David Ripley

Honoured to be awarded this for The Counterweight Caddy, developed through the ABTT VIP programme and now being tooled up for production and launch at The ABTT Theatre Show by Triple E News story here. About The Counterweight Caddy here And a piccy of the Award below David

Here's a Steeldeck I did yonks ago and is featured in my tome I've printed out and it does work, but that depends on the type of printer for the wavy bits 3D Steeldeck.stl 9-46.tif

We trued to use a bunch recently, all falling apart and couldn't get them to pass PAT. The earth, so I am told, was like a piece of thread, so no good But agreed, the best things to do water with, one of my first designs was Way Upstream with no actual water, but a lot of ripple tanks secreted around the stage, Sils with DHA Effects Wheels above and a beautiful 'prop' cabin cruiser onstage with 2 SM's inside shoving around, an invertor and a Mini2 running the onboard lights. Ah, lighting in the 90's David

Hi Tim I suppose that is why those domestic floods you can get have loads of LEDs on their face. I'm guessing that is what will replace any linear lamps over time, for Net Zero reasons and that will drive manufacturers out of the market. I would assume that R7s for theatrical use are probably a tiny fraction of the overall market, so unlikely to be manufactured in small amounts as time goes on. David

Transferred over from another topic... It looks like we have to face the Death of Tungsten, as the manufacturer's gradually drop out of the market in the next few years What can we do to mitigate the effect of this whilst still running shows and how do we upgrade our systems to LED Units, when the last bubble blows? My colleague Nick Moran is steering a joint Royal Central/ALPD project, Surviving The Death of Tungsten, to raise awareness amongst smaller venues that the end is nigh for TH, not to be too dramatic. It is also about training in the use of them, both practically and artistically through building local networks that can support each other. If you want to get involved in this initiative contact Nick at nick.moran@cssd.ac.uk and put SDOT in the subject David THE DEATH OF TUNGSTEN leaflet for approval to print.pdf ABTT Presentation 2023 V2.pptx

As with all things LED, I would say that the R7 LED lamps are currently not very good. I remember seeing a demo at the National 7 or 8 years ago where ETC were showing the LED engines that finally had a reasonable dimmer curve and colour. The EU EcoDesign regs have been the driver behind the switch over to LED from a regulatory point of view and why the manufacturers have left the field. The bubbles we need are difficult to manufacture, so a hassle for them, particularly with a dwindling market The SDOT campaign is trying to address the very fact that village halls etc generally are unaware of these things that will affect them, so we are trying to raise that awareness. Also if networks are created, those that can change can cascade their old stuff to those that are still waiting. In Norway there is a Government scheme to help with this, so I think we do need a campaign of some sort to get to our lot to make them aware of how this will affect communities across the country. It also speaks very well to Net Zero

Fair point Tim but part of my post is awareness raising as we are concerned about the smaller semi or non professional venues that may not have the awareness most of us do about the future of their lighting kit Even R7s are under notice! David

The main thing that will dictate moving over to LED will be the lack of replacement 'conventional' bubbles Tungsram went under last year and were really the only remaining manufacturer making T class lamps, even if Osram say they are continuing. Large companies have already bought up any remaining lamps they can, to give them time and we at Central are looking at a multi year refurbishment of our spaces to switch over to LED Production lighting entirely. It's also worth considering the control side, as Robin D said, 'never power them from dimmers', but that means you need some other form of hard power distribution, and more importantly an infrastructure to get data to each lantern. It also means that a lot of the simple desks in Village halls, schools and so on will need to be replaced as LED Fixtures are more than one channel per unit Nick Moran is steering a joint Royal Central/ALPD project, Surviving The Death of Tungsten, to raise awareness amongst smaller venues that the end is nigh for TH, not to be too dramatic. It is also about training in the use of them, both practically and artistically through building local networks that can support each other. If you want to get involved in this initiative contact Nick at nick.moran@cssd.ac.uk and put SDOT in the subject David ABTT Presentation 2023 V2.pptx THE DEATH OF TUNGSTEN leaflet for approval to print.pdf

Magic Lantern, which is mentioned on that page, was a great idea, just 40 years too early Slightly post Magic Lantern, Tim Burnham was selling Arri desks, which were actually rebadged ETC ones, I think. They had a sort of rubber caterpillar track rather than a wheel He demoed it to us at the Hexagon Reading in 87ish but we went with a Strand Galaxy II with beautiful bespoke timber installation to replace the Compact 120 Of course as soon as we got it, Galaxy III appeared!

I think we still have a 2050 at Central but I'm probably the only one of the vintage who can use/fix it. It does get used occasionally as an experimental bit of kit. Ah, the days of mounds of these Carousels on a show taking all day and night to programme because the client wanted a countdown to the Conference starting or just wanted to swap slide order That and a projectionist in just their pants stuck in a box with a 16mm projector to keep the noise down on a IEEE tour (R.Pilbrow lighting designer) The good old days??

As you say they refer to it, then it is heard by the cast and therefore 'Interpolated music' for which you need to get the specific rights, usually As above, go back to whoever you licensed it from and see if they know what people usually do, otherwise it's approaching the Mouse who have little or no interest in the scale of your production, so may not get back to you. However just because they ignore you doesn't mean they won't pursue you until the Nth generation if you do use anything without their specific permission Changing the script is usually not possible for Amateur productions, you have licensed the play 'as is' so you would need to go back to the rights holders and ask them, so your questions to them might be 1 What do people usually do for this? 2 What can I do if Disney say no, assuming I need to ask?

To note they are also made from recycled plastic, so big tick for sustainability and made in the UK David

Omega Pro do 'weatherised' versions https://omegaproaudio.co.uk/by-type/weatherised/ David

So the last chancellor (KK) decided that the onus for proving you are self employed would move back from the employer to the contractor. Many articles decried that as a tax evaders charter that would cost at least £2billion in lost revenue. I engage around 150+ freelancers a year, so have to do a CEST for each one, but frankly as many of them are 'creatives' I thought it would be easier for me to continue doing that as I would spend as much time explaining what and how they would have to do them, it would be less time consuming for me. This is what happened when we first started needing proof of PLI, although that seems to rarely be a problem Anyway this week's Chancellor (J Hunt) has just scrapped that, along with what was left of Trussonomics, so as you were everyone. CEST David

Roger is the Technical Director of The South Bank Centre and has been for 10 years or more

Can I ask everyone who has had issues getting people to fill this in, which is gathering evidence for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Theatre. It's handled via SOLT/UKTheatre and closes at 5 on Friday The more evidence they have the more pressure they can bring to bear https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZD8LPDC

When I checked out the video, this came up as a suggestion Reechcraft Powerlift You won't be able to move it whilst aloft I'm sure but it has a much smaller footprint than the Monkey Lift. Claims it has emergency descent system which is always an issue with Access Equipment Has anyone seen/used one of these? David

GDS have been converting a bunch of Patterns, so it might be worth asking them David

Presumably, this unit is for use in the far flung future where you'll be allowed to have house parties as I'm guessing, as a student, you couldn't afford the fine if you are thinking of doing it now?

Paul is absolutely right about it being an evolution and with all things now, having moved from physical/analogue to digital, the changes have accelerated enormously On manual desks I remember going from a JP desk here to an AMC was a huge leap in flexibility and control. If nothing else you didn't risk dislocating your wrists trying to do a smooth crossfade! Similarly the change from our Gemini 2 to the Strand 520 and the revolutionary concept of just upgrading the software not the hardware was actually quite mind blowing. The fact that I could add more channels and functionality and keep the same desk took a bit of time to get used to but was really helpful as shows became more complex. I also remember the Berkey Colortran desk at Norwich - nightmare desk that no one except the local crew understood. Going back to the price though, you could get prices for the newer 'desktop' desks Duet/M24/Gemini and Galaxy 3 but before that, if you had to ask, you couldn't afford it!

As Gareth says, all the Strand systems were bespoke in terms of many options Often it would be number of memories/control channels (Duet/Gemini) For the larger desks MMS (Modular Memory System, the clue's in the name), Compact (mni MMS), and Galaxy you could have range of different module that were added to the chassis. I have a set of MMS cards from Strand showing the different modules, which were Channel Control: K (Keyboard and Fader wheel) K@ (introduces Ch @ Level syntax) Lamp Mimic (Shows Channels above 0 with an on/off illumination) Geographical Option also available Button Mimic (As lamp mimic, but push the button and you have control on the wheel, via the B Channel Control Module) Last Reference Store (primitive grouping) Manual Playback Rate (Timed) Playback Pin Patch Back Up masters Memory selector Core memory Tape! Blank Panel As you can see a fully loaded system would be enormous and of course, once you had selected the modules, once it was built that was it. To add the fun, no screen with information on it until Duet/Gemini/Galaxy and that was pretty useless I'd defend the desks though, we could achieve a lot on them with a skilled board op and designer who knew the desk with split fades and so on. We were one of, if not the first to use VL5s on a theatre desk (Gemini 2) in the mid 90's on Aspects of Love. It was what the desk was designed to do but using Move fades and so on we got the show without too much pain. People nowadays seem to think all lighting pre moving lights was a marmalade sludge that was either on or off, which is very far from the truth!

I would say the major change is that things are more formalised and we are more aware of the various regulations we need to think about We all did risk assessment back in the early eighties, in our heads, but no paperwork and certainly didn't introduce the proper controls. As an example, touring in to Norwich with three 40 footers full of steelwork, we laughed at the resident flyman in his sandals and socks. 'How unsafe' we thought as we unloaded in our latest Adidas trainers. Similarly seeing riggers judge what to attach chain hoists carrying truss to by simply finding the biggest bit of steelwork (or timber) showed there was some judgements being made, often in ignorance though There was far more drink and drugs around and drink in particular was tolerated. This was the era of Public Health advertising which asked if you really needed that third pint, before driving home, to give some context. Certainly in the West End at that time, some crew were regularly drunk on shows. On the touring circuit, if you didn't take the house crew to the pub at lunch time on the fit up days, particularly the Monday fit up and opening shows, things could get quite dicey as to whether you would go up on time Remarkably there weren't that many accidents that I recall that you could put down to the lack of risk assessment and I don't remember many at the time, despite the many crazy things we were doing, particularly in the West End, where there were a run of massive musicals that structurally altered buildings. If things starting going a bit wrong, theatrical solutions were used. The back wall of the Dominion started bowing as the cantilevered arm with Laurence Olivier's head was revealed on 'Time'. The solution was French braces made of RSJ attached externally. Probably not what a structural engineer would have advised but it worked and the show continued. As more theatres are centrally (corporately) owned also that has driven H&S culture upwards, overall as directors don't like to get sued or prosecuted. It all so means that standards should be the same in all those houses. Back in the day, some venues were known to be more 'risky' than others Hours were much longer and overnighters seen as a badge of honour on fit ups. Going through several days at a time was not particularly unusual and just added to a quite macho environment. There were few women around outside of Stage Management and Wardrobe also which probably didn't help with the testosterone levels. Also the role of the ABTT, PLASA, BECTU, Equity and the managements has been instrumental in this. Their engagement with HSE and the fact HSE trust them has meant that we can still work but in a much safer environment. Had we not had those advocates, able to speak at a Governmental level things could be very different and far more restrictive (Handrails on the edge of the stage?) So, yes things are much better now because we understand risk and aren't just going on gut feelings and wishful thinking

Patt 102 http://www.theatrecrafts.com/pages/home/archive/equipment/detail/?id=1102 David

The trouble is that Capital and Operational budgets are very different things in the eyes of budget holders and funders. Saying I want £30k now but I'll save that over 5 years, still means £30k now as far as they are concerned. Additionally, are you willing to take the £6k hit in your staff/casual budget each year, that will be asked of you? Ideally you'd want the movers and the budget for casuals which you could use differently This is the difficulty with working with people who are only looking at the bottom line David

To put this thread back to where it started, it appears EU online retailers are giving up the UK as they now have to take the VAT due in the UK and then send it here, so probably not worth given the agro involved https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55530721BBC News