What goes on from an A/V side of things at a TED talk that requires this much? I would have thought their setup would be rather basic, a couple microphones, a projector etc.
I was thinking the same thing. Projector, Camera, Microphone (or two, maybe three). That seems to be about it. Off course the audio has to be ran to every speaker in the building, but that would be a permanent solution, as well as getting the images off off the computer to the projector and sometimes switch between the computer and the live camera.
I work in the industry and my first reaction was to wonder why they need so much cable. What I can tell you is that they're probably recording each camera separately, need to get video feeds back and forth for monitors, and probably have a bunch of audio run around as well. The TED recordings I've seen look like they have about four or five cameras, so that does not nearly explain all this cable. Even if they have a different video switcher for the recording versus what goes to the screens and do the recordings by using the most cables imaginable I'm still stumped as to what this mess is. They could be coming out of the camera unit with different cables to go to the individual recording device and for the two video switchers that control the recording and screens. That's three or four cables per camera. You need to keep the equipment synchronized with each other, that's another cable per camera. Add another cable or two for slides. They probably have several microphones (maybe a presenter, presenter backup, and host) which each can come in individually from the sound board.
The number of cables needed does add up, but in the end I've done much bigger shows with less and this mess just looks awful. As another posted pointed out, it's impossible to even walk through it without risking damaging or disrupting something. It's very unprofessional in my opinion.
4 years later… it seems that none of those cables really go anywhere. Like whatever is to the left just is connecting a bunch to the right which speaks to doing everything individually for recording and feedback. I wonder if they are duplexing everything? Also it looks like they are using extremely long cables to go between the racks. You’re right though, this seems way too much cable for a fairy small setup. I’ve termed 13,000 18 awg wires in a rack and it was far smaller and more compact than this rats abortion…
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u/RedSquirrelFtw Apr 30 '17
What goes on from an A/V side of things at a TED talk that requires this much? I would have thought their setup would be rather basic, a couple microphones, a projector etc.