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Writing

Notes from the
production desk.

Why these tools exist, what they solve, and the things that go wrong on a show floor.

A sweep of projected light bending across a large curved surface 17 September 2026 Corner pin or mesh warp? Let the surface decide A four-corner pin and a mesh warp both make an image land where you want it. They are answering different questions, and reaching for the second… Packed flight cases in a dark venue after a show 3 September 2026 What to save before you leave site The rig worked. The client was happy. In four months the same event runs again, probably in the same venue, and the only record of how… A streaming operator position at night lit by multiple monitors 20 August 2026 OBS on macOS: getting clean sources in, and clean signal out OBS is excellent at the middle of the job — scenes, transitions, layout, recording, streaming. It is weakest at the two ends: getting good sources in… A silhouetted operator in front of several differently lit screens 6 August 2026 Multi-screen playback from one Mac: the honest limits The spec sheet says the machine supports four displays. The spec sheet is describing a desktop — four monitors showing windows, mostly static, occasionally scrolling. It… An ordered grid of glowing connection points in darkness 23 July 2026 Routing audio between Mac apps without the virtual cable mess You need the output of one application to become the input of another. On macOS this is a solved problem in the sense that there are… A small aluminium computer on a dark rack shelf with one status light 9 July 2026 Running a show on Apple Silicon: what actually changed The marketing story about Apple Silicon is performance, and the performance is real. The parts that change how you build a live video rig are less… A long dark corridor of equipment racks lit in stages 25 June 2026 Where the latency in your video chain is actually hiding Someone waves at the camera and the wall responds visibly late. The room notices. Everyone blames the network, because the network is the part nobody can… LED pixels in close view resolving into an image across the frame 11 June 2026 Pixel pitch, viewing distance, and how many pixels you actually need An LED wall's resolution is not a number you choose. It is arithmetic performed for you by whichever panels the hire company had in the warehouse,… An equipment rack bay in a dark room with status lights and dressed cabling 28 May 2026 DeckLink output from a Mac: the parts that bite SDI is refreshingly binary. Either the switcher locks to your signal or it does not, and there is no "it's mostly working". That makes it the… A darkened auditorium with a large screen and a smaller side screen lit 14 May 2026 Getting ProPresenter onto a second surface without a second Mac The room has a main screen and now it has an LED wall down the side, or a foyer display, or a stage-left panel that needs…