Beer and Gear
Beer and Gear is a weekly-ish series of workshops and skill shares on some of the more technical nuts and bolts of organizing actions and events. Each week we tackle a different type of equipment, talk through how it’s used and get some hands on experience with the gear.
And since we are starting each week at 5pm on Friday afternoon, these sessions are BYOB (but electronics and beer don’t mix so you’ll have to finish your drink before you pick up a PA system or camera!)
Our hope is that this project will build our movement infrastructure, increase our collective capacity, and democratize event production by putting solid gear in the hands of grassroots organizers. Once you’ve learned how to use the gear, all of our equipment is available for volunteer organizations to borrow for actions and events.
These sessions are FREE and open to anyone, but we do ask that you RSVP in advance so we can follow up with the location for each week’s session and other logistical information.
Go Live! Introduction to live streaming
In this week’s session of Beer & Gear we’ll explore the basics of live streaming actions and events. We’ll cover basic camera usage, using hardware and software encoders, and multistream tools for adding overlays and other graphics to your stream. We’ll also explore ways to navigate challenges with internet connectivity and maintaining a strong feed through the entire event.
Shine a Light on it! Basics of digital projection
This week we’ll get hands on with our projector and examine the basics of digital projection. Projecting images on the side of buildings is a great way to get quickly and easily get a compelling visual. We’ll go over the basics of using a digital projector and dig into some common projection mapping software including MadMapper. We’ll also talk about what type of location makes a great spot for projections… and the types of locations that might not be that suitable for this type of tactic.
Find a Spot: Finding a location for an action and securing a permit (or not!)
In this week’s session we’ll take a step back from hands on work with gear and take a look at another essential part of planning actions and events: Finding a location. We’ll look at the Re:Action guide to planning protests in DC to explore different locations for actions, logistical and law enforcement concerns, and the process for securing permits from MPD, National Parks Service, or the US Capitol Police. We’ll also talk about when we might want to get a permit… and when we might NOT want to get a permit.
Sound Good! Running a mixer, dealing with different inputs
This week we’ll go a little bit deeper in to the basics of running sound for an action or event. We’ll take a look at running a mixer to handle multiple inputs and outputs, wireless microphone configurations, and sending audio feeds to media through a mult-box.
This session builds on the previous session so you’ll get the most out of it if you either attended the “Get Loud!” workshop or you know the basics of how to set up a PA system.
Get Loud! Setting up and running a PA system
In this first session of Beer and Gear we’ll jump right into one of the pieces of equipment that organizers in our community most frequently ask to borrow: PA Systems.
We’ll take a look at the range of PA equipment that the Re:Action team has available and walk through setting up, operating, and tearing down a sound system. By the end of the session you should feel comfortable borrowing a PA system and power source and setting it up and running it for an action or event.
Want to go deeper? Join us the following week for “Sound Good! Running a mixer.”