At most corporate events with a program, there are two sound systems in the room and two people who think they are responsible for what comes out of them. One is the AV team, hired for the presentation: the lectern mic, the lavs, the video playback, the slides. The other is the DJ, hired for the music and usually the handheld wireless mics. When nobody has said who owns what, the failure is predictable: the CEO's video plays with no audio, the walk-up music comes out of the wrong speakers at the wrong level, or two wireless mics on the same frequency turn the awards into static. This is the map we use. Hand it to both teams.
Who owns which audio
| Source | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lectern or podium microphone | AV | Wired, part of the presentation rig, mixed with the slides |
| Lavalier mics for presenters | AV | AV manages the packs and the frequencies |
| Handheld wireless for toasts, awards, Q&A | DJ, unless agreed otherwise | Frequencies coordinated with AV before sound check |
| Video and presentation audio | AV | Played from the presentation laptop through AV's mix |
| Music: arrival, dinner, walk-ups, stings, dancing | DJ | From the DJ's controller, from local drives |
| The main speakers | Whoever holds the master | Decided at the planning call, not on the day |
The last row is the one that matters. In a room with one set of speakers, one of the two teams runs the master mix and the other sends them a feed. Which way round depends on the event. Presentation-heavy with a short party after: AV holds the master and we send them a stereo line from our mixer. Party-heavy with a short program: we hold the master and AV sends us their program feed. Both work. What does not work is two systems with two sets of speakers in one room pointed at the same audience, because the levels never match, and the guests hear the seam every time the room switches from a speech to a song.
Patch points: what to bring and what to ask for
If we are sending to AV, we need one thing from them: an input on their mixer with a balanced, line-level connection, usually a pair of XLRs or quarter-inch TRS, at the position where our booth is going to be. If their rack is forty feet away, someone has to run that cable, and it should be settled at the planning call whose cable it is. We carry long balanced runs and a direct box for the case where the only available input is unbalanced or the run picks up hum from a lighting dimmer, which in an older ballroom it often will.
If AV is sending to us, we ask for the same in reverse: their program feed, line level, balanced, at our booth, and we put it on its own channel on our mixer so it can be brought up and down independently of the music. We also ask AV for the frequency list of their wireless packs before we turn ours on. Two mics on the same or adjacent frequencies in one room produce dropouts and a noise like a swarm, and it will happen in the middle of the award the CEO cares about most. Five minutes with a frequency list prevents it.
Sound check order
Sound check goes in an order, and the order is not arbitrary:
- AV sets the presentation levels first. Lectern mic, lavs, video playback, at the level the room will hear them. Speech is the hardest thing to get right and the thing guests notice most when it is wrong.
- Then the DJ matches to them. Our music level, and specifically the level of the walk-up music and stings relative to the lectern mic, is set so the transition from a speaker's last word to the music does not jump. We set that from the far table, not from the booth, because the far table is where the person who will complain is sitting.
- Then the handheld mics, through whichever system they run, checked by someone actually walking the room with one, because a handheld sounds fine at the booth and feeds back at the lectern position where the speakers are behind it.
- Then the video with audio, all the way through, not the first ten seconds. The sizzle reel with the quiet interview at the front and the loud drop at ninety seconds is the one that gets checked at the wrong point.
- Then everyone leaves the room and nobody touches a fader until doors.
That whole sequence takes about forty minutes if both teams are in the room together, which means the load-in windows have to overlap. A planner who books AV for a 2 p.m. load-in and the DJ for 5 p.m. has scheduled a sound check that cannot happen. Here is how long our side takes.
During the program: who mutes what
The rule we work to is that whoever holds the master mutes, and the other team only mutes their own source. Concretely, during a video: the DJ's music is already out, the DJ mutes nothing further, AV plays the video and manages its level. If a handheld is live and the video starts, the DJ mutes the handheld, because a live handheld in a quiet room during a video picks up the table nearest the holder. When the video ends and a speaker steps up, AV opens the lectern, and if walk-up music is running, we bring it under the first word rather than cutting it, which is a two-second fade that AV should not have to think about.
Walk-up music for awards is the collaborative one. The name is read on AV's lectern mic; the music comes from our booth; the winner walks and takes a handheld that is usually ours. That is three sources across two teams in about twelve seconds, and it goes right when there is a cue sheet with the songs on it and both of us can see the person calling the cue. More on walk-ups here.
Comms between the two teams
Put the DJ on the AV team's radio channel, or at least on the planner's. Most AV crews run on radio; most DJs do not, and that gap is where the missed cues live. We bring an earpiece and will take a radio for the night. If there is no radio, we agree on visual signals with the AV lead for the three cues that involve both of us: video start, video end, walk-ups. And we exchange cell numbers at load-in, because the one time it matters is the time the radio battery is dead.
One person calls the cues, usually the planner, and both teams execute. AV and DJ do not cue each other across the room; if the AV lead thinks the music should come down, they tell the planner, and the planner tells us. It sounds bureaucratic. It prevents the moment where two people make opposite decisions at once.
What to settle at the planning call
If you are the planner, five questions settle almost everything above. Who holds the master mix? Where is the patch point and whose cable reaches it? What are AV's wireless frequencies? When is the joint sound check, and do the load-in windows allow it? What is the radio channel? Send us the AV lead's name and number and we will sort out the rest with them directly, which is usually what both of us prefer. The partners page describes how we work with planners and production teams, and the contact page is the way to check a date. We reply within 24 hours.