Equipment-What is a Technical Rider?

A technical rider is a document which specifies the types of equipment to be used, the staff to be provided, and various business arrangements in preparation for a performance.                                

Sound: 

• Sound system, generally described in terms such as 'a professional quality 3 or 4 way active system', frequency response  and power  are also common.
• Sound desk—it is normal for engineers to specify a list of preferred desks and also minimum requirements (such as number of channels) from other desks as a backup. Requests for recording equipment or feeds for recording are sometimes included here.
• Channel/input list—a list of the instruments being used, including preferred microphones and inserts.
• Monitor requirements—often included alongside the channel list, detailing the number of wedges and mixes required, a section similar to the front of house requirements detailing the need for monitor desk, graphic EQs and other outboard. If a monitor engineer is to be provided by the house it is generally requested here.
• If the artist brings large amounts of equipment (such as the PA system) then power requirements are likely to be stated here.

Lighting

• Depending on the size of the production this can vary between 'provide a front wash and x kW of back lighting' to specific lighting plots of equipment
• The number and type of follow spotlights to be used
• Number of lighting technicians
• Power requirements
• Truss weightings (when the lighting system is provided by the touring production.)

Back line-  This refers to the equipment the band may require, originally it was really just amplification equipment but it has expanded to the instruments like bass guitars and keyboards.

• Some bands will not transport the full back line due to the expense of transport (generally if performing only a few times in each country/area) and may have the venue provide some to all of it. Larger items like amps, cabs and drums are more likely to be requested than guitars which many musicians treat more personally.
• Risers—a riser is a raised area of stage, the size and positioning of risers for musicians (such as drummers, orchestra wind sections) are specified here.

Other

• Crew—productions typically specify the number of local crew the venue should provide as well as any technical staff.

Why are Riders important and why are some notorious? 

Van Halen requested in the technical rider that a bowl of M&Ms be provided in their dressing room with the brown ones removed. Failure to do so would not only mean that the band would not perform, but the venue would still have to pay the full fee. The objective of this wasn't due to any excesses on the part of the band, but was a method to determine how much attention to detail the crew at a local venue paid to the requests specified in the rider. Should the bowl be absent, or if brown M&Ms were present, it would give band members reason to suspect other, legitimate, technical and safety issues were also being performed poorly or were outright overlooked. David Lee Roth stated in his autobiography that this request was made as a result of faulty workmanship at a venue on an earlier tour which nearly cost the life of a member of Van Halen's road crew. He added that at one venue where he found brown M&Ms, the management's failure to read weight requirements in the rider resulted in the band's equipment sinking through the floor and causing over $80,000 of damage. Riders are very important not just for comfort or selfish issues but for health and safety issues and legal requirements.