Show dictionary · Audio
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.
In practice
The A2 lives where audio meets people: fitting lavaliers on nervous executives, taping ears, swapping packs between speakers in a fifteen-second window backstage. On music shows the equivalent handles backline mics, stage patch, and changeovers, working with the monitor engineer minute to minute.
It is a craft of anticipation: fresh batteries before anyone asks, a spare handheld at the podium, the next presenter mic’d two segments early. Great A2s are why audiences never learn how close every show comes to a dead mic.
How you’ll hear it
"A2, she is off headset mic; pack swap in the wings at the top of the video, sixty seconds."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.