<p> Working behind the scenes at live shows, you will find people with titles like Master Electrician, Audio Engineer, Automation Carpenter, or Technical Director. These people won’t likely call themselves hackers, but that’s what they do: take technologies and techniques from larger industries, and appropriate, adapt, and extend them to the high-stakes, high-pressure world of live shows, where the failure of a two dollar part could cause the loss of a show and hundreds of thousands of dollars of ticket revenue. In this industry, every night all over the world, hundreds of technicians with nerves of steel do their best to anticipate the inevitable failures which all hackers encounter, and accommodate them gracefully, preferably in a manner which the audience never even notices. This session will cover who does what on live shows, give an overview of the technologies, and introduce some of the strategies used to ensure that the show goes on. </p>
<p> <strong> John Huntington </strong> is a professor of entertainment technology at New York City College of Technology (Citytech/CUNY), and a visiting professor at the Yale School of Drama. Huntington’s book, <em> Control Systems for Live Entertainment, </em> now in its third edition on Focal Press, was the first on the topic of entertainment control and show control, and continues to be the leading book in the field. Huntington freelances as an entertainment and show control systems consultant, author, and sound designer/engineer, and maintains a blog on entertainment technology (and severe weather) at http://www.controlgeek.net. He lives in Brooklyn. </p>