For David Cleaves, a career in live production began in 1998 in the warehouse at Alford Media. What started as a curiosity about video projection eventually turned into a career spanning more than 25 years, working alongside some of the industry's most respected engineers.
Today, David works as an Engineer in Charge (EIC) and Hi-Res Operator with Ten Eighty Media, where he's involved in everything from system design and planning to programming and show execution. His approach centers on preparation, flexibility, and keeping a level head when things don't go according to plan.
We caught up with David to talk about his early days in the industry, the evolution of video engineering, the importance of networking, and what separates a good V1 from a great one.
How did you get started in video, and what eventually led you into engineering?
I got started back in 1998, working in the warehouse at Alford Media. I became interested in video projection and spent time learning how to do projection at Alford. That curiosity led to me bombarding guys like Bill Brady with video questions.
Bill eventually pulled me out of the warehouse and started teaching me how to be an engineer and how to survive on the road. I learned so much from some of the very best in the business, guys like Bill Brady, Steve Lindsay, Michael Saperton, Jimmy Palasota, and Ralph Foster. Some total legends in the production world!
How do you explain what an EIC or Hi-Res Operator does to people who don't work in production?
It's difficult to explain exactly what I do to the uninitiated. I usually tell people that it's my job to make everything look great, and it is!
If I'm the EIC, everything is my responsibility. If I'm the Hi-Res Operator, it's my responsibility to program screen presets and execute show cues in a reliable and timely fashion.
What's the first thing you want to know when you receive a new show or project?
I'm spoiled. Since 99% of what I do is for my company, Ten Eighty Media, I'm usually involved in the design, planning, and show pulls, so I already have a good game plan going into each event.
The first things I like to have are a good drawing of the show design and the show pull. I also like to meet with the show's Technical Director to make sure my design meets the needs of the event. It's usually pretty simple once I know what we're trying to accomplish.
Walk us through how you build presets, buses, and routing before rehearsal. What happens when the show caller has a different plan?
I design for maximum flexibility. I get as many things as possible into my router so I can transport any signal anywhere. All video switcher inputs are router-fed, and all destinations are router-fed whenever possible.
This makes the system flexible, and changes can be handled through routing rather than physically repatching cables.
For Hi-Res, I'll usually make a few common-sense presets, but mainly I sit with the show caller and work with them to build presets that create the looks the end client wants to see in the room.
What goes wrong when the planning isn't there, from the shop second-guessing your gear list to equipment that can't handle the format?
Good planning before the show eliminates most issues before they even occur. Having a strong technical link between the client, salesperson, and shop is critical.
Making sure the shop doesn't second-guess the needs of the EIC is important, too. There have been times when I worked for other staging companies where the shop would unilaterally decide we didn't really need a particular piece of gear. Those were usually bad decisions!
Gear is so good nowadays, but it used to be that you had to make absolutely sure every piece of equipment in the signal chain could handle the format and frame rate of the video signal.
There was nothing worse than building a huge system only to discover that a particular DA, converter, or transmitter couldn't handle your resolution or format. When we moved from SD to HD and analog to digital, this was a big problem for a while.
What technology has changed your workflow the most over the years, and how has your role changed as networking, LED walls, and more complex systems have taken over?
Better video scaling has really changed things.
A ton of credit has to go to the original gang at Barco/Folsom for their excellent scalers and their work developing the Athena scaling technology, which powered products like the ImagePRO, ScreenPRO-II, Encore, Encore 2, and E2.
High-quality scaling and standards conversion really facilitated the transition from analog composite and component video to multiformat digital HD signals and beyond.
Nowadays, you really need to be fluent in networking. So many of the things we control are done over networks, and knowing how to configure and manage a network is absolutely critical.
I'm always learning new things about network management and protocols. I'm lucky to have a lot of very smart friends who patiently keep me up to speed on this frontier. LOL.
Are there any pieces of gear, converters, adapters, or tools that you refuse to leave home without?
I have an amazing collection of oddities in my show kit, but the Elgato Stream Deck is probably the one indispensable piece of gear in my kit these days.
When something suddenly goes black five minutes before doors, what's your troubleshooting process?
It depends on what "goes black," but assuming the system was stable before the failure, I chase the problem in a linear fashion from source to destination, looking for where the signal chain breaks.
Understanding the capabilities of the signal pathway ahead of time helps tremendously.
What's one thing you wish producers, clients, or other departments understood better about the video department?
A good friend of mine used to say, "AV is a team sport."
We all succeed together, and we all fail together. I feel like I'm in a good place where this is understood throughout the production, but sometimes…
What separates a good V1 from a great V1?
Being organized is huge. Being calm when things fail is also huge.
A great engineer doesn't point fingers when things go south. They stay cool, solve the problem, and then figure out how to stop it from happening again.
What's a habit newer engineers should drop?
Not having a plan before setting foot on show site!
If you go in organized and prepared, you have a much greater chance of putting together a valid system.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone trying to move from video utility or V2 into the V1 seat, what would it be?
Three things:
Be on time and ready to work.
Don't stop learning about the craft.
Stay focused on the job you're on until it's done, then move to the next one.
Nobody wants to see you working on your next job while you're still on your current one.
Final Thoughts
From learning projection in the Alford Media warehouse to designing and operating complex video systems, David Cleaves has watched the industry evolve through some major technological changes. But despite the advancements in processing, routing, and networking, his philosophy remains grounded in the fundamentals: come prepared, understand your system, and be ready to solve problems.
His perspective is also a reminder that being a great engineer involves more than knowing the equipment. Organization, professionalism, teamwork, and the ability to remain calm under pressure are just as important as technical knowledge.
And perhaps his best advice applies to just about anyone working in live production: keep learning, stay focused on the job in front of you, and remember that AV is a team sport.
Crew to Comm thanks David Cleaves for sharing his experience, insight, and perspective with our readers.
