GUIDE · THE VOCABULARY
What everyone on site assumes you already know.
Live events run on a vocabulary nobody writes down, which is fine until you are new, or explaining a purchase to someone who has never stood on a gate. Twenty terms, defined plainly.
- Accreditation
- The process of deciding who is allowed on site, in which areas, on which days, and giving them something that proves it. Everything else at an event hangs off this list. See how Bloop does it →
- Access matrix
- The grid that says which pass types can enter which zones. Change a cell and every gate sheet and scanner should change with it; on a spreadsheet, they do not. See how Bloop does it →
- Pass type
- A named category of access (CREW, ARTIST, PRESS, CONTRACTOR) carrying its own zone rights, day validity and catering entitlement. People get a pass type; the pass type carries the rules.
- Zone
- A defined area of a site with its own access rule: back of house, pit, dock, dressing rooms, production compound. Zones are what a pass grants, and what a gate checks.
- Laminate
- The physical pass on a lanyard. Called a laminate because it used to be, and often still is. The word survives regardless of whether the pass is printed, wristbanded or a QR code on a phone.
- Gate sheet
- The printed list a gate or door holds: who is expected, what they carry, what to do about exceptions. The version at the entrance is the version that matters, which is the whole problem with printing it on Thursday.
- Load-in
- The period when production, staging and equipment arrive and the site is built. Also called the build. Access rules during load-in rarely match access rules during the show.
- Doors
- The moment the public is admitted. Everything before doors is preparation; everything after is operations. "Doors at seven" is a deadline, not a description.
- SAG
- Safety Advisory Group. The multi-agency body (council, police, ambulance, fire, highways) that reviews an event plan. They do not license the event, but their view carries weight with those who do.
- Stage door
- The controlled entrance for artists, crew and guests at a venue. Small, busy, and the place where a wrong name on a list becomes an argument in front of an audience.
- Pass-out
- Permission to leave and return on the same ticket or pass. Whether pass-outs are allowed is an operational decision with real queue consequences.
- re-entry
- The scan that readmits someone who has already been admitted. Systems that cannot tell re-entry from a duplicate barcode create queues and arguments in equal measure.
- Guest list
- Names admitted without a purchased ticket: artist guests, sponsor allocations, industry, press. Usually agreed late, changed later, and needed at the door immediately. See how Bloop does it →
- Box office
- Where tickets are sold, collected or resolved on the day. In accreditation terms, the desk that turns a problem at the door into a person inside. See how Bloop does it →
- DSI
- Designated Senior Individual. Under Martyn's Law, the named person at an enhanced-tier premises or event who can be personally prosecuted where non-compliance happens with their consent, connivance or neglect. See how Bloop does it →
- Premises duty
- Martyn's Law obligations that attach to a building year-round, rather than to a single event. A venue carries it every night it opens, not once a season. See how Bloop does it →
- Enhanced tier
- Martyn's Law category for premises where 800 or more may be present at once, and for qualifying events. Adds public protection measures, a designated senior individual and a compliance document filed with the SIA. See how Bloop does it →
- ROPA
- Record of Processing Activities. The UK GDPR Article 30 register of what personal data an organisation processes, why, and who it shares it with. Boring until someone asks for it. See how Bloop does it →
- See Tickets validation
- Checking a ticket barcode against See Tickets at the point of scan and registering the scan back, so the same barcode cannot be used again at another entrance. See how Bloop does it →
- Xero sync
- Pulling invoice lines from Xero into event budgets so planned, committed and actual spend sit together while the build is still running. See how Bloop does it →