Source or design - For a Theatre work station

[Mike Rehmus]

I find myself spending a lot of time with a camera and tripod, attempting to be comfortable at the back of an auditorium and still do a decent job of capturing the play or dance rehearsal or or or. No matter what I do, I tend to need a space of at least 2 rows deep by at least 4 or 5 seats wide to hold the tripods, monitors and gear. Adn the results are not as good as I'd like since I struggle to get an eye near the viewfinders because of the high camera placement over seats.

What I want to build or buy is a workstation that can be built in-place fairly rapidly. It should hold me and perhaps an assistant up above the audience so they cannot walk in front of the cameras. Also, it needs to hold the cameras on tripod heads, one or two video monitors and a waveform monitor up at a useful level. (I'm tired of putting the monitors on the floor or hanging from the tripod.)

I'd be very happy if the station only took 4-5 seats wide on a single row (It hurts theatre income when we have to exclude patrons.)

To make it more difficult, the floor may or may not be even and is probably sloped or stepped.
Any ideas or directions to solutions?

[Ken Tanaka]

Mike,
I have seen such work platforms in-place in theaters. They generally look to be made of scaffolding material, bridging over a row or two of seating. They seemed to be built in-place structures, not ready-made platforms.

Still, it does seem like a standard rig with adjustable legs could be fashioned for easier deployment.