My entire gallery show preview crashed 15 minutes before the opening

I was setting up my digital art show at a small gallery in Portland last spring, running a loop of my animated pieces on a big screen. Right as people started showing up, the whole thing froze on a corrupted frame. I mean, my heart just dropped. I had to quickly switch to a backup laptop I brought, but it only had lower-res versions of my work. Honestly, it looked pretty bad blown up on that screen. Has anyone else had a tech disaster at a live event and found a better way to prepare?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_ellis11d agoMost Upvoted

Man that's the worst feeling, I felt my stomach drop just reading it. Honestly your backup laptop idea was smart, but maybe next time you could also have a simple slideshow ready on a USB drive as a last resort. I've started testing my whole setup at the venue the day before, running the loop for a full hour to catch any crashes. It's a pain but it saves so much stress.

dixon.iris11d ago

Yeah, testing the whole setup like that is the only way to be sure...

beth_reed11d ago

My old MacBook saved my talk last month, @logan_ellis.