Load-in

Load-in is the move from truck to room: the trucks arriving, the gear coming off, travelling to the space and being built. Load-out is the same in reverse, usually at night, usually faster, and usually underestimated.

What governs it has nothing to do with the room and everything to do with the path. Whether the dock is at truck height or at grade, and whether a truck can turn into it. The clear height and width of the doors on the route — the narrowest point on the path sets the largest case that can come in, and a single door frame can rule out an LED wall. Whether there is a freight lift, its internal dimensions and its weight limit. Whether the route crosses carpet, a lobby in use, or a guest corridor at seven in the morning.

These are the questions a site survey exists to answer, and the answers change what is quoted. Gear that has to be broken down to pass a door takes longer at both ends. A venue with no dock means a transfer at the kerb.

The other half is time. A load-in window is granted by the venue and it is frequently shorter than the work, particularly where another event is in the room the night before. A schedule that assumes doors open when the truck arrives is the one that produces a crew working through rehearsal.

Scope your event — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Stage deck The modular platform a stage is built from — four feet by eight in most of the country, with the height set by the legs rather than by the deck.
• Rigging plot The drawing that says what hangs where, how heavy each point is and how high it trims — submitted to the venue weeks ahead, not produced on the day.
• House rigger The venue’s own rigging crew, who in most convention centres and arenas are the only people permitted to attach anything to the building — a cost and a schedule item, not an optional service.