Inaugural Day 4.5 Monday Evening • Salt Run Productions

Inauguration Day 4.5 Monday

We hit the Convention Center at 4p, which was when we were told was the earliest we could arrive and of course other media were there hours before.  Not a problem but just curious.

It turns out the “dirty work” was done years before in that fiber links have been laced all through the center. 

Fiber optics are laser driven signals that can carry lots of info over vast distances with little to no degradation. You figure you are in Washington and that at any given moment the President  or some other high official can deliver a speech at some meeting or convention or something, so it stands to reason that the city convention center would be wired to the hilt.

Fine…however, FINDING the paths of those wires is another issue.

The Convention Center has a contract with a vendor who supplies all the video needs for the house.  Actually they provide the infrastructure, we have to supply the signal to the infrastructure and we also have to supply the cabling that leads from the building to the truck.

OK, some grunt work but not below my pay grade or above my intelligence, however…the fly in the ointment is the infrastructure. 

We were there for almost 6 hours doing what should have been a half hour job because the audio outputs were mislabeled.  We spent hours trying to get an audio signal to the truck and we would still be there had it not been for Walter discovering the mislabeling.

Bravo Walter!

So, we’re moved in,  set up and ready to go.

Transportation as expected, will be an issue so we will have to take METRO to the Center, which ain’t bad because we left our stuff at the cener.  I opted for that because with our stuff in place, the Secret Service can clear our stuff tonight instead of me having to wait in what promises to be a long security lines tomorrow.

The tough part will be breaking down and lugging our jazz back to our hotel via METRO. 

The METRO has a stop at the Center, which we were counting on, but for security reasons that station will be closed so we along with cocktail dressed ball goers who paid a $150 a pop to attend, will have to hump a few more blocks than expected.

Exercise is good, maybe not in high heels and cocktail dresses.

There is a bit of a rainbow here though.

While setting up our stuff we had to contend with the band doing their sound check.

The Grateful Dead!!

Yeah, with all the players sans you know who…so there is a slight silver lining to all this.

Well actually, The Dead is just the cherry on the sundae because I am at the center of history and I’m glad to be here…and we get the great credentials to boot.

More to come I’m sure!!