Page 94 - Lighting & Sound America (December 2019) Magazine

BOOK OF THE MONTH

Screens Producing & Media

Operations by Laura Frank

By: Richard Cadena

In her new book, Screens Producing & Media Operations:
Advanced Practice for Media Server and Video Content
Preparation, (CRC Press, ISBN 978-1138338074), Laura
Frank says that multi-screen live production is “magic.” I
say it’s the artful application of really great technology.
Arthur C. Clarke might say it’s really the same thing and
we’re arguing semantics. “Any sufficiently advanced tech-
nology,” he once said, “is indistinguishable from magic.”
And, like any good magic trick, a lot goes on behind the
scenes to pull it off effectively. Nobody knows this better
than Laura Frank. She has honed her craft over a long
career, starting as a moving light tech, then a lighting con-
sole programmer, moving methodically through a number of
positions before arriving at her current position as a screens
producer. As her official bio notes, some of her projects
include rock tours with David Bowie and Madonna,
Broadway shows like Spamalot, and television events like
The Concert for New York City, to name a few. When the
convergence of lighting and video led to the development of
DMX-controlled media servers, she was in the right place at
the right time with the right skill set, primed and ready to
take her place developing and controlling screen content.
Over the next several years, she hammered out a solid
workflow based on her experience, expertly documenting
the process of taking a video project from zero to delivery spate of DMX-controlled media servers made it clear that
and emerging as one of the top screen producers in the the industry was changing rapidly, and video was the cata-
industry. lyst (no pun intended). The technology has moved so far, so
With that strong background, she was the logical choice fast, that it has become one of the most challenging from a
to write a book about screens producing and media ops. technology standpoint, and also in terms of trying to figure
And the time is exactly right for an in-depth book on the out how to document it quickly, easily, and effectively. It’s
subject, written by someone on the front lines of the cutting all-new territory and there is—no, strike that—there was no
edge, because video has taken a prime role in live event playbook until now. Frank’s book is the new playbook for
production and continues to hold a lot of promise for the the video industry.
future. New roles have emerged in the industry, including
Ever since the development of the blue LED paved the screens producer, screens associate, media server pro-
way for RGB LED display panels, and U2 became the first grammer, media server engineer, projection designer, con-
band to tour with an LED video backdrop in 1997, video has tent creator, and screens engineer. Frank begins by describ-
taken an increasingly substantive role in all varieties of ing them, their responsibilities, how they fit into the media
shows, both live and preproduced. By the early 2000s, the operations department, and how they interact with each

94 • December 2019 • Lighting&Sound America