An event management system for live production
Projects, crew, logistics and finances for concert and show production — fragmented tools replaced by one real-time system, with kiosks on the warehouse floor.
In build. Rolling out in December 2026. The outcome figures go here once it has run real production cycles — this write-up covers the problem and the approach, not results it has not earned yet.
The problem
Every show has a ship date, and everything works backwards from it. Crew has to be assigned across lighting, video, audio and rigging. Equipment has to be pulled and prepped in a warehouse area. A truck and a dock slot have to line up on the morning it leaves. A company of fifty-odd people is doing this for many shows at once, at different stages, across several sites and time zones.
Today that coordination lives in six separate subscription tools and the spreadsheets around them. Nothing is visible to anyone outside the person holding the document unless they are sent it, so around thirty people start each day working from a partial picture. Inbound and outbound trucks get missed, and so do dock assignments.
The clearest cost is at the end of the job. Damage reports fall between the cracks, and some sit long enough that the cost can no longer be billed on — work done, kit broken, and nobody invoiced for it.
The approach
One system, updating live for everyone at once. Firestore subscriptions mean the dock sees a change the moment the office makes it, without anyone refreshing anything or picking up a phone.
Rather than a single monolithic view, the system is organised around the way the work actually splits: scheduling, prep, transport, staffing, expenses, debriefs. Each area is a proper workspace for the people who live in it, sharing the same underlying records.
Two of those workspaces are kiosks — fixed screens on the dock and in the prep area, branded and stripped down to what someone standing up with their hands full actually needs.
What it does
Gantt and calendar scheduling
Shows, crew and resources across a timeline, with drag-and-drop rescheduling.
Dock and prep kiosks
Purpose-built fixed-screen views for the warehouse floor, not shrunken desktop pages.
Crew, staffing and workload
Who is assigned where, by department, and who is over-committed before it becomes a problem.
Transport and dock scheduling
Vehicle movements and dock slots planned against the show calendar.
Damage reports and debriefs
What came back broken and what went wrong, captured while people still remember.
Expenses and reporting
Project financials with generated PDF reports rather than a monthly spreadsheet rebuild.
Built with
- React 19
- TypeScript
- Vite
- MUI 7
- MUI X Data Grid Pro
- Firebase Auth
- Cloud Firestore
- Cloud Functions
- Firebase Storage
- FullCalendar
- React Router 7
- PDF generation
Recognise the problem?
First conversation is free, and ends with an honest answer about whether custom software is the right call.