Three people are accountable for your show
On a small show these are three people. On a large one they are three teams. The accountability does not change.
Producer. One point of accountability from kickoff to debrief. Owns the scope, the production budget, the staffing plan and the delivery of the show. When you need an answer, this is the number you call.
Project Manager. Owns the plan and the paper. Builds the production schedule, the production book and the run of show. Issues vendor purchase orders, runs the venue advance, books the labor calls, tracks the budget, and sends you a written status every week.
Technical Director. Owns the technical design and everything that happens on site. Designs the audio, video, lighting, rigging, power and network systems. Leads the crew.
You will not discover on site that the person who sold you the show has never stood in the room.
Safety is not a budget line
Rigging, power, structural and weather calls belong to the Technical Director, and they are not subject to schedule or budget override. Not by you, not by your client, not by us. If the answer is no, we work the problem from there.
Before load-in
Pre-production is not overhead on the way to the show. It is the show.
Discovery. What the event has to accomplish, who is in the audience, and what success looks like when it is over.
Site survey and venue advance. A technical walkthrough, rigging and power verified in person, venue documentation collected. We confirm what the building actually has, not what the sales sheet says it has.
Technical design. System designs, equipment specifications, plots and drawings.
Production budget. Line by line, with sourcing recommendations, for your approval before anything is committed.
Schedule and labor plan. Load-in through strike, with crew calls by discipline.
Contingency plan. Single points of failure named, backup paths built, weather planned for where it applies.
Show documentation. Production book, run of show, contact sheets.
Four gates, then no surprises
Budget approval. Design lock. Schedule and labor lock. Scope freeze, usually 14 days before load-in.
After scope freeze, anything you add or change is a change order: priced and approved before anyone acts on it.
Separately, if our own sourcing comes in more than 10 percent over the line we budgeted, that comes back to you before we commit the money. That rule is about our estimate, not your decisions. Either way, you will not open an invoice and find a number you have not already seen.
On show day
Daily briefings through load-in, show days and strike. Day to day questions go to the Producer. Commercial or scope questions go to an executive sponsor.
What we produce
General sessions, keynotes, town halls and product launches. Hybrid and broadcast production for the audience that is not in the room. IMAG (image magnification), so the person on stage is legible from the back row. Projection mapping onto set pieces, walls and other shaped surfaces. Large format display and LED. Audio, lighting and staging, with the crew to run all of it.
Why we prepare like this
We took on a 360 degree video show: one media server driving different slices of a single image across projectors around the full perimeter of a room. The device at the center of it was rented, complex, and new to us. It arrived without having been properly checked, and the file format it needed had not been researched in advance.
Two of us sat shoulder to shoulder overnight, debugging firmware until the devices could see each other on the network, then rebuilt every file to the codec the server actually wanted. We had proof of concept on screens before doors opened, and the show started on time.
The client never knew. We did. The failure was not the hardware. It was the preparation. The process above is what came out of that night, and the rule it produced is simple: nothing goes into a show that we have not had our hands on first.
The record
25 years. 12,500 projects and events delivered. 97 percent repeat customers.
A few years ago, I made the difficult decision to switch my AV vendor on a huge show I produce each year. I chose Service Solutions to fill this new role because I trust their team to bring me the best equipment with the most experienced staff.
Libby Dover
Founder, Dover Entertainment
After the show
Within 10 business days you get a final reconciliation of hours and budget, and a debrief with the team that ran it, so the next show starts smarter than this one.
Talk to us about your event
Ask us about your venue, your date or your budget.