The Event Production Glossary: 60 Terms Every Corporate Buyer Should Know

A–F

Advance: The process of confirming an artist's technical requirements against available production inventory before load-in. Backline: The instruments and amplifiers used by musicians on stage (drum kit, guitar amplifiers, keyboards). Not to be confused with the PA system. Carnet ATA: A customs document allowing temporary import of production equipment without paying duty. Required for international tours and destination events. Confidence monitor: A screen facing the presenter (not the audience) showing the current slide and remaining time. Essential for speakers who cannot see the main screen. CRZ: Coastal Regulation Zone — the regulated land strip adjacent to India's coastline, affecting event permits for outdoor beach events. Day rate: A crew member's fee for a single day on site, typically 10 hours inclusive of a meal break. Delay tower: A speaker on a scaffold tower mid-audience, time-aligned with the main PA to cover distant audience sections. DMX: The lighting control protocol that allows a lighting designer's console to communicate with all lighting fixtures. Dry hire: Equipment rented without operators — the client is responsible for operation. Contrast with wet hire. FOH (Front of House): The position in the audience area where the audio engineer mixes the show. Also refers to the PA system itself. Fly system: The rigging infrastructure above a stage that allows scenery, lighting, and speakers to be raised and lowered.

G–P

Generator (genset): A diesel-powered electrical generator. Sized in kVA. Essential for outdoor events without mains power. Gobo: A metal or glass template placed in a lighting fixture to project a pattern or image. Green room: The artist or speaker holding area backstage. Ground support: A freestanding structural system for hanging PA, lighting, or video above a stage — does not use the venue's ceiling rigging. Haze: A thin atmospheric effect used to make lighting beams visible. Less dense than fog. IMAG (Image Magnification): Live camera-to-screen feed showing close-up footage of the stage, typically on flanking screens. Essential for rooms deeper than 20 metres. In-ear monitor (IEM): Personal wireless earpiece system used by performers to hear their monitor mix. KOL (Key Opinion Leader): In pharma events, an influential clinician who presents medical content. Line array: A speaker system consisting of vertically-arrayed small elements, producing controlled directional coverage. Load-in: The period when production equipment is brought into the venue and assembled. Also called get-in. Load-out (strike): The period after show close when production equipment is disassembled and removed from the venue. MC: Master of Ceremonies — the on-stage host who manages the programme. Moving head: An automated lighting fixture that can pan, tilt, and change colour/beam shape under DMX control. NOC: No Objection Certificate — issued by local authorities for events requiring official clearance. PA (Public Address): The speaker system that delivers amplified sound to the audience. Pixel pitch: The distance between LED panel pixels in millimetres — determines resolution and minimum viewing distance. Practical: A real, working light source (a lamp, a chandelier, a neon sign) that appears in the event environment as part of the set design.

Q–Z

Run of show (ROS): The cue-by-cue document that the show-caller uses to run the event. Show-caller: The person in the production control position who calls every cue in real time from the run of show. Not the same as the production manager. Sizzle reel: A short, produced video used at awards events to present nominees for each category. SPL (Sound Pressure Level): The measurement of sound intensity in decibels. Stage plot: A diagram showing the physical position of all elements on stage — instruments, microphones, monitors, performers. Required from all performing artists before load-in. Strike: The process of removing production equipment after the event. Technical rider: A document specifying an artist's technical requirements for their performance. Truss: A structural aluminium framework used for rigging lighting, speakers, and video equipment. Vision mixer: The device (or person) that switches between multiple video sources in a broadcast or IMAG production. Wedge: A floor monitor speaker angled toward the performer. Wet hire: Equipment rented with operators. Contrast with dry hire.

Commercial terms

Day rate: A crew member's fee for a 10-hour day, inclusive of a 1-hour meal break. Hours beyond 10 are billed at 1.5× the hourly rate. Show rate: A fee for the show period only — the show's running time, not the full day on site. This distinction matters for events where crew load-in time is long relative to show time. Dry hire: Equipment rented without operators. The client is responsible for operating the equipment. The rental company's liability ends when the equipment leaves their warehouse in working condition. Wet hire: Equipment rented with operators. The rental company provides both the equipment and the crew to operate it. The rental company is responsible for operational performance. Ground rate: The crew day rate for non-travelling local crew (who live in the event city). Tour rate: A higher crew rate that includes accommodation, per diem, and travel for crew who are away from home. Buyout: A single all-inclusive fee covering a defined scope of work, without day rate or overtime calculations — either for a production company (who manages all costs within the buyout) or for a performer (who receives a flat fee covering all their services).

Technical terms

House rig: The permanently installed AV system in a venue (PA, lighting, projection) that comes with the room hire. House rigs are adequate for simple events; produced events almost always require supplementation. Touring rig: A production company's own AV infrastructure that travels with the production to any venue — not dependent on the venue's house rig. OB van (Outside Broadcast van): A self-contained broadcast facility parked outside the venue — contains vision mixing, broadcast audio monitoring, graphics systems, and encoding infrastructure for live broadcasts. Vision mixer: The device (and the operator) that cuts between video sources in a broadcast or IMAG production. Matrix switcher: A video routing device that connects multiple video inputs to multiple outputs, allowing any source to be sent to any display. DANTE: A digital audio networking protocol that sends audio over standard Ethernet — allows audio signals to be routed between PA system components without dedicated analogue cables. OSC (Open Sound Control): A protocol for communicating between computers and AV devices — used in show control systems to trigger lighting, audio, and video cues from a single show-calling interface.

6am–9am: setup and systems check

The production team arrives before the venue's hospitality staff. The show-caller's venue walk confirms: every piece of staging is in its designated position; every PA speaker is hung and pointed correctly; every lighting fixture is focused and coloured; every cable run is gaffer-taped, labelled, and not creating a trip hazard; every microphone is on its stand and in its designated position from the stage plot; every confidence monitor is displaying the correct content. The walk generates a snag list — items that are not in their correct state. Snag items are resolved before systems are powered. Powered systems cannot be repositioned without a second system check cycle.

9am–11am: system checks and technical rehearsal

PA line check: every microphone source feeding the console is checked for signal, level, and routing. Every playback source is confirmed at the FOH position. Lighting cue check: every lighting state in the run of show is triggered and checked by the show-caller and LD simultaneously. LED or projection content check: every slide, every video file, every still image plays from the playback system at the correct specification. IMAG check: every camera feeds the correct screen position with correct colour balance. The technical rehearsal: the full show run, from introduction to close, with every presenter at their position, every cue called, every transition executed. Problems discovered in the technical rehearsal are solved in the technical rehearsal — not escalated to the show open.

11am–end: show and close

Doors open. Delegates arrive. The show begins. The show-caller calls every cue from the run of show, manages timing deviations, coordinates catering service with the programme, manages the Q&A platform, and keeps the programme within 3 minutes of its scheduled close time. Show close: the final cue is called, the programme ends, the load-out sequence begins immediately. The show-caller briefs the client-side project lead on any production notes (items that didn't perform to specification, items that worked better than expected, timing notes for the post-event report). Crew and vendor settlement begins. The show-caller does not leave the venue until the production is fully loaded out and the venue is in the condition specified in the venue contract.