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ITS's Learning Environments and Media Production (LEMP) department

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 supports SU's technology classrooms, university computing labs, classroom equipment loan,

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academic media production, and

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Topic Overview

ITS's Learning Environments and Media Production (LEMP) department supports SU's technology classrooms, university computing labs, classroom equipment loan, satellite and videoconferencing telecommunications, and special events. For obvious reasons, classroom and lab support are the highest priorities for LEMP. Technical support of special events sponsored by the University administrative and academic departments, SU faculty and staff is a LEMP fee-based service (see list of ITS special events service examples at the end of this document).

The intention of this document is to clarify the role of LEMP in supporting special events and to identify support limitations related to facility, staff, or equipment resources.

There are many events for which LEMP simply does not have adequate equipment or staff resources to support. In those instances, LEMP staff may be available to act in a consulting or even a brokerage role in terms of communicating event requirements and facility information to commercial service providers. Some companies with which LEMP has worked successfully with in the past are listed in the Outsourcing section below.

Please review the sections below as guidelines to assist event planners in working with LEMP and/or commercial service providers. LEMP will be as flexible as resources allow in working with these guidelines.

Lead Time

Adequate lead time is necessary to provide quality special events technical support services. Two weeks is the minimum lead time required by LEMP to plan support of a simple special event (e.g. scheduling an operator for an existing in-house system). A minimum of one month lead time is required for more complicated events, such as those requiring delivery and set up of audio, computer, or video systems. One hour is the minimum set up time required for simple events. Some events, such as the 2006 Al Gore presentation require much more lead and set up time.

Events Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is so special about Special Events?

A. The amount of technical expertise needed to plan and implement the event requirements put this type of service in a different category beyond the regular use of classroom technologies.

Q. Where can Special Events services take place?

A. Normally inside Auditoriums, Classrooms, Large meeting places such as Hendricks Chapel, and open lobby areas. Some occur outdoors where we have limited involvement. In this case we outsource to a vendor to provide services.

Q. What services do you provide for my event?

A. We provide consulting to determine your requirements and what we can provide. Equipment and operational services for audio engineering and presentation displays are provided.  Assistive Listening and CART services are also provided.

Q. Do you provide staging and theatrical lighting services?

A. No, we will consult and outsource for those services.

Q. Will Special Events service regular classes

A. Special Events are not normally classes although they can be class related. In some cases classes may have a need for additional unique technology requirements such as audio or video conferencing.

Q. Can student groups take advantage of special events services?

A. Normally no, but when a student group is associated with a major university event sponsored by an academic department exceptions can be made.

Planning Guide, questions we like to ask

 Essential Information

• Event Name, Location, Organizer (contact), Phone and Email
• Brief description of the event
• Event date, with actual start and end times,(setup times will vary depending on requests, room availability, a 1 hour minimum setup time should be planned for)
• Technology needed (see equipment request tips below)
• Requests for Disability services such as Computer Assisted Realtime Translation (CART) or ASL interpreters require more information about the event and can require more lead time to process

Equipment Request Prompts

Audio

• Portable PA? or House System
• Podium and Microphone
• Panel Microphones (how many)
• Wireless tie tack style (Lavaliere) microphones (how many)
• Question and answer Microphones

Video

• Video Recording
• DVD playback
• Movie playback

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• Laptop, Tablet presentation,  (Mac or PC) (Audio?)  (Internet Access?)
• Presentation Software? PowerPoint, Keynote, PDF, QuickTime, Windows Media
• Skype or other Video Conferencing applications?
• Laser Pointer or PowerPoint slide remote?

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• Audio Engineer?
• AV IT, presentation technician?
• Just Set up and take down

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David Williams - 443-5659 (primary LE  Events contact)

Mike O'Mara- 443-3788 (Manager, Learning Environments)

Donal Little - 443-1849 (Director, Learning Environments and Media Production)

Two other units of LEMP may be able to provide media production support for special events:

Steve Sartori - 443-1832 (Manager, Photo & Imaging Center)

Neal Coffey - 443-5644 (Manager, Video Production Unit)

ITS special events service examples

• Consulting and event planning (relevant to AV needs)
• Technical referral service
• Coordination of equipment and technical assistance provided by outside vendors if outsourcing for equipment and/or technical assistance is required
• Provide public address systems, audiovisual equipment, and computer/video projection systems to the university community for special events
• Technical assistance to operate equipment/systems
• Auditoria and venue public address system operation
• Live streaming media
• Conference support
• Disability technical consulting

Sources and Relevant Links

Outsourcing

When requested support of special events is out of scope or beyond LEMP's ability to support, there are a number of commercial service providers that may be used. Some examples follow:

#topacademic events.  Technical support for events is a fee-based service  and is limited to those sponsored by the University administrative and academic departments. LEMP's priority is focused on academic events and classes. Learn more below!

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