ten hours within a twelve-hour span, with the remaining two hours as breaks, a structure set by Actors’ Equity Association rules for technical rehearsals.
10-1 / 10-2: Radio brevity codes borrowed from ten-codes for a restroom break (10-1 short, 10-2 longer), announced so a position is known to be unmanned. Universally understood, rarely written down until now.

A

A1: The A1 is the lead audio engineer on a live event: the person responsible for the sound system and for mixing the show, usually from FOH. The numbering convention (A1, A2, V1, L1) comes from corporate AV and broadcast staffing grids.
A2: The A2 is the stage-side audio technician: the person who mics performers and presenters, manages wireless (batteries, frequencies, packs), builds and repairs the stage patch, and runs line checks, all in support of the A1 mixing the show.
Advance: The advance is the structured exchange of information between a production and each venue before the show arrives: technical requirements, rigging plots, power needs, schedules, labor calls, catering, parking, and every logistical detail that makes load-in day predictable.
All access (AAA): All access is the credential tier that opens every area of a show site: stage, dressing rooms, production offices. AAA laminates are issued sparingly and checked constantly; most working passes restrict at least one zone.
Ampacity: Ampacity is the current a conductor can carry continuously without exceeding its temperature rating, set by gauge, insulation, and conditions. Breakers protect cable ampacity, which is why breaker size follows wire size.
Ancillaries: Ancillaries are venue revenue streams beyond the ticket: parking, concessions, merchandise fees, facility charges. Deal negotiations increasingly touch ancillaries because that is where modern venue economics live.
Apex: The apex is the bottom junction of a bridle where the legs meet and the point loads. Placing the apex at the plot coordinate is the purpose of the whole assembly.
Apron: The apron is the part of the stage extending toward the audience past the proscenium line (or past the main curtain). Thrusts and runways are aprons grown ambitious; front fills and downstage monitors live on it.
As-live: Recorded as if live: shot in real time with the full live workflow but taped for later playout. As-live segments keep live discipline (no stopping) without the transmission risk.
ASM (assistant stage manager): The ASM runs a section of the deck under the stage manager: a wing, the quick-change traffic, or talent escort. In theatre, ASMs execute the physical show the calling SM commands.

B

B-roll: Supplementary footage (crowd shots, wide beauty shots, load-in timelapses) cut over interviews and voiceover. Events shoot B-roll deliberately because sponsors and comms teams always ask for it after the fact.
Back of house (BOH): Back of house covers every non-public area: docks, corridors, dressing rooms, kitchens, production offices. Its counterpart front of house (in the venue sense) is everywhere ticket holders go.
Backhaul: Backhaul is the transport of program or camera feeds from the event site to the broadcaster or control room: fiber, satellite, bonded cellular, or managed internet circuits. The advance decides which, with a backup.
Backline: Backline is the musicians’ instrument equipment on stage: guitar and bass amplifiers, drum kits, keyboards and stands: the gear traditionally arranged along the back line of the stage, as distinct from the PA and production equipment.
Backline tech: The backline tech maintains and sets the band’s instruments: drum tech, guitar tech, keys tech. They tune, string, patch pedalboards, and hand off instruments mid-song like a pit crew.
Ballyhoo: A ballyhoo is a followspot move: sweeping the beam in loops or figure-eights across the crowd or stage for energy. Called as "bally the house" during walkouts and big hits.
Barricade: The barricade is the crowd-control barrier line in front of the stage at concerts, creating the pit lane where security and photographers work. Its shape (straight, curved, with thrust pockets) is a security design decision.
Bars and tone: Color bars with reference audio tone, sent ahead of program so downstream engineers can align video levels and audio reference. The tone level is stated against the alignment standards on the audio reference chart.
Basket: A basket is a sling passed around a structural member with both eyes brought down together, cradling the beam. Baskets around building steel (with protection) are how points begin.
Blinder: Blinders are audience-facing fixture arrays (classically 2-light or 8-light tungsten banks) that flash the crowd at peak moments. The warm bloom and slow fade of tungsten blinders remains its own effect.
Board op: The board operator runs a console (lighting or audio) during the show, executing cues on the caller’s or SM’s go. Distinct from the designer who created what the board plays back.
Breakout session: Breakouts are the smaller parallel sessions attendees split into after a general session. Production is deliberately lighter (a screen, a couple of mics, a confidence monitor), multiplied across many rooms and turned on tight schedules.
Breakup (gobo): A breakup is an abstract gobo pattern used to texture light rather than project an image: foliage, shards, dapple. Designers stack breakups in movers and profiles to keep stage light from reading flat.
Bridle: A bridle is a rigging assembly of two (or more) legs run from separate structural points down to a single apex, used to place a chain motor point where no beam exists: between trusses, at a specific plot coordinate. Leg lengths set the apex position; geometry sets each leg’s tension.
Bridle leg: Each inclined member of a bridle, built from steels plus adjustable chain to a computed length. Leg tensions exceed their share of the load as the bridle flattens; the calculator does the math.
Bump: A bump is an instantaneous jump to a look or level (no fade), usually on a bump button ridden live to music. Bumps and chases are the percussion section of busked lighting.
Bus bars: Bus bars are the rigid conductor bars inside switches, panels, and distros that circuits tap. "Landing on the bus" is electrician-speak for connecting to them; only qualified hands go near an energized bus.
Bus call: Bus call is the time the tour bus departs, and the one time on the day sheet with no grace period. Crew who miss bus call find their own way to the next city, a rule enforced precisely because everyone knows it.
Busking: Busking is operating lighting live without pre-recorded cues: building the show in real time from palettes, submasters, and effects, standard practice for concerts without locked setlists.
Buyout: A buyout is money paid instead of a service that would otherwise be provided. A meal buyout replaces catering with cash; a production buyout pays the artist to bring their own PA, lighting, or crew instead of using what the venue or promoter would have supplied.

C

C-wrench: The C-wrench (crescent wrench, an 8-inch adjustable) is the lighting electrician’s membership card, used for clamps and truss bolts and carried tied off with tieline so it cannot become a projectile from height.
Call Time: A call time is the time a person or department is required to be present and ready to work. A production day is a stack of calls: riggers at 6, audio at 8, band at 3, orchestra at half hour. "You are called at" is the operative phrasing.
Camlock (Cam-Lock): Camlock (cam-lock, after the camming action of its locking pin) is the single-pole connector standard of show power feeder: each conductor gets its own insulated connector, color-coded by function (green ground, white neutral, black/red/blue phases), rated at hundreds of amps per pole.
Catwalk: A catwalk is a narrow elevated walkway built into a venue above the stage or auditorium, giving crew access to lighting positions, rigging, and followspots without ladders or lifts. Arenas, theatres, and convention centers all hide networks of them.
Centerline: The centerline runs up-and-downstage through the exact center of the proscenium opening. Plots dimension from centerline and plaster line; the spike at their intersection is the origin of the stage’s coordinate system.
Chain Motor: A chain motor is an electric chain hoist used to lift and hold entertainment loads: trusses, PA hangs, scenery, video walls. Entertainment practice typically runs them "motor up" (hoist body climbs its own chain toward the point), in capacity classes like quarter-, half-, one-, and two-ton.
Changeover: A changeover is the timed reset between acts on a shared stage: the previous band’s equipment comes off, the next band’s goes on, inputs are re-patched, and a line check confirms everything passes signal, all inside a window the schedule already promised.
Chase: A chase is a repeating sequence of lighting states stepping in rhythm: the classic runway of PARs, or any looped effect stepping through fixtures. Rate and intensity ride live on most consoles.
Chroma subsampling (4:4:4 / 4:2:2 / 4:2:0): Chroma subsampling reduces color resolution relative to brightness to save bandwidth: 4:4:4 keeps everything, 4:2:2 halves color horizontally, 4:2:0 quarters it. Fine text on LED walls shows the difference first.
Clean feed: A program feed without graphics, lower thirds, or bugs: the pictures only. International partners and archives take clean feeds so they can dress the program their own way; the dressed version is the dirty feed.
Color Temperature: Color temperature describes the warmth or coolness of nominally white light, in kelvin: roughly 3200 K for tungsten (warm amber-white) and 5600 K for daylight (cool blue-white). Lower is warmer, higher is cooler, a scale inherited from the physics of heated bodies.
Comb filtering: Comb filtering is the frequency-response ripple created when a signal combines with a delayed copy of itself: two mics on one source, a speaker plus its reflection. The cure is time alignment, spacing discipline, or one fewer open mic.
Company switch: A company switch is a dedicated, fused electrical disconnect installed in a venue for visiting productions to tie into, typically providing 200–400 A of three-phase power via cam-lock connections. It exists so touring rigs can connect heavy loads without touching house panels.
Confidence Monitor: A confidence monitor is a display aimed at the performers showing what they need to see: current slide, next slide, speaker notes, a countdown timer, or lyrics. It faces upstage from the downstage edge (or hangs at the back of the house) so presenters never turn around.
Crew chief: The crew chief leads a department’s labor on site: assigns hands, sequences the work, and interfaces with the department head or PM. On tours, each department’s traveling lead is its crew chief.
Crossover: The crossover is the path performers and crew use to get from one side of the stage to the other unseen: behind the back wall, under the stage, or through a corridor. Shows without one discover it at the worst moment.
Cue-to-Cue (Q2Q): A cue-to-cue (Q2Q) is a technical rehearsal that runs only the moments around cues: the show jumps from one cue sequence to the next, skipping dialogue and content in between, so the technical team can build and time every transition efficiently.
Curfew: Curfew is the legally or contractually mandated time amplified sound or the event itself must end, common at outdoor venues. Blowing curfew triggers fines measured per minute, which is why encores get cut mid-set.
Cyc light: Cyc lights are fixtures built to wash a cyclorama (the seamless upstage backdrop) evenly from top or bottom. LED cyc units made saturated, seamless color fields a one-fixture job.

D

D8 / D8+ / C1: European hoist classifications (from German BGV/DGUV practice) governing use over people: D8 hoists hold loads only with secondaries, D8+ may hold without moving over people, C1 systems may move loads over people. Which applies is a per-show engineering question.
Dante: Dante is a widely adopted audio-over-IP networking technology carrying hundreds of channels over standard ethernet. On shows it moves audio between stage racks, consoles, and processors on one network fabric.
Dark Day: A dark day is a day with no performance: the day a theatre is closed each week (traditionally Monday), or a tour day with travel but no show. A venue or production "goes dark" when nothing is running and the stage lights are off.
Day Sheet: A day sheet is the one-page daily schedule of a tour: city, venue, load-in time, soundcheck, doors, set times, curfew, bus call, hotel, and the contacts that matter today. Posted on the bus and backstage, it is the answer to every "what time is..." question.
Dead Hang: A dead hang is a static suspension: the load hangs directly from a point on fixed-length rigging (steel, spansets, shackles) with no hoist in the path, set to its trim and left there. "Dead hung" scenery or cable picks do not move during the show.
Deadhead: To deadhead is to travel empty: a truck driving a leg with no freight, a bus repositioning without passengers, or crew moving between cities on a non-working day. The term comes from railroad and trucking usage and carries the same meaning across touring logistics.
Deck: The deck is the stage floor itself, and by extension the crew who work on it ("deck crew," "deck audio"). "On the deck" means at stage level, as opposed to in the air or at FOH.
Delay Tower: A delay tower is a supplementary PA position partway back in a large audience area, electronically delayed so its sound arrives in step with the main PA. Delays restore level and intelligibility at distance without requiring a louder (and closer-punishing) main system.
Department head: The department head owns one craft on a production (audio, electrics, carpentry, video, props) and its crew. In union houses, house heads run their departments for every show that comes through.
Design factor: The design factor is the margin between rated working load and minimum breaking strength (commonly 5:1 or greater for slings). It absorbs the unknowns; it is not spare capacity to spend.
DI Box: A DI box (direct injection, or direct box) converts an unbalanced, high-impedance instrument or line signal into a balanced, low-impedance mic-level signal that survives long cable runs to the console. Most also isolate grounds and provide a ground-lift switch.
Dimmer beach: Dimmer beach is the offstage area where lighting power distribution racks (historically dimmer racks) park. The name survives the technology; today it is as likely relay and data distribution as actual dimmers.
Distro (Power Distribution): A distro (power distribution unit) takes a large incoming circuit (cam-lock feeder or a big multipin) and breaks it into many smaller, individually breaker-protected circuits: soca runs, twist-locks, Edison outputs. It is the tree trunk between the power source and everything a department plugs in.
DMX512: DMX512 (ANSI E1.11) is the standard digital control protocol for stage lighting: one link (universe) carries 512 channels of 8-bit control at 250 kbit/s over an EIA-485 differential pair, daisy-chained from console through fixtures and terminated at the end of the line.
Dog house: The dog house is the protective cable ramp/cover where feeder or multicore crosses a walkway, from the hutch-like look of the larger versions. Crossings get dog houses or they get taped, and one of those survives forklifts.
Doors: Doors is the scheduled moment the audience is admitted into the venue. "Doors at 7" means the public enters at 7:00; every onstage task, soundcheck, and rehearsal must be finished (or invisible) by then, because the room stops belonging to the crew.
Downstage: Downstage is the area of the stage closest to the audience, the downhill end of a historical raked stage. Downstage center, the closest and most central position, is the strongest place to stand in almost any performance.
Drayage: Drayage is the trade-show term for material handling: receiving your freight at the dock or warehouse, delivering it to your booth, storing the empty crates, and reversing it all at the close. It is billed by weight, traditionally per hundredweight (CWT), and it is the line item that shocks first-time exhibitors.
Dress rehearsal: A dress rehearsal is a full run under show conditions: costumes, full technical execution, no stopping unless something breaks. Corporate shows use the term for the complete speaker run-through the day before.
Drum fill: The drum fill is the drummer’s monitor rig, typically a wedge plus a subwoofer, because drummers ask their monitors to compete with an acoustic kit at source distance.
DSM (deputy stage manager): In UK theatre, the DSM is "on the book": sitting in the prompt corner calling the cues, while the stage manager runs the wider operation. The US equivalent duty sits with the calling SM.
Dynamic load: Dynamic loads arise from movement: accelerating hoists, automation effects, swinging scenery. Moving rigs are engineered to dynamic figures, not static weights, which is why automation carries its own standards.

E

E-stop: The emergency stop kills motion in a hoist or automation system instantly from clearly marked controls. E-stop discipline (who can hit it, everyone; who resets it, one person) is part of every motor call briefing.
Edge Blending: Edge blending combines multiple projectors into one seamless wide image by overlapping their edges and cross-fading the overlap: each projector ramps its output down across the shared zone so the summed brightness stays even.
Edison: Edison is crew shorthand for the standard US household plug and outlet (NEMA 5-15/5-20). "Edison ends," "an Edison run," and the quad box full of Edisons are the retail layer of show power.
Emcee (MC): The emcee or master of ceremonies is the on-stage host who opens the show, bridges segments, and keeps energy and timing on track. A good emcee is a stage manager the audience can see.
Exhibit hall: The exhibit hall is the trade show floor: booths on a grid of numbered aisles, built during targeted move-in windows under the general service contractor’s rules. Everything on it moves by drayage and closes at strike with startling speed.

F

Feedback: Feedback is the self-sustaining howl produced when a microphone picks up the sound system’s output and the system re-amplifies it in a loop. It rings at whichever frequency completes the loop with the most gain, from low growls to glass-cutting squeals.
Feeder: Feeder is the heavy-gauge cable (commonly 4/0 or 2/0 with cam-lock ends) that carries a production’s main power from the source (company switch or generator) to distribution. Feeder runs are measured, ramped, and protected because they carry hundreds of amps.
Fireside chat: A fireside chat is a two-chair interview format: a moderator and a guest in armchairs instead of a podium talk. No fire is involved; the staging cue is soft seating, a rug, and lavalier mics instead of handhelds.
Flown vs ground-stacked: Flown equipment hangs from points; ground-stacked equipment stands on the deck or subs. PA discussions default to this axis first, because coverage, sightlines, and rigging all follow from it.
Fly date: A fly date is a show the touring party reaches by air rather than by the bus-and-truck routing, usually with rented local production and backline. Festival slots dropped into a tour are the classic case.
Fly rail: The fly rail is the operating position for a counterweight fly system, where flypersons lock and run the linesets. The rail side of the stage (often stage right) inherits traffic rules because of it.
Fly space (fly tower): Fly space is the volume above the stage, ideally tall enough to lift (fly) full-height scenery out of view. A house with a full fly tower can make walls vanish; one without needs other tricks.
Followspot: A followspot is a high-output spotlight operated by hand to follow a performer around the stage. The operator controls aim, beam size (iris), edge, color (boomerang frames), and intensity (douser), executing pickups on the caller’s cues.
Four-wall: To four-wall a venue is to rent the room itself (the four walls) and bring in everything else: production, staffing, ticketing, and risk. The renter acts as their own promoter, keeping upside and absorbing losses.
Fresnel: A fresnel is a soft-edged wash fixture named for its stepped lens, with a spot-to-flood focus and barn doors for shaping. The classic soft workhorse of theatre and studio rigs.
Front Fill: Front fills are small loudspeakers placed along the downstage edge (on the stage lip or subwoofers) to cover the first few rows, which sit underneath the main PA’s coverage. They restore level, clarity, and image for the seats closest to the stage.
Front of House (FOH): Front of house (FOH) is the audience side of a venue: everything in front of the proscenium or stage edge. In live event production, "FOH" most often refers to the mix position out in the house where the audio console sits, and to the engineer who mixes the show from there.

G

Gaff tape (vs duct tape): Gaff tape is cloth tape with matte finish and clean-release adhesive: it tapes cable, marks decks, and leaves no residue. Duct tape is its shiny, residue-leaving civilian cousin and using it on a stage floor is a hazing offense.
Gain Structure: Gain structure (or gain staging) is the discipline of setting signal levels correctly at every stage of the audio path (preamp, console, processing, amplifier) so each stage operates comfortably above its noise floor and safely below clipping.
Gel (Color Filter): A gel is a flexible colored filter sheet placed in a frame in front of a lighting fixture to color the beam. The name survives from gelatin originals; modern gels are heat-resistant polyester, sold in numbered manufacturer systems like Roscolux and Lee.
General service contractor (GSC): The GSC (Freeman and its competitors) is the official contractor of a trade show: floor plans, pipe and drape, booth furniture, labor, and the exclusive material handling. Exhibitor manuals are the GSC’s rulebook and rate card.
General session: The general session is the main gathering of a conference, where every attendee is in one room: keynotes, executive presentations, the big production moments. It gets the largest room, the real stage, and most of the AV budget.
Genie: Genericized name for a portable vertical lift (from the Genie brand), used for focus, points, and anything overhead where a ladder is worse. "Send the genie to mid-stage" names the machine, whatever badge it wears.
Genlock: Genlock (generator lock) synchronizes video equipment to a common reference signal so every device starts each frame at the same instant. A genlocked system switches cleanly between sources without frame-sync buffers, drift, or tearing.
GFCI: A GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) trips power in milliseconds when current leaks to ground, protecting people from shock. Outdoor and wet-location show power runs on GFCI protection by code and by sense.
Ghost Light: A ghost light is the single bare bulb, usually on a portable stand, left burning center stage when a theatre is otherwise dark. Practically, it keeps anyone entering a pitch-black stage from walking into the orchestra pit; traditionally, it keeps the theatre’s ghosts company.
Glass-to-Glass: Glass-to-glass is the total delay from the camera lens (first glass) to the display surface (second glass): capture, processing, switching, transport, and display latency summed into one honest number, usually expressed in frames or milliseconds.
Gobo: A gobo is a stencil or template inserted at the focal point of a profile fixture to shape its beam into a projected pattern: window frames, foliage breakups, logos, or texture. Steel gobos are cut silhouettes; glass gobos carry detail and color.
Going dark: A venue or production goes dark when nothing is running: no show, house closed. Related to the dark day but broader; a production that closes early "goes dark" indefinitely.
Green Room: The green room is the backstage waiting and hospitality space where performers, speakers, and guests stay before and between appearances. The name long predates modern venues (its origin is genuinely disputed) and the room is almost never green.
Grid: The grid is the structural steel floor at the top of a fly tower from which rigging hangs, walkable in most houses. "Gridding" a piece means flying it all the way up to the grid.
Ground Support: Ground support is structure that stands on the floor instead of hanging from the building: truss towers with sleeve blocks that let a grid or header climb the towers (typically raised by chain hoists) and lock at trim. It is how shows fly a rig where the roof cannot.
Guarantee: A guarantee is the fixed performance fee a promoter is contractually obligated to pay the artist whether or not the show sells. It contrasts with a door deal (a percentage of ticket revenue) and commonly combines with one: a guarantee versus or plus a percentage of net after costs.

H

Half hour: The half-hour call marks thirty minutes to curtain, the traditional point performers must be in the building and signing in. The countdown proceeds through fifteen, five, and places.
Hang and focus: The hang is installing fixtures per the plot; focus is aiming and shaping each one to its purpose. "Hang and focus" together are the lighting load-in’s two great phases, in that order.
Hard out: A hard out is a non-negotiable end time: the venue curfew, the union call flip, the moment the ballroom becomes someone else’s wedding. Backward timing from the hard out determines everything upstream.
Hard Patch: A hard patch is the physical connection between a rig’s circuits and its power or dimmer outputs: actual plugs into actual sockets, at a patch bay, dimmer rack, or distro. It contrasts with the soft patch, the console-side mapping of addresses to control channels.
Hard wall: Hard wall booths are built from rigid panels rather than pipe and drape, whether custom exhibits or venue-rented systems. The term also covers built scenic walls anywhere a fabric line will not do.
Haze: Haze is a fine, even atmospheric suspension produced by a hazer that makes light beams visible in the air without reading as smoke. Fog, by contrast, is dense and cloud-like; haze is the invisible medium every aerial beam look depends on.
High-pass filter (HPF): A high-pass filter removes content below a set frequency. Engaged on nearly every input that is not bass or kick, it strips stage rumble, plosives, and mud the channel never needed.
Hold: A hold stops the rehearsal or show sequence immediately, typically for safety ("hold, hold, hold" on headset). Work resumes only when the caller releases it. In rehearsal it simply pauses; during a show it is an emergency word.
Hold (venue hold): A hold is a tentative reservation of a venue date. Holds stack in order (first hold, second hold); a challenge forces the earlier hold to confirm or release. Routing lives and dies in the holds ledger.
Hot spot: A hot spot is the bright center a projection or light source leaves on screen material, strongest with high-gain surfaces viewed on axis. Screen choice and projector placement manage it.
House crew vs road crew: House crew belongs to the venue (house heads, house electricians); road crew travels with the show. The daily handshake between them, road knowledge meeting house knowledge, is how touring works at all.
House Lights: House lights are the venue’s audience-area lighting: the room light the audience walks in under. Control of the house lights marks control of the show; "house to half, house out" is the oldest opening cue sequence in the book.
House power: House power is the venue’s built-in electrical supply (wall outlets and panels) as opposed to production power from company switches or generators. Useful for small loads; famous for being shared with the coffee maker.

I

IATSE: IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts) is the labor union representing stagehands and entertainment technicians across the United States and Canada, organized into local chapters ("locals") by city and craft.
IEM (in-ear monitors): IEMs replace wedges with earpieces fed by wireless packs: consistent mixes at safer levels with a quieter stage. The cost is isolation, RF coordination, and total dependence on the monitor engineer.
IFB (Interruptible Foldback): IFB (interruptible foldback) is the earpiece feed to on-camera or on-stage talent: normally program audio (usually mix-minus, without their own voice), which a producer or director can interrupt at any moment to speak directly into the talent’s ear.
IMAG: IMAG (image magnification) is showing live camera video of the performers on large screens so distant audiences can see what the room’s scale hides: faces, hands, expressions. It is the camera-switcher-screen loop running in real time throughout the show.
Input List: An input list is the numbered table of every audio source in the show: channel 1 kick, channel 14 lead vocal, each with its microphone or DI, stand type, and stage position. It is the shared map that lets the patch, the console file, and the line check all agree.
Iris: An iris is the adjustable circular aperture in a profile or followspot that changes beam diameter without changing focus. "Iris down" is the standing instruction for tightening a spot pickup.
ISO (isolated recording): An ISO is a continuous recording of a single camera or source, independent of the switched program. ISOs are the safety net of live production: the edit can rebuild any moment from them.
Isolated ground: An isolated ground circuit gives sensitive equipment a ground path separate from the general equipment ground to reduce noise coupling. Audio distros advertise it; correct bonding still governs, per code.

K

Key and fill: Keying composites one image over another; key-and-fill graphics deliver two signals, the fill (the picture) and the key (its transparency matte), so lower thirds float cleanly over program.
Keynote: The keynote is the headline talk that sets the theme of an event, and by extension its highest-profile speaker slot. Keynotes get rehearsals, prompter, dedicated run-throughs, and the most nervous client in the building.
Keystone: Keystone is the trapezoidal distortion of an image projected at an angle to the screen. Physical lens shift beats digital keystone correction, which resamples and softens the image.
kVA vs kW: kVA (kilovolt-amperes) is apparent power; kW (kilowatts) is real power actually converted to work. They differ by the power factor: kW = kVA × PF. Generators are rated in kVA, so a 100 kVA generator delivers 80 kW at a 0.8 power factor.

L

L1 / L2: Corporate AV shorthand mirroring A1/A2 for lighting: L1 leads and operates, L2 supports the rig. Less standardized than the audio version but common on staffing grids.
Laminate: A laminate is the durable tour credential issued for a whole tour or season, as opposed to single-day stick-on passes. The hierarchy of laminates and stickers encodes who belongs where, readable at a glance by security.
LED processor: The LED processor translates a video input into the data LED panels need, handling mapping, color, brightness, and redundancy. It is the wall’s brain; panels are its limbs.
LED Wall: An LED wall is a direct-view display assembled from modular panels of LED pixels: each panel is its own light source, tiled into arbitrary sizes and shapes. Walls are specified by pixel pitch, panel dimensions, and brightness, and fed by an LED processor.
Leko (ERS / profile): Leko is the colloquial name for an ellipsoidal reflector spotlight (ERS; "profile" in the UK): the hard-edged, shutter-framing, gobo-capable workhorse of front light. The name descends from the Lekolite brand.
Lighting Designer (LD): The lighting designer (LD) creates the visual light of a production: the rig (what hangs where), the looks, and the cues that sequence them. In touring, "LD" commonly means lighting director: the person operating and adapting the design night after night.
Line Array: A line array is a vertically hung column of loudspeaker elements designed to acoustically couple into a single tall source. The coupled column approximates a line source, which loses closer to 3 dB per doubling of distance in its near field instead of the 6 dB of a point source.
Line Check: A line check is the verification that every input on the stage reaches the console: an A2 works down the input list (scratching each mic, plucking each DI line) while engineers confirm signal channel by channel. It checks the plumbing, not the mix.
Load Cell: A load cell is a force sensor installed in a rigging path (between point and motor, or in a tower leg) that measures the real load at that location, typically monitored wirelessly. It converts a plot’s calculated numbers into live measured ones.
Load path: The load path is the complete chain of elements carrying a load to the structure: fixture, clamp, truss, sling, shackle, motor, point, steel. Every element in the path is rated, or the path is not.
Load-In: Load-in is the scheduled window when a production moves equipment into the venue and builds the show: unloading trucks, rigging points and motors, staging, then audio, video, lighting, and scenic elements, usually in that order.
Load-Out: Load-out is the post-show process of striking the production and loading it into the trucks: floor packages first, rigging last, trucks packed in the order the next day needs them. It overlaps with "strike"; where distinguished, strike is the dismantling and load-out is the loading.
Loader: Loaders work the trucks: on and off, dock to ramp. In many locals, loading is its own craft with its own call, and the pack’s speed lives or dies on their case-tetris judgment.
Loading dock: The loading dock is where trucks meet the building: dock height, door count, and the push distance to the stage define how hard a load-in will be, which is why every advance asks about it first.
Lower third: The graphic in the lower portion of the frame identifying a speaker or topic. Built as key-and-fill or rendered by the switcher or graphics system; the spelling of names on lower thirds is checked three times and still wrong once.

M

M/E (mix/effects): An M/E is a switcher’s compositing bank: its own program/preview with keyers, used to build scenes (camera plus graphics plus background) that the main bus can take as one source.
Master electrician (ME): The ME leads the lighting crew: owns the hang, the power, the data, and the maintenance of the rig, executing the LD’s design. On tours the lighting crew chief plays the same role.
Meal penalty: A meal penalty is the payment owed when crew work through a contractually required meal break. It exists to make skipping meals expensive rather than convenient, and it works.
Media Server: A media server is the specialized playback and compositing system that drives show video: it stores and triggers content, composites layers and live inputs on a timeline or cue stack, and maps the result onto outputs feeding LED walls, projectors, and displays.
Merch rate: The merch rate is the percentage of merchandise sales a venue or its concessionaire keeps in exchange for selling space and staff. Artists track it closely because merchandise is high-margin income the rate directly erodes.
Mix-Minus: A mix-minus is a program mix with one source deliberately removed: everything minus the recipient’s own contribution. A remote guest hears the whole show except themselves, which prevents the delayed echo of their own voice that would otherwise make speaking impossible.
Moire: Moire is the shimmering interference pattern a camera produces shooting an LED wall, caused by the wall’s pixel grid beating against the sensor’s. Cures: change distance, focal length, focus, or angle.
Monitor Engineer: The monitor engineer mixes what the performers hear: an individual mix for each musician or presenter, delivered to wedges, sidefills, and in-ear monitors from a dedicated console at the side of the stage. Their audience is the people facing away from everyone else’s.
Monitor World: Monitor world is the mix position at the side of the stage where the monitor engineer works, building the mixes performers hear in wedges and in-ears. It sits stage-side (traditionally stage left) so the engineer can see faces and hand signals.
Motor point vs house point: The house point is the structural attachment; the motor point is the hoist hanging from it. Plots count both: what the building offers, and what the show hangs from each.
Moving Light: A moving light is a motorized lighting fixture whose position (pan and tilt) and attributes (color, gobos, zoom, focus, beam shaping) are remotely controlled, typically over DMX or a network protocol. One mover replaces a truss full of fixed fixtures.
Mult Box (Press Mult): A mult box (press mult, press bridge) is a distribution box that splits one program audio feed into many isolated outputs, XLR and often TRS, at mic or line level. Every news camera and recorder at a press conference plugs into the mult instead of planting its own microphone on the podium.

N

NDI: NDI is a widely used video-over-IP protocol carrying video, audio, and control on standard networks with low latency. Common for camera feeds, graphics, and monitoring inside show networks.
Neutral: The neutral is the grounded return conductor of an AC service. In three-phase wye systems it carries the imbalance between legs, which is why balanced loading keeps neutrals (and the crew) happy.

O

Offer sheet: An offer sheet is the promoter’s formal bid for a show: date, venue, guarantee and deal structure, ticket scaling, and expense assumptions. Accepted offers become contracts; their assumptions become settlement math.
One-Off: A one-off is a single engagement outside a tour routing: one festival slot, one private or corporate show, one benefit. Because nothing carries over from yesterday or to tomorrow, everything (gear, crew, travel) is arranged for that date alone.
Orchestra pit: The orchestra pit is the lowered area between stage and audience housing musicians in musical theatre and opera. Many pits sit on lifts and become extra stage or seating when no orchestra plays.
Over-hire: Over-hire is supplemental freelance labor brought in beyond the regular or union core crew for a big call. Shops and locals both use the term for their extra-hands lists.

P

Pad: A pad is a fixed attenuator (commonly 10 to 20 dB) that knocks a hot signal down before it clips an input, built into DIs, mics, and preamps. Loud sources plus no pad equals distortion nobody can fix later.
PAR Can: A PAR can is a simple stage light: a PAR (parabolic aluminized reflector) lamp housed in a metal can with a gel frame on the front. The lamp fixes the optics, so beam size is chosen by lamp type (VNSP through WFL), and the beam is characteristically oval.
Per Diem: Per diem (Latin: "per day") is the daily cash allowance paid to touring crew and artists for meals and incidental expenses on the road. It is separate from salary, typically handed out weekly by the tour manager, and exists so nobody submits receipts for breakfast.
PFL / AFL (solo): PFL (pre-fade listen) and AFL (after-fade listen) let an engineer audition a channel in headphones without affecting the house mix, before or after the fader respectively. The solo bus is the console’s stethoscope.
Phantom Power: Phantom power is DC power (standardized at +48 V, "P48") sent from a console or preamp down the same balanced cable that carries the microphone’s audio, applied equally to both signal pins relative to ground. It powers condenser microphones and active DI boxes invisibly, hence "phantom."
Pink noise: Pink noise is a test signal with equal energy per octave, the standard stimulus for tuning and measuring sound systems. Its even, waterfall-like sound is the soundtrack of system tech mornings.
Pipe and Drape: Pipe and drape is the modular masking system of live events: weighted steel bases, vertical uprights, telescoping horizontal crossbars, and fabric panels hung between them. It builds trade show booths, backdrops, camera masking, and temporary walls in minutes, with no tools and no rigging.
Pixel map: The pixel map defines where each display surface lives within the server or processor canvas: which pixels feed which wall, sign, or strip. Content lands where the map says, nowhere else.
Pixel Pitch: Pixel pitch is the center-to-center distance between pixels on an LED display, in millimeters. A 3.9 mm wall has pixels every 3.9 mm; smaller pitch packs more pixels into the same area, supporting closer viewing at sharply higher cost.
Places: Places is the stage manager’s call for performers to take their opening positions; the last call in the countdown that begins at half hour. "Places, please" means the show starts now.
Plaster line: The plaster line is the reference line across the stage at the upstage face of the proscenium wall, from which stage depth measurements are taken in venue specs and ground plans.
Plenary: A plenary is a session for the full assembly, the term of art in academic and association conferences for what corporate calls a general session. If the agenda says plenary, everyone is expected in the room.
Pool feed: A single shared feed provided to all media outlets when individual coverage is impractical: one camera position and one mult, distributed to everyone. Standard at courtrooms, government events, and space-limited pressers.
Practical: A practical is a light source that appears within the scene itself (a lamp on a desk, a neon sign) and actually works, usually circuited and cued like any fixture.
Preset: The preset is the configured state of the stage before the show or a scene: props placed, instruments tuned and set, opening looks in lights and video. "Preset the deck" is the instruction to build it.
Press riser: The elevated camera platform at the back or side of the house reserved for media cameras, positioned on the centerline sightline with power and the mult box within reach.
Previz: Previsualization is programming a show against a 3D simulation of the rig before ever touching the real one, trading venue days for studio days. The console thinks it is talking to the actual rig.
Production assistant (PA): The PA is the production office’s utility player: paperwork, radios, credentials, runner dispatch, and whatever the PM needs next. Not the same PA as the sound system, a collision the acronym decoder chart enjoys.
Production Manager (PM): The production manager (PM) owns the practical execution of a show: budget, crew, vendors, schedule, logistics, and the thousand decisions between a signed deal and a packed truck. If the show is the what, the PM runs the how.
Program / Preview: Program is the live output; preview is the staged next shot. The program/preview pair is the core discipline of switching: build it on preview, check it, take it to program.
Program feed: The switched final output of the show: what the audience, stream, or network receives. Every other feed (ISO cameras, clean, mix-minus returns) is defined by how it differs from program.
Projection Mapping: Projection mapping is projecting content that has been geometrically warped to fit a real three-dimensional surface (a building facade, a car, a sculpted set piece) so the object itself appears to display, move, or transform. The projector stays still; the math does the fitting.
Proscenium: The proscenium is the architectural frame around the stage opening in a traditional theatre, dividing house from stage. A proscenium venue watches the show through this picture frame; arena and thrust stages abandon it.
Pusher: A pusher moves cases between dock and stage on big calls, the human conveyor belt of load-ins. Unofficial title, universally understood, first job of countless careers.

Q

Quad box: A quad box is a portable box of four Edison outlets on a cable tail, the retail unit of stage power distribution. Where the stinger goes, the quad box follows.

R

Radius clause: A radius clause is a contract term preventing an artist from playing another show within a defined distance and time window of the contracted date, protecting the promoter’s ticket sales from the artist competing with themselves.
Raster: The raster is the pixel canvas a system works in: an output’s resolution, or the total canvas a server renders. "What is the wall’s raster?" is the first content question of any LED show.
Receiving card: Each LED panel contains a receiving card that takes its slice of the processor’s data stream and drives the panel’s LEDs. Loops of panels chain card to card, with backup loops feeding from the far end.
REMI: REMI (remote integration, "at-home" production) sends camera feeds from the venue to a control room elsewhere, where the show is switched and mixed. It trades trucks and travel for connectivity and latency management.
Rider: A rider is the attachment that "rides" along with a performance contract, listing everything the artist requires from the buyer. The technical rider specifies production needs (PA, consoles, backline, inputs, power, crew); the hospitality rider covers dressing rooms, catering, and transportation.
Rigger: A rigger installs, inspects, and takes responsibility for everything suspended over a production: points, bridles, motors, and the connections between show and structure. Up-riggers work at the steel making points; down-riggers work the floor, building what gets sent up.
Rigging Point: A rigging point is a defined location where load connects to a structure: either a house point (engineered attachment the venue publishes with a rated capacity) or a point built by riggers with baskets and bridles off the building steel. The rigging plot is a map of points and their loads.
Ring out: To ring out a system is to push gain until feedback starts, notch the ringing frequency, and repeat, buying stable gain before feedback for wedges and vocal mics. Done during check, quietly regretted when skipped.
Routing: Routing is the sequence and geography of tour dates: which cities, in which order, with what drives between them. Good routing minimizes deadhead miles and impossible overnight jumps; bad routing shows up as exhausted crews and missed load-ins.
Run of Show (ROS): A run of show (ROS) is the minute-by-minute document that sequences an event: every segment, speaker, video roll, and transition in order, with start times, durations, owners, and the audio, video, and lighting cues attached to each moment.
Runner: A runner is the local crew member with a vehicle who handles errands on show day: airport pickups, emergency purchases, catering runs. A good runner with local knowledge routinely saves shows in ways no plan anticipates.

S

Scaler: A scaler converts video between resolutions and formats, buying compatibility at the cost of latency and a generation of processing. Every scaler in a chain is a frame you paid for; count them.
Scenic: Scenic is the built stage environment: set walls, header pieces, branded surrounds, the physical design around the screens. On corporate shows scenic is a department and a budget line, distinct from video and lighting.
Secondary (safety): A secondary is an independent backup suspension (safety cable or chain) that catches the load if the primary fails. Requirements vary by jurisdiction and hoist classification; when in doubt, one goes on.
Settlement: Settlement is the financial close-out of a show, usually in the promoter’s office after doors: verified ticket counts, documented show expenses, and the deal terms are worked through to the final number the artist is paid beyond (or against) the guarantee.
Shackle: A shackle is the standard load-rated connector of rigging: a U-shaped bow (or narrower dee) body closed by a removable pin, used to join slings, wire ropes, chains, and hardware. Each carries a stamped working load limit (WLL) that governs its use.
Shed: A shed is an amphitheater, typically an outdoor venue with a covered stage and lawn seating, on North American summer touring circuits. "Shed season" is the summer amphitheater run.
Shock load: A shock load is a suddenly applied force (a snagged truss releasing, a dropped pick catching) that multiplies the static load several times over. Rigging practice exists largely to make shock loads impossible.
Shore Power: Shore power is external electrical hookup for parked vehicles, a term borrowed from boating: tour buses and star trailers plug into venue or generator power (typically 50 A twist-lock or 14-50 connections) so HVAC, refrigerators, and interiors run without idling engines all night.
Shout system: The shout is the always-on talkback loop between audio positions (FOH, monitors, systems, RF) on large shows, so engineers converse without radios. "On shout" means the intercom channel audio runs on.
Show Caller: The show caller runs a live event in real time, working from the run of show and calling every cue over headset: "standby lights 42, video 7... lights 42 go, video 7 go." Every department executes on the caller’s "go," which is what keeps a multi-department show moving as one thing.
Show office / production office: The production office is the show’s command post backstage or off the floor: radios charge there, paperwork lives there, and problems get walked there. On tour it is wherever the production manager’s road cases open.
Shutter (projector): The projector shutter (douser) blacks the output without powering down, mechanically or electronically. "Shutter up/down" cues are how projection appears and vanishes on a caller’s go.
Shutter cut: Shutter cuts use a profile fixture’s four framing shutters to shape the beam into hard edges: keeping light off a screen, framing a doorway, slicing a podium special out of a wash.
Sidefill: Sidefills are monitor speakers at the stage edges pointing across the stage, filling the whole performance area with the mix. Common where performers roam and on stages transitioning between wedge and ear cultures.
Site visit: A site visit is the pre-production walkthrough of a venue or event site: verifying dimensions, power, rigging, access, and logistics before plans are finalized. Corporate production leans on site visits the way touring leans on the advance.
Slate: A slate is the identification frame or announcement at the head of a feed or recording: show name, date, feed type, audio channel assignments. Thirty seconds of slate saves an hour of guessing in the edit.
Snake: A snake is the multichannel audio cable bundling dozens of mic lines into one run between the stage and the mix positions, terminating in a stage box on one end and console tails or a patch on the other. Digital snakes replace the copper bundle with a stage box and network cable.
Soft patch: The soft patch is the console-side mapping of fixture addresses to control channels, letting a designer renumber the rig logically regardless of physical addressing. The counterpart of the hard patch.
Soundcheck: Soundcheck is the working session before doors where performers play and the audio team builds the show: input by input, then monitor mixes, then the house mix, usually ending with a song or two run as if live. It is rehearsal for the sound, not the show.
Spanset (Round Sling): A spanset (genericized from the SpanSet brand) is an endless polyester round sling: a soft loop used to wrap trusses, beams, and tubes as the attachment between structure and hardware. Rigged in a choke, basket, or straight pull, its capacity depends on the hitch and its condition.
Spider box: A spider box (or lunch box) is a portable power distribution unit that breaks a large feeder circuit into multiple smaller circuits, typically taking cam-lock or 50 A input and offering breakered 20 A duplex outlets. The name comes from the many cables radiating from it on a show floor.
Spike Mark: A spike mark is tape on the deck marking the exact position of something: a set piece’s corners, a band riser, a podium, a presenter’s toe mark. To "spike" something is to mark its position; spike tape is the narrow cloth tape kept in every stage manager’s pocket.
Split (mic split): A split duplicates every stage input to multiple consoles: FOH, monitors, broadcast, recording. Transformer-isolated splits prevent the consoles from loading or humming each other; digital systems split in the stage rack.
Spot op: The followspot operator runs a followspot from a spot chair or truss seat, taking pickups on the caller’s standby/go and keeping performers in a controlled pool of light.
ST 2110: SMPTE ST 2110 is the professional IP video standard carrying uncompressed essence streams (video, audio, data) with PTP timing, the broadcast-grade path video plants use to replace SDI routing.
STAC chain (deck chain): STAC chain is high-strength alloy chain used in short lengths to fine-adjust bridle leg lengths, link by link. It is rated rigging chain, not hardware-store chain, and the distinction is load-bearing.
Stacking: Stacking converges two or more projectors onto the same image area to add brightness (or for backup, with one shuttered). Alignment discipline is everything; a soft stack is worse than one projector.
Stage box: The stage box is the input/output panel where stage lines land, whether the head of an analog snake or a networked digital I/O rack holding the preamps. Inputs on the list exist physically here.
Stage Directions: Stage directions are given from the performer’s point of view facing the audience: stage left (SL) is the performer’s left, stage right (SR) their right, upstage (US) away from the audience, downstage (DS) toward it. House left and right describe the audience’s mirror-image view.
Stage Manager (SM): The stage manager (SM) runs the show in real time. In theatre the SM calls every cue from the prompt book and owns the production once it opens; in corporate and concert production the SM typically owns the deck: talent movement, backstage traffic, and everything crossing the stage.
Stage Plot: A stage plot is the overhead diagram of a performance setup: where each musician stands, where backline, risers, monitors, and mics go, and what power or inputs each position needs. It travels with the input list in the technical rider so a venue can pre-build the stage.
Stagehand: A stagehand is a crew member who physically builds, runs, and strikes productions: unloading trucks, assembling rigs, running scenery and decks during shows. In union venues, stagehands come through the IATSE local’s call, organized by department.
Standby / Go: The two-part cue call: "standby cue 47" warns the operator to be ready; "cue 47 go" executes it. Operators respond to standbys ("standing by") and act only on the word go, which is why nobody says "go" casually on headset.
Standup: A reporter’s on-camera piece delivered live or to tape at the event site, usually framed against the stage or floor. Standup positions want clean backgrounds, light, and a feed of program audio.
Steel (wire rope sling): Riggers call wire rope slings "steel": fixed-length legs with swaged eyes used for baskets and bridle legs. Called by length ("give me a five-footer"), tagged, and inspected like everything overhead.
Step and Repeat: A step and repeat is a photo backdrop printed with a repeating pattern of logos, set behind a red carpet or photo line. The name describes the workflow: each guest steps in front of it, gets photographed, and the next steps up, repeating down the line.
Step-down transformer: A step-down transformer converts a higher service voltage to a lower one (480 V to 208/120 V being the show classic), letting productions use big-building services. It arrives on wheels, heavy, and hums.
Steward: The union steward is the local’s representative on a call: tracks hours and breaks, enforces the contract, and is the formal channel between crew and management. The steward’s watch defines when penalties start.
Stinger: A stinger is an extension cord, usually a single Edison run. "Grab a stinger and a quad box" is the most-spoken sentence in event power. (Followspot crews use it separately for a spot pickup cue in some houses.)
Strike: Strike is the teardown at the end of a production: dismantling the set, packing equipment, and restoring the venue, in the reverse order of load-in. As a verb, to "strike" something is to remove it from the stage ("strike the podium after the keynote").
Strike call: The strike call is the crew call for the load-out, often posted with the note that the out continues until the trucks are packed, not until a clock time. Fresh hands at strike call are worth double.
Strobe: A strobe produces intense flashes at controllable rates for effect hits and simulated motion. Modern LED strobes double as blinders and washes; safety practice treats sustained strobing as a health consideration for audiences.
Submaster: A submaster is a fader holding a stored look or group at proportional level, letting an operator ride pieces of the rig manually. Busking rigs are built as pages of submasters and executors.
Support: Support is the opening act. Support slots come with constrained production: a slice of the stage, a subset of the PA, limited soundcheck (or line check only), all negotiated in the advance between the two camps.

T

Tails: Tails are the bare-ended feeder conductors that land directly on the lugs of a company switch or panel under a qualified electrician’s hands. "Tie-in with tails" is the traditional alternative to cam-equipped switches.
Talkback: Talkback is the engineer’s microphone path for speaking to specific destinations: console to stage wedges, FOH to monitor world, producer to performer ears. The shout mic is its stage-side sibling.
Tech rehearsal: A tech rehearsal integrates the technical elements (lights, sound, video, scenery, automation) with performers, working through the show cue by cue. Dry tech runs without performers; the cue-to-cue is its most compressed form.
Tech Table: A tech table is the temporary control position built in the middle of the audience for technical rehearsals: designers, the director, and stage management sit at production tables laid across seats, with consoles remoted, comms, and script lights, so the show can be built from where the audience will see it.
Technical Director (TD): A technical director (TD) leads the technical side of a production, but the job depends on the industry: in corporate events and theatre, the TD plans and commands technical execution across departments; in US broadcast, the TD is the person physically switching the show at the video console.
Teleprompter: A teleprompter displays a scrolling script for a presenter to read while appearing to look at the audience or camera. Camera prompters use mirror glass over the lens; stage speeches use downstage monitors or the paired glass panels flanking a podium. An operator paces the scroll to the speaker, not the other way around.
Three-Phase Power: Three-phase power delivers electricity on three hot conductors whose voltages are offset 120 degrees from each other. In the common US event service (120/208 V wye), each leg gives 120 V to neutral while legs pair to 208 V, moving three times the power of a single phase over comparable copper.
Tie-in: A tie-in is the act of connecting a production’s feeder cable to a venue’s power source, usually at a company switch. Tie-ins are performed on a dead, locked-out switch by qualified or licensed personnel, connecting ground first, then neutral, then phases.
Tieline (trick line): Tieline is thin black cord used for everything: dressing cable, tying off wrenches, hanging signs, temporary fixes of infinite variety. Sold as unglamorous string, spent like currency.
Town hall: A town hall is an internal all-company meeting built around leadership Q&A, in person, streamed, or both. Production centers on believable interaction: aisle mics, moderated question feeds, and a stage that reads approachable.
Trim: Trim is the set height of a flown element ("trim the truss at 28 feet"). Trim height drives sightlines, focus, and load geometry; "at trim" means the rig is at show position.
Truck pack: The truck pack is the three-dimensional puzzle of loading a truck so everything fits, rides safely, and comes off in tomorrow’s build order. A good pack is engineering; touring crews defend theirs like doctrine.
Truss: Truss is the modular aluminum structure of live production: welded lattice sections (commonly 12-inch box truss and up) that pin together into spans, towers, and grids carrying lights, audio, video, and scenery. Its strength comes from the chord-and-diagonal geometry, not the tube gauge.
Turnaround: Turnaround is the rest period between one day’s wrap and the next day’s call, governed by union rules or plain human limits. Short turnarounds trigger penalties or late starts; schedulers count them before publishing calls.
Twist-lock: Twist-locks are NEMA locking connectors (L5-20, L6-30, L21-30 and kin) that rotate to latch, used wherever vibration or a snagged cable would defeat a straight-blade plug. The cam-lock chart on this site tables the common types.

U

Unity gain: Unity gain is a stage that neither amplifies nor attenuates: output equals input, the 0 mark on a fader. Gain structure aims to do the real work at the preamp and pass unity through the middle.
Uplink / downlink: The satellite pair: the uplink truck sends the feed to the satellite, receive sites downlink it. Legacy language now often applied loosely to any outbound contribution path.
Upstage: Upstage is the area of the stage farthest from the audience. The word is a fossil from raked stages, which sloped upward away from the house; walking upstage once meant literally walking uphill.

V

V1: The V1 is the lead video engineer on a live event: responsible for the video system end to end and usually the one switching the show. V2s and specialists (camera shading, playback, records, LED techs) work under the V1 in video village.
Video Switcher: A video switcher (production switcher, vision mixer) selects and transitions between video sources in real time: cutting and dissolving between cameras and playback, keying graphics over program, and compositing layers. Its program output is what the audience and the record see.
Video Village: Video village is the cluster of positions where a show’s video department operates: the switcher, engineering/shading for cameras, media server operators, and their wall of monitors. On live events it lives backstage, under the stage, or alongside FOH.
Virtual soundcheck: A virtual soundcheck plays multitrack recordings of the band back through the console as if the inputs were live, letting engineers mix and tune without musicians present. Standard practice on digital consoles with recording rigs.
VOG (voice of god): The VOG is the announce microphone that addresses the room from nowhere: "Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats." Producers script VOGs; callers cue them; someone backstage performs omniscience.
Vom (vomitory): A vomitory is an entrance tunnel passing through the audience seating, common in arenas and thrust theatres. "Entering through the vom" is the standard arena walk-on for performers and sports teams alike.

W

Walk-in: The walk-in is the audience-entering state: walk-in music, lighting look, and screen content that run from doors until the show begins. It is a designed cue state, not an accident of whatever was up.
Wedge: A wedge is a floor monitor: a loudspeaker in a wedge-shaped cabinet lying at a performer’s feet, angled up so they hear their mix. Each wedge (or pair) carries a mix built specifically for that position by the monitor engineer.
Wings: The wings are the offstage areas to the left and right of the playing space, hidden from the audience by masking (legs and borders). Performers stand by there, scenery and props stage there, and half the show’s operational life happens there.
WLL vs breaking strength: Working load limit is the maximum load hardware may see in service; breaking strength is where it fails. The ratio between them is the design factor, and rigging lives on WLL, never on breaking strength.

Y

Yellow card (IATSE): A yellow card show is a touring production formally recognized by IATSE, carrying union crew under the union’s touring agreement and picking up local union labor per the card’s terms in each city.