5 September 2026 · 9 min read · By Renars Fazlutdinovs, Director, VIVID London
Event production glossary: the terms you will hear from your production team
Plain-English definitions of the words used in event production quotes, riders and run-of-shows: from RAMS and get-in to cardioid subs, pixel pitch and mix-minus.
Production quotes and technical riders use a vocabulary that is precise to the people who write it and opaque to everyone else. This glossary covers the terms clients ask us about most, grouped by where you are likely to meet them. Where a term has a page of its own on this site, it is linked.
Planning and paperwork
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Brief | The written description of what the event has to achieve, who attends and what the constraints are. Everything else follows from it. |
| Site visit or recce | A walk-through of the venue by the production team to check access, power, rigging, sightlines and timings before the design is finalised. |
| Technical rider | The list of equipment and conditions an artist, DJ or speaker requires: microphones, monitors, DJ players, stage size, dressing room. Matched line by line before the event. |
| RAMS | Risk assessment and method statement: the document describing the hazards of the build and show and how they are controlled. Venues ask for it; good production companies send it unasked. |
| Run-of-show, running order, cue sheet | Three views of the same timeline. The running order is what the host sees; the run-of-show adds who does what; the cue sheet is the crew's line-by-line version. See event production management explained. |
| Get-in and get-out (load-in and load-out) | The windows the venue gives you to bring equipment in and take it out. Often the tightest constraint in London venues. |
| Strike | Taking everything down and out after the event. |
| Dry hire, crewed hire, full production | Kit only; kit with a technician; the whole event designed, built and run. See dry hire versus full production. |
| Contingency | Spare equipment, spare crew hours and spare budget held against things going wrong. The line most often cut and most often regretted. |
Sound
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PA (public address) system | The loudspeakers, amplifiers and processing that carry sound to the audience. |
| FOH (front of house) | The mixing position in the audience area, and by extension the engineer and the main audience mix. |
| Line array versus point source | A line array is a hung column of loudspeakers for large or long rooms; a point source is a single cabinet on a stand for smaller rooms. Most dinners and parties are point source. |
| Subwoofer, cardioid sub | The loudspeaker that reproduces bass. A cardioid arrangement projects bass forward and cancels it behind, keeping it off the stage and away from neighbours. |
| Monitor or wedge, in-ear monitors | Loudspeakers or earpieces that let performers hear themselves. |
| Lavalier (lav) and handheld | A small clip-on microphone versus a hand-held one. Lavs for presenters; handhelds for Q&A and speeches by people who did not rehearse. |
| Mix-minus | A feed to a remote presenter or a stream that contains everything except their own voice, so they do not hear themselves echoed. |
| Feedback | The howl when a microphone picks up the loudspeaker it is feeding. Prevented by placement and system tuning, not by turning things down at the last second. |
| dB(A), SPL | Decibels weighted to human hearing; sound pressure level. The numbers used when a venue or council sets a limit. |
Lighting
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LX | Shorthand for lighting, on plans and comms. |
| Uplighter, PAR, wash | Fixtures that colour a surface broadly rather than precisely. See the lighting design guide. |
| Profile, pin spot, gobo | A profile shapes a hard-edged beam; a pin spot is a very narrow one; a gobo is the stencil that projects a pattern or logo through a profile. |
| Moving head (beam, spot, wash) | A fixture that pans, tilts and changes colour on cue. The three types differ in beam width and features. |
| Key light, fill, backlight | The main light on a face; the softer light that lifts the shadows; the light from behind that separates a person from the background. Camera and photography care about all three. |
| Colour temperature, CRI | Warm or cool white measured in kelvin; how faithfully the light renders colour. Both matter for photographs. |
| DMX, CRMX | The control signal that tells fixtures what to do; the common wireless version used by battery fixtures. |
| Haze | A fine, even mist that makes light beams visible. Needs the venue's agreement about smoke detectors. |
| Focus session | The time before doors when each fixture is aimed and each state is set. |
Video and screens
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| LED wall, pixel pitch | A screen built from LED tiles; the distance between pixels in millimetres. Smaller pitch, sharper image at close range, higher cost. See choosing the right LED screen size. |
| Aspect ratio | The shape of the screen, such as 16:9. Content built for the wrong ratio is stretched or letterboxed. |
| Playback, media server | The system that plays video, slides and graphics to screens on cue. |
| Vision mixer | The desk that switches between cameras, slides and graphics for screens or a stream. |
| Confidence monitor, comfort monitor | A screen facing the stage showing the presenter their slides, notes or a timer. |
| Encoder, bonded connectivity | The device that turns the programme feed into a stream; a connection that combines several mobile networks for reliability. See hybrid and livestream production. |
Staging and rigging
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Truss | The aluminium lattice that lighting and screens hang from; ground-supported on base plates or flown from the venue's points. |
| Rigging point, load rating | A certified point in the venue's structure and the weight it can carry. Nothing hangs without one. |
| Deck, riser, stage | Modular platforms that make up a stage. A riser is a small stage for a band or a top table. |
| Cable ramp | A rubber cover that lets cables cross a floor safely. Compulsory in guest areas. |
| Trackway, floor protection | Temporary roadway for vehicles on grass; boards that protect a floor from a build. |
| Distribution (distro) | The board that splits a power supply into protected circuits for each department. |
People
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Production manager, project lead | The single person responsible for the whole job. Ask for their name. |
| Stage manager, show caller | The person who runs the floor on the day and calls every cue over comms. |
| Operator, engineer, tech | The people who run lighting, sound and video during the event. |
| Crew chief, rigger, local crew | The people who build and strike; riggers are certified for work at height. |
| Stream producer | On hybrid events, the person responsible for the remote audience. |
If a term in your quote is not here, ask the supplier to explain it in one sentence. Anyone who cannot is selling you something they do not fully understand either.
