"About 100 man-hours will be going into about two hours of performance," said John W. Herrholz, lighting director for the event.
Workers will be unloading and setting up two tons of equipment, including five cameras and 4,000 feet of cables to carry the 20,000 watts of electricity powering the event, he said.
Despite the magnitude of the preparations, workers emphasize that the scale of the talk is much less than that of a normal concert, such as the one Tori Amos gave at Sanders last year.
"This event should be less of a headache," said Brain Yacee, Production Supervisor at Sanders Theatre. "The equipment on stage is minimal, just a normal PA system."
The objective is keep lighting and equipment understated and not "take away from the feeling of one of the oldest halls at Harvard," Herrholz said.
Joel will run a dress rehearsal this afternoon, Herrholz said. Final preparations and fine-tuning will occur then