mikienorth

That isn't a bad idea, but time and having to prep a show by remote narrows my options, but you have totally nailed the strap design there, from a description I was expecting to be told to 'provide a photo' instead to. Which I would but all the ones I've got are the other side of the Atlantic on a system just now.

I'm trying to find something very simple, that seems to be manufactured and sold to lighting companies and struggling. It's a thin webbing strap, with a safety chain type snaphook sewn into it at one end, and it's a loop. It comes in a couple lengths and is used to choke around looms to make a strain relief point, a point to clip the loom to structures with, and things like that. It seems to be known across all three lighting companies who've lent me them in the past as a 'Madonna Strap' but google really doesn't return anything like the thing I'm looking for with those keywords, naturally. If anyone's any idea what I'm on about, please help!

Does work, can be done, not easy, people I work alongside developed machines specifically to do this at an arena scale, along with filling them with smoke before comemercially available large scale machines came on the market. Another option used to give the idea of 'underwater' is mounting the bubble machines high and letting them just do their thing in the room. The idea of bubbles in the water is possibly more important than the direction they travel to sell the design?

Having started work on resurrecting a g300 or 6 recently, I have a circuit diagram, list of fault codes and what they mean, likely diagnoses of these fault codes, and also had email correspondence with a service guy at LM as recently as November. All this was sent to be by LM, who really are very helpful in getting you to keep your machinery running. If I recall my email correspondence started with a phone call. But, if anyone's struggling, give me a shout and I'll share what I know.

I was having these thoughts last year, and this year was the year I was going to re-do my Electrical qualifications and prepare to go back to being an electrician, and then, well, we all know the rest. Personally I'm less than £1000 and four days of study away from being able to get my gold card, but finding that kind of money just now isn't easy. Currently applying for entry level positions at network rail (£26k) and seeing what else is out there, or persuade an electrical contractor to take me on with my old qualifications and work toward the new ones. Everyone in the USA sees real estate as an exit plan as far as I can tell, over here I see lots of us building side businesses like bars, or event cateering, or distilling to build their own escape tunnels.... It's not that I 'want' to per se, it's that as I age I know the phone is going to stop ringing, and I need to be ready.

This is an interesting project to follow, keep on updating us, I know I for one have nothing else really on right now...

Having had my hands on this stuff a few years ago: https://fireflylighting.com.au/lighting-products/neon-flex/ I seem to recall it pretty much being LED tape inside a translucent silicone 'thing' Might translucent silicone, or making a resin pour 'cloudy' create a waterproof diffused cover that, even if the point sources of the LED are wiped out by resin, make the whole shape glow? By translucent I mean 'clear' like B&Q mean clear silicone sealant... Clear 'ish'

I've seen a few adverts for 'come in and tinker on our kit' the last week. I work all over the industry. I'm hearing of clients losing lots of work over it, and I'm seeing people all over the world losing massive amounts of corporate work because of it. Personally, it's already been my quietest year in a decade, and I'm in a corner business wise because of other issues that adding the risks of this on top of is going to be very hard to come back from. I'm seeing things starting to wake up a little in regards of interest, but I've currently had more days this year without any bookings than I had in all of 2019 or 2018. This week I've started hearing of, and experienced, companies slicing their rates paid. Personally people I've billed at an agreed rate for years have decided to cut that without talking. We've talked now and fixed that to both of our satisfaction for now, but still. I'm hearing of other companies slicing their rates by nearly £100/day. Because people are prepared to work for that right now, and accept bookings at that heavily a discounted rate. Thing is, once we are out the other side of this, and it might be in a month or two, it might not be, then getting your rates back to where they are now is going to be a massive uphill struggle. I'd be 95% sure that your clients aren't slicing their rates, or at least by that much. I'm in a bad spot work and business wise due to a combination of factors, some due to choices I've made, some way outside my control, and this is just making things worse.

There's 320x160mm display panels in single colour, and I think made for outdoor use, on ebay. I've no idea if they'll work for you, or even if it's a solution, but might end up cheaper than trying to reinvent the wheel... They're a tenner each. Failing that, maybe see if there's anywhere that disposes of old petrol station signage? Your post piqued my interest so I've been casually googling away to pass the evening... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Module-P10-LED-Display-Outdoor-Module-RED-320-160-mm-LED-Sign/193217393756?hash=item2cfca7745c:g:xUwAAOSwwlJd1HvD

Flame proofed hand fired confetti is REALLY easy to source, and the certs are readily available as well. Test it, see if it sustains a flame, we all might be surprised, and testing is how the FR of something is checked, I've had to treat and submit drapes and samples for tests for things before. The supplier may not know - they may bulk buy the units and not think about it. Otherwise personally I'd refuse to let them use it unless they can demonstrate with a test or a certificate that it is flame retardant. It's not just about it being pointed at the lights, it's also about accumulations of it gathering in corners and providing a readily available fuel in a place you wouldn't expect. One Handheld Supplier that's flame retardant

Oh absolutely! As long as the risk has been thought about and that thought process has been recorded, the risk assesment is complete.... Now if they then go on to create a method statement or a safe working method for tightrope walking, and deviate from it, woe betide them. Both literally and also in the wrath of the H&S experts.

Used to be one in the NW who specialise din this sort of thing called Crown Stage & Theatre Services. Ad-Lib in Liverpool do installations Arran Paul in Blackpool Depends where up here in the North you mean.

I had never noticed that and am very impressed that they do that - but then it makes training in different places and working in any circus make perfect sense. Fascinating thing to read, and having once or twice worked alongside circus people, and all these questions about risk assessment, there is a very definite point that their safety paperwork is inspected very closely when they come into contact with us, who have enough questionable safety practice of our own. To the outside world, our general working practices (Fast, complex heavy builds at late hours in often all weathers) would seem highly dangerous, but we know how relatively rare injury and fatality are in our world. We are the outside world looking in, how much circus rigging experience is commenting in here? How many of us have ever flown people from aircraft? My opinion of risk assessment is that it will actually allow you to do anything. All it does is make you think about it, and how you will minimise any risks. 'Will jumping off this cliff kill me? Yes. Well if I put a crash bag under it, it might not' Risk assessed and mitigated, so jumping off the cliff can happen.

As another ex-theatre tech turned bus-dwelling slapdash monster... Pete's schedules are pretty accurate. The tour rigger will spend time in the afternoon asleep, and also advancing the venues. Other departments come in later, and finish earlier. Early departments tend to get earlier finishes, and as a rule it's all done by 2, so sound check, fire marshal inspections, and other things can take place in the afternoon. Caterers get it the worst, but are sometimes done long before the show finishes so have an increased rest period there. The big thing I've experienced in 10 years of arena and stadium touring is that personally, and I might have been lucky, the worst I've ever had to do is three cities in a row. So, Hotel in city 1, wake up, check out, load in, show, load out, bus, city 2, bus, city 3, bus - hotel. So the long hours, and they are typically 17-18 hours from waking up to going to bed, BUT with a few hours in the afternoon where there's rest, only last three days. More often than not I've done a maximum of two back to backs in a row with a day of no heavy lifting, dark noisy rooms in between. Now these days are spent sometimes driving 10-23 hours on a bus to the next city, but I am not working as such. So, working four days in seven, and being paid to not work the other three, isn't too bad, and is possibly better than the casual staff or local crew who service a busy venue. If the schedules and start/finish times are tight and as a department you are concerned about this, I've also found in concert touring, that if you bring this up, then productions are frequently prepared to listen and change the plan. Sending one of two tour riggers ahead missing the load out to make sure they are rested and ready when trucks roll in, adding extra touring crew in departments that need it, hiring a second rigging package and team, so productions walk into motors each venue, adding sections of a tour that travel in advance, all things I've seen done to make sure things are ready, safely, in the time available. Noise wise, the majority of shows I work provide heavy duty comms headsets to block the show sound, run mostly on IEM setups for backline, band and monitors, and most of us invested in our own choice of decent hearing protection a long time ago. The incredibly directional nature of modern PA systems means there is a noticeable drop in level behind the boxes. From the inside, it's not as bad as it looks. Most bits of a large music show set travel in carts that roll in and out of trucks, forklifted or rolled onto loading docks. That beats the old days of carrying all the flattage, and every other element, up a ramp into the back of a matthews trailer and waiting while it's tied off, or holding the stack of show floor plywood so it doesn't fall in the truck... Local crewing numbers are often higher, I will get typically four local hands to myself to help do my work each day, which means I'm mostly directing rather than doing, which helps. I'll finish with the thoughts of theatre 'proddies' Back in the day, they used to move a show. I know they still do, but I don't know if it's like it was. 12 years ago they'd load out a show, taking 6 hours or more, drive to the next theatre, and start loading it in. Or in some cases, they'd get a tour bus. Definitely not all, and not on some of the 'bigger' productions of the time either. Same guys both ends of the move, with little to no sleep inbetween. Sounds a lot like the safety worries people have about Rock & Roll type touring...