Front of House (FOH)

The term splits a venue into two worlds: front of house (lobby, seating, audience areas) and backstage (stage, wings, dressing rooms, loading dock). In theatre administration, FOH staff are ushers and box-office personnel. In concert and corporate production, FOH almost always means the technical control position in the audience area.

A typical FOH position holds the main audio console, often the lighting console, and sometimes video switching or show-caller positions. It is placed in the audience so operators hear and see what the audience experiences, usually two-thirds of the way back on the room’s centerline, though ticket sales frequently push it further off-center than engineers would like.

The FOH engineer (or "FOH mixer") owns the audience mix, in contrast to the monitor engineer, who mixes what performers hear on stage from a position in the wings or under the stage, known as "monitor world."