Schedule gear maintenance
This one is absolutely invisible — that is until something breaks. Take the time to routinely inspect your gear and it can allow you to find and fix a multitude of problems before they cause an interruption during an event. Numerous times, we’ve discovered potential failure points with gear that we were actively using and had “assumed” was working fine. This discovery came from employing a simple, boring, and INVISIBLE maintenance schedule.
Tidy up spare parts and unused extra gear
Funny how quick this seemingly invisible part of the production world can become visible. I was at a church recently and couldn’t find a working mic cable to save my life. How they had working band inputs still baffles me. Implementing a plan to store and categorize your unused gear sets you up to actually go with the flow when situations change unexpectedly. Which of these would you rather do when a mic cable fails on stage: Walk calmly to the backstage storage closet, get another cable and switch it out and move on? OR race around, frantically tugging at a massive pile of nasty old cables that were shoved underneath the audio console while praying to God to save you and hope that a decent cable magically appears? I’ll be honest, at COTMProd, job longevity isn’t often associated with the latter.
The world of rigging
The mostly invisible world hanging above everyone’s head is comprised of shackles, span sets, chain hoists, cabling and such. Is all of this equipment deployed correctly and safely for both stage personnel and talent as well as the audience in your room? These parts are specifically designed to remain invisible during an event. We still subject them to a very visible annual rigging inspection where every item is examined for strength, wear and tear, and safety compliance. Interestingly enough, EVERY time we do this invisible task, we find something that would have eventually become a VERY visible problem if left unchecked.
Excel at the invisible
Herein lies the simple point: excelling at the invisible side of what we do is one of the biggest ways we can build a quality visible side of church production. As we serve the church and strive to make a difference, consider making the invisible parts of the job the most important and you may find that the visible side just got a heck of a lot easier.
Article is courtesy of ProSoundWeb. The author, Andrew Stone is the Production Manager and Audio Director at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK. His 25 years of touring experience have brought a unique, and sometimes unorthodox, perspective to his approach towards production in the church. He has been a key part of changing the culture behind COTM’s live events and he loves sharing his knowledge with other churches. He’s been married for 19 years, rarely wears anything but black, and genuinely loves to rock. You can find him on Twitter (@stone_rocks) or on Seeds, COTM’s free resource site, as a blog contributor.
