A large slice of the day was dedicated to testing our new surtitle system which is lovely smooth white text on black beamed into the auditorium via sexy plasma screens. Of course being the kind of venue we are means that really, we have no place dealing in this sort of technology but our audiences have come to demand it. What amazes me is how different expectations are from person to person; I find no trouble seeing our existing screens (fuzzy, super bright green LEDs) from the front row for instance, but other people claim to have to lay flat on their backs in order to read them. In all honesty I find that I need merely use my ocular muscles to swivel my eyes upwards and neck muscles don't come into it. Go figure. Today I sat in the very back row and thought the text beautifully clear, even without my necessary glasses....how many people will disagree with me? I believe that even though people can see things perfectly clearly, they often want a fifty percent safety built in just to make sure. Still, we are looking at ways to improve the whole system and we may consider additional displays should we work out somewhere suitable to put them. It is all about money though and we don't have much of that going spare. The displaying of text is produced by very long Powerpoint presentations; not being a great fan of Windows programs I have some innate fears about reliability (probably unfounded and it is now the industry norm I believe). Might be worth have a load of boards printed up and have a bloke standing by just in case eh?
Slowly but surely we approach completion and on Saturday the major electrical and lighting installation begins. A week after that the company and the first two productions arrive on site for technical rehearsals. For the final cosmetic push I shall have a freshly laundered frilly shirt.
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