Trick it to the Leg

9-22-08-I was quite amazed to hear that I was going to Oxford this week. The union local manager had to supply labor to four venues, and I got sent to Oxford. How about that! The Commission of Presidential Debates had hired equipment suppliers and labor sources of different kinds to put this event together. This was a 5.5 million dollar budget deal, and just watching all the people and equipment going into the building and going together inside it made you feel like a kid in a candy store.

To begin with, I got there at 9 on Tuesday morning, along with my group leader, Andy. He got to the parking lot when I did, and told me I was assigned to audio. First thing in there, we unloaded a truck full of audio equipment to be parked at various places in the Ford Center and in a tent called Media Center.

Getting to Ford Center took some fancy wheel work. The east entrance was blocked off several blocks east, so I had to go around and approach it from the south side. Once there, I told guard after guard who I was with and where I needed to go. Kinda hard to know that, when you've never been there yourself. After much wiggling and winding around barriers, I finally found a lot to park in a block away from the center.

Was wondering about Secret Service, and was told it was the dog and his trainer. Actually restrainer was more like it. This rather large and dangerous looking German Shepherd was brought in to bomb sniff everything that was to be attached to the overhead trusses before they were attached. There were 8 of them, so the nose got a workout. We hung lights, speakers, and all kinds of hardware from them. Didn't lift the last one until late that night.

Lights aflight, it was onto bringing the set pieces and beginning to make the Ford Center look presidential and official. For us the next move was getting speakers up to the balconies, so everybody could hear well. We mounted two on the balcony rail and two on tripods at either side.

This was truly a fascinating experience to be a part of, watching all the big and little pieces go together, all the while Secret Service is watching and crawling around like picnic ants. They even made us keep our equipment boxes open in the storage area in the basement. If a candidate is going to be in a building, it's going to squeak, it'll be so well inspected.

Most of what we assembled we had no idea of what it was for. We just hooked this connector, ran that line through a truss, carried cable and strung it out, and then taped it down, so (maybe) no one would trip on it. A presidential debate is an enormously complex setup, to say the least.

Add to the mix a candidate putting his campaign on hold, and you have some confusion, but on we went, full tilt, because the Commission never told us to stop, or do anything other than what we were already told. The debate went on, with both candidates, though.

Walking around campus introduced me to Ole Miss's Grove, a large grassy area, with lots of trees, students reading, throwing Frisbees and walking thru, like I was. There were generators all over the place. I asked about that, and was told it was to power the media people's equipment, wherever it was. This was the focus of worldwide attention, so media was of every stripe imaginable.

Barricades around the Center were of a kind that restricted straight line travel. Tight turns and spaces were the rule for getting near it. Barack Hussein Obama was probably the ONLY one getting near Ford Center that had a Middle Eastern sounding name. Secret Service was not smiling much. They had picture badges on everybody a day before the debate.

When you've worked at a site, and see the venues on TV that you personally worked on, it gives you a wonderful sense of connection with the event. There were media spaces across the back of the room, where the networks did their own feeds and comments. . From the angle of the set they had in their cameras, I could tell which space Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, and people of other networks were sitting in. It made watching the debate from home a lot more fun. I'd put the speakers along the rim on the front of the stage, so seeing equipment I'd had something to do with on camera made it all special.

Come Saturday am, though, it was pack up and ship time. What was a fully built set for the debate at 8 am, was a clear, empty stage 6 ½ hours later. It was taken down, packed away, and packed into 5 trucks by 2:30 that day. On to St. Louis!

What a wonderful occasion this was for Ole Miss, and then to go to Florida as a 23 point underdog and WIN! Couldn't get the rebels out of clouds for awhile after that!

Tricking was using string in 18 inch stretches called trick line. It was used to tie cables to other cables, or trusses or table legs, to keep it in place. We actually ended up connecting and tricking under the floor, as it was 40 inches off the stage floor, and gave us closer access.