Junior8

On 1/12/2023 at 12:13 PM, Stuart91 said:

A venue we worked with was being refurbished. Someone quite rightly brought up the issue of wheelchair access to their platform, and it was decided that a ramp would be built. The architect instructed the joiners to build something to the regs, I suspect around 1 in 12.  

What they ended up with stretched almost halfway into the audience area, and each section required four people to lift it. The platform was only 18 inches or so high. 

Somewhat predictably, the ramp was put into storage where it has remained ever since. 

Some of the 'ready mades' for temporary access are so heavy and/or inconvenient they simply end up unused as well. If the staff likely to be using them can't handle them - this happened at one venue I know, I could hardly lift the thing  - then they right choice was not made. 

Walk into a studio and tape a phone to a monitor? And it's a laugh.....good grief. Why is no one, apparently, taking this seriously?

CCT are still in business apparently  and their website though clunky has a product information page http://www.cctlighting.co.uk/page/45/Product_Information.html though you have to search by model numbers which are meaningless at least to me. Spares are available from them it seems. 

I always found them easy to work on but at this distance in time I can't recall how the lampholders were mounted in mine.  

The odd 23 would sag a bit but nothing like a Prelude. The problem it always seemed to me was probably differential expansion between the components due to manufacturing variation. I'd try adding the spring washer or varying the position of the tilting fork if that is possible  as suggested. When you look at the exploded diagram you can see why it happens - it's a dire design.

The Furse JFR might do the trick if you could get them sprayed black - they are blue hammer as constructed. I bet some venue near you has a few. 

On 4/8/2022 at 9:21 AM, Dave m said:

BT have apparently put a hold on the process nationally due to issues discovered in the past 12 months.

A girlfriend lived in an old stable and we would frequently go out on an unscheduled cinema visit because her electric went down. Fortunately her mobile worked mostly

BT contractors have been pulling a lot, and I mean a lot, of cable down here recently and I wonder of this is connected. 

On 9/24/2022 at 3:44 PM, TomHoward said:

 have a rule that “last minute planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on ours” so there’s no panic on our part even if you’ve got an audience waiting.
 

Over 21 years of dealing with coursework deadlines I developed a pretty good sense of what was an emergency rather than bad planning but dealing with students made me stick to basic rules pretty strictly even if occasionally this led to failure (after all I had my deadlines too) - they do need to learn organisation and systems and actually do a bit of growing up. As for the OP's question - 24 hours isn't much in the way of advance planning after all is it.

19 minutes ago, J Pearce said:

Why then, if it is such a cherished skill, do most places think they can get away with paying minimum wage or BECTU minimum to those who have the skills?

For the same reason they underpay anybody I suspect. 

For my money following is a very high level skill to be cherished. The difference between a top operator and someone who's just been given what seems to be a simple job is frequently quite obvious. Also when they are not following they can,  unlike a computer, get on with some other work like say rigging or making a cup of tea.  

On 9/5/2022 at 2:47 AM, Heptagon said:

There are multiple red signs saying that dimmable power sources MUST NEVER be used (even bringing a dimmer pack into the venue would be considered to be wilful damage) - is there any logic to his position?

There might be from their point of view but from any potential hirer's viewpoint it would look strange.  I can think of several situations where I might want to bring in even a small dimmer pack for some purpose and I'd expect to find a supply and a work round. I know in answer to my very flip initial reply to 'find another venue' you said it would be difficult but I think working with this one must be a nightmare.

A motorised cam is the best idea for the lid but remember the lid of a kettle will only vibrate if steam is literally jetting out of the spout. A bit of mist won't do really. What about a whistling kettle and air?

If you are within striking distance of the CFT pop along and take a look at Ken Billington's lighting of this show - it is inspiring for all sorts of reasons and pleased this old timer more than I can say. 

2 hours ago, sunray said:

Oh please J8, don't make me feel older than I really am. I can't begin to count how many 5A 2p sockets I insalled with 3/0.029" twin.

Nice to hear of a fellow sufferer...

That's good advice. I understand you are not actually employed at the venue but in the past I was able to get a fair bit of small but desirable work done when contractors were on site for other purposes so it is worth passing this advice on. 

As far as H&S goes Strand were better than some and the Junior 8 was designed so that fingers could not get into the resistances, others were not so scrupulous. But hey there was still a fair bit of two wire 240v in older houses when I was a lad... 

40 minutes ago, Hockeybod said:

Does anyone remember the Sunset dimmers my Dad used to talk about? I seem to recall something about water cooling and hearing them sizzle. He was thrilled when the am-dram group upgraded to a new solid-state system, must be 45 years ago.

See https://www.theatrecrafts.com/bhc/equipment/strand-resistance-dimmers-type-d

Most of the makers produced a similar style of dimmer as they could be mounted directly behind the switchboard and operated by a linkage.  They would certainly have run warm under load. They went on in production far later than you'd think. 

If the present system is working and you have no pressing need to refit I'd be very much inclined to go along with kgallen's advice above. There is nothing magic about LED it is just lighting. If you can still get the spares for what you have and it does what you want and you have no money it seems obvious to me that sticking with what you have might be best. After all none of this gear has done a lot of work by the sound of it, except for power consumption it is almost certainly greener than a lot of imported LED stuff and you can repair it with a set of simple tools and a bit of nous.  

If you've got minors in don't even offer that option. 

I'll just add that Mrs J8 was introduced to SUMUP the other day working a volunteer cash desk and found it very quick to learn and very  easy to use. I bought ice creams the other day at an event from a van using this system and a small tablet and it was working as fast as cash for him. 

Aldis for one 

2 hours ago, ianknight said:

The Strand Lantern range was awful - the SL was a nice lantern but it didn't age gracefully at all, the Quartet range was also miles behind what Selecon or CCT were offering in terns of price of performance (yeah - ironic eh?).

If you want to feel really old it's worth recalling just how long ago CCT became a major player (it must be nearly fifty years now) but to be honest Strand within Rank was never going to end well. I wonder that the brand has any commercial value left now. 

I am not surprised at the decision in the case you quote Kerry (thanks for bringing to my attention) but in reality it relates only to those using a limited company to provide a service which is either solely or mainly under the  control of the client. In reality the contractors are paid to perform as known at a particular time and place under the control of others though they work cooperatively in some respects. (In this particular case too the judge was given a percentage breakdown of the proportion of the payments from the client relates to the turnover of the contractor limited company annually. In no year was it less than 95% and in three years 100%.) The judgement which runs to 59 pages turns mainly once again on just how much control the client had in  providing the services both in reality and the contract as it was drafted. The judgement makes interesting reading (for those who would like to know just how tax law works) but doesn't affect those who have a number of clients and complete control. 

I agree though Tim as each of these cases comes before the tribunals and will inevitably go either wsy getting any idea of what is and isn't OK won't get any easier. Though following the 2019 changes they will get less and less pretty quickly...

Tim in quite right in his advice about invoicing but on the general question of a flat fee ad as was discussed in another thread I cannot see any way in which such a contract would pass the simplest self-employment test. (Sorry Tim I was typing as you were posting!) However as far as HMRC are concerned I don't think they'd be that interested since the tax lost would be a maximum of £500 and the kind of person likely to be interested in the work may well not have used their full personal allowance for the year anyway. There is plenty of case law to back up HMRC's stance on self-employment but unless a company was avoiding very large amounts of 'ers NI contributions I don't think they'd be that interested in a few weeks in Edinburgh.

I wouldn't even think about it. There are far better alternatives starting with the previous post. It would probably work out cheaper anyway all things considered.

If you take Tom's allowance for the stage and assume 15x30 m that gives a working area of 450 m2. Using the yellow book recommendations at their loosest that might give a seating capacity of 450 but using the 1.5 m2 suggested in Section 5.20 Table C which I have always used personally when working out marquee load factors as it allows for everything else  that capacity would be closer to 300 at worst. For me you might get 500-600 with good planning and proper stewarding if all went well but 1000 - no way.

Video-wise unless the marquee is blacked out properly the sun will win. 

On dear every design sin of the typical mixed use hall committed here. But the job can be done quite nicely from the side bars inded at these angles I'd avoid direct front lighting anyway.  (This is a reminder of just how useful - and neat - the old Strand swivel arm wall brackets were.) In the old days I'd have suggested half a dozen 123s three on each side but as Sandall says  any 650 fresnel or similar would do. Unless dimmers are really required for this use I'd try and find some way of simply using switches.