Show dictionary · Video & LED
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.
In practice
IMAG is a discipline, not just screens: camera positions and lens reach are planned against sightlines, the director or V1 cuts for emotional continuity, and the entire chain is engineered for low latency because the audience sees the stage and the screen in the same glance.
Lip-sync is the tell: a few frames of video delay reads as detachment on a close-up, so chains are trimmed (genlock, native formats, minimal conversion) and audio to distant zones is sometimes delayed to match the screens. Side screens flanking a stage are the classic deployment; upstage walls behind performers mix IMAG with content at the director’s discretion.
How you’ll hear it
"Keep the IMAG cut on the soloist; the lawn cannot see anything but the screens."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.