AV News 190 - Novembert 2012
Behind the scenes with the Technical Team
Dick & Sylvia Williams and Keith & Marilyn Leedham
From the technical team's point of view,
the 20th RPS International AV Festival
was a great success, which makes all
our hard work very rewarding.
Dick: My job starts many months
before the festival.
Once the committee decided the
Festival should go widescreen, then I
had to find a company willing to hire a
screen for free. The only thing I could
offer was a free advertisement in the
programme, so fortunately I found
Stage Electrics www.stage-electrics.co.uk from Bristol, also ATC
www.atcloudspeakers.co.uk were willing to loan us a pair of excellent
speakers once again on the same terms. Both companies helped to produce
the best images and sound ever witnessed at our Festival, and thanks to
Wantage Camera Club for the loan of the superb projector and laptop.
By June the entries start dropping though our door; they are immediately
downloaded and initially proofed for any obvious problems and an email is
sent to the entrant to let them know of the safe arrival. The following months
up to the closing date sees the number of entries intensify and it becomes
clear that pre-selection would be required as the projection time allowed
cannot be extended.
This year Martin Fry, our Chairman of the Jury, was present and provided
some comments on the sequences that were not successful and we hope
this was some consolation to those entrants. These comments are emailed
to those entrants, and at the same time we advise successful entrants that
their sequence has been accepted.
Once we have all the accepted sequences, we then have to arrange the
programme in a balanced fashion. Keith and our better halves, Sylvia and
Marilyn are involved in the process, and very helpful they are too.
Considerations have to be given to the length of the sequences, the subject
matter and nationality, and we try to vary the categories, ending up with 4
equal sessions of