Junior8

Part of the fun of PA systems for the listener is hearing the picked up conversations, wind whistling, open mics picking up passing tractors, deafening clicks from dirty mic switches, and on one memorable occasion the vicar who was doing the announcements getting drunker by the hour. The poorer the quality and the more ham-fisted the users the better for me. If no steps have been taken to deal with delay it's perfect!

This solution was so obvious I didn't suggest it myself as I assumed there must be some reason why it had been rejected already. It would have been my first option.

Well it's certainly cheaper than upwards of £450 to stop people being stupid. Short of putting everything in a locked cupboard with a simple mixer input interface outside - a strategy I've seen used in a few unsupervised multi-purpose venues years ago - it seems the only cost effective way to do things.

The thing that staggered me as far back as the early eighties was how they seemed to be prepared to desert various sectors of the market to the point that in many small venues no one was bothering to spec their products at all. Zero 88 have been a force to be reckoned with for it must be well over 35 years now for looking after everyone from the 12 way two preset market upwards while Strand's marketing still goes big on a heritage that the present owners wouldn't understand. (I can visualise the yawns and glances at the watch if I tried to explain it.)

Now let me think.. when did I last buy anything new with the name Strand on it?

Quite right - it would be a shame of those were withdrawn as they are ideal for the two 240V purposes mentioned. Indeed 15A for wall mounted heaters used to be pretty standard in such settings as the heater could be replaced from a stockpile already fitted with a plugtop quickly by the premises staff.

Back in the period I was in education the county I worked for had area electrical inspectors who had to work off a list of approved contractors. It was enlightening to sit with mine as he rang one after the other with the question 'who have you got free?' and listen to the litany of 'don't want him' until he got someone he rated. If you needed a friend - he was there and he understood every aspect of what you would find in local authority premises. I assume such people have gone these days.

There used to be all sorts of 'advice' about leaving items switched on most of which I always suspected was poppycock. I never followed any of it and don't recall any problems. My view has always been that equipment should be left running only when it needs to be in use - and if there was a need for s shut down procedure it would be specified. As usual, as you say, Flanders and Swann had it right. I can't see why the fan would be needed to keep cool things cool.

There will be many educational settings where 5A was fitted as the assumption when the installation was done was that 500W lanterns would be standard. I wouldn't mind betting that originally the patch would have been 5A as well maybe even to a couple of Junior 8s. Even in 1990 when I last was involved in fitting out such a space my specification of 15A and suitable cabling caused more than a raised eyebrow amongst the drama advisory staff who couldn't see that the increasing availability of 650W at reasonable prices would lead quickly, as it did, to 1000W affordability and that would mean that 5A would soon be non-standard in control. Had I not been there it would have been 5A. In this case I would not make any assumptions on the wiring simply on the basis of what is fitted at the patch. If this lantern is continually blowing fuses - and the circuit has been checked with a lower power lantern and proved to be OK - then stop using it and get someone in to check what the spec of the whole system is. They might well find it enlightening. In any school with 5A outlets assume is was designed for max 650W lanterns.

Use of the term "bulb" (rather than lamp) throughout and some odd choice of nomenclature like "2 thirds". Overall the wording/grammar and formatting/capitalisation was a bit sloppy in that text. If I'd've received that text in an email it would have tweaked my "spam/phishing" radar! On the lamp types, I assume the list generated during the "Save Tungsten" campaign will cover the types required by most of us on here. I'm sure we discussed it extensively before but this seems to be the latest list on the ALD site: https://www.ald.org....o%20Save%20List There is so much wrong with this release that one doesn't know where to start really - but hey as no one reads papers any more maybe it doesn't matter. Actually this standard of writing is one of the main reasons why people don't read papers any more.

That's the conclusion I reached Mike with the data being taken up to the bar by the flying leads - hence the feed to banks of LEDs. But let's cut to the chase here. What seems to have been done is to make a 15A IWB set up function with LED Pars by a work round. Now this school is not unique thousands will be faced with converting to a post dimmer/vacuum lamp world at some time and you can bet your life there will be no money to do it properly. The other thing is that once they introduced the Mini T I thought that Strand had got everything right for places like schools in what was essentially the Junior 8 replacement - indeed I would have stuck with the single outlet per channel version. In the days when schools were limited usually to 500W lanterns it was a bomb proof combination. So when I was asked to compile a simple stage lighting guide for teachers in around 1994 it was simple as with pretty well everything being based (Pulsar/Green Ginger/Zero88 etc etc) on that original modular concept even a beginner could plug the kit together and get it working. Half an hour's tuition on the two preset desk and they were away. A few simple rules and a decent mains installation and their terror just faded away. Our OP could have worked it out on his own given a few minutes thought. What we have here is just the kind of corner cutting work round pit together by someone who just wants to get things working that will become common if the education sector is not careful.

Just to expand my previous post the key issue here for me (and Kerry I suspect) regarding voluntary help is not competence but accountability. Years ago I would have gone along and helped out in a situation like this if asked without a second thought, In 2021 I would simply refuse without a second thought since while I would back my competence I do not have single piece of paper to prove it or any insurance cover either. Forty years ago this didn't matter - these days it does and that chain of accountability has to be paid for.

Sorry D_Y you really shouldn't get involved in this - you have no role in the school and they shouldn't really be asking you. There are a number of things about this install that I don't like from a quick glance and they need to pay someone to come in and look at it for them properly right through. The advice to employ an experienced freelance tech is the right route. My advice would be to contact the nearest Arts Centre or FE College with performance lighting - there is one in virtually every Hants district council area - and ask for their advice. Most of their techs aren't that busy at the moment....

You have found out why piano movers use dollies! I don't see how adding anything to the design for an 8ft load will make it more manageable without a tail lift - or a ramp of pretty well infinite length. Adding a set of central wheels has only given you real problems by adding a very efficient fulcrum for the over a quarter of a tonne load. This simply can't be risk assessed as safe in my opinion. As Kerry says you really need more ground clearance. Actually you really need a better idea - I wouldn't go near something homemade like this of 8ft length with that load on it frankly. Laid flat on a decent dolly - the job would be a breeze.

The correct course of action, especially for a volunteer, in this and every similar case is to immediately reply: "I'm sorry I don't know what you mean, please could you explain." If they won't, ask again and go on asking until they will.

I covered the 2003 Act throughout for the trade press and became more and more depressed as it went on. In my view the motivation for this legislation was never to tidy things up or to be light touch or anything of the sort - no matter what the Blair government were saying at the time. Entertainment Licensing which had been doing the job very nicely for years needed no reform. LO after LO confirmed this to me. No it was the alcohol trade who had been lobbying for relaxation for years who were the trigger and giving them that relaxation but getting all drink licensing well and truly under local authority control which was the driving force. I thought this at the time and am more convinced as the years go by that we were added simply to disguise this. (More liquor premises lost their licenses in the first year than I think in the previous ten.) That it turned into a license to print money for many a LA was I am sure a completely unintended consequence. (I also wondered if the TENs system was intended as a way to some years down the line replace the 14 day permitted development rules on which many an outdoor event still relies.) It was a bad, diabolically drafted, act when it was passed - the list of exemptions was purile - and all the amendments have made bad law worse.

Good luck with that search I have been trying to find a spare globe for a spring feed candle stick for two years. Candle sticks rarely came with any kind of chimney and most replacements are hand made bespoke and dear. But I wonder if you are looking for the right thing. Maybe a finger held oil lamp would be a better bet - they were made for this use and far more fires were started with oil lamps than candles since they invariably spilt the fuel if dropped. Something like this https://www.ebay.co....ccAAOSwS6pgmTo- They come in brass too - I have one. Mind you even with brass the chimney would only stand one take!

Just a word on behalf of councils - and those who know me will know that I rarely bat on their side - but outsiders need to realise that many of them seem to be in a state of permanent reorganisation. For fifteen years I had to deal with every one of the London Boroughs that was running a street trading operation and it was rare with one or two of them to speak to the same department let alone person from year to year. Pretty well everywhere staff churn was colossal meaning that often quite junior staff were left to make decisions quite beyond their skill level - hence safety first and standard forms. Some other large metropolitan councils were as bad. It seemed to me that by the time a staffer had mastered the role the powers that be (usually to be fair reacting to yet another central government diktat or some scandal like that emerging in Liverpool) put in place yet another departmental shuffle-houses and it all started again. The worst development was the sharing of back office functions between adjoining authorities and the use of arms length semi commercial entities set up for some contract functions. When you have had, as I have, an officer near to tears asking you what to do faced with an issue in your specialist area you do tend to be a bit more sympathetic.

Neater than any of mine!

Miss J8 tells me in the equestrian sector its the canx insurance which seems to be the issue. And to be fair if you were an underwriter how would you rate the risk in the present circumstances - especially if you have been in court defending your decision not to pay out Business Interruption claims? As far as local authorities are concerned the important thing - pandemic or not you should do it continuously for regular events - is always to get the elected members on your side. But don't expect logic. Last Xmas when we were hamstrung trying to visit Dad in his Cheltenham Care Home due to Glos CC rules Cheltenham Borough were allowing a Christmas Market in the High Street! If I was an operator I would have bitten the bullet and pulled my event in December anyway.

I was looking for something to do just this sort of job nearly twenty two years ago for a projected museum oral history project. Nothing like the devices Simon mentions were available then or if they were I didn't find them. But there were solutions of a kind which all had one thing in common - they were all incredibly expensive. A brief look at some of the ideas above seem to indicate nothing has changed, it's always a give away when the, very few, suppliers are cagey about retail prices. Where these were available they seemed to start at £500 for a small flat panel and £600 for the pendant version.I could see that easily turning into say £800 per installation. Seems a lot of money when a label could do the job for 3/6.

I'm very familiar with those terms, having done both jobs at the BBC's radio drama department. Do you have the same background? No - my closest to that dept is research into the Beeb's history of Rattigan productions. I think using such terms has something to do with age. I am old enough (67) to have used the term Panotrope in anger but not quite in the sere and yellow to recall marking a groove on a Conroy or Paxton and dropping the needle on cue!

Grams/Spot etc would still for me! But as I have not had to mark up a script for over 20 years what do I know? I always preferred to have the cues on the right hand page opposite the script on the left and linked with lines as it meant there was plenty of room to make notes where needed. Laid out in columns it is then perfectly clear which things have to happen simultaneously.

The first definitely. You must know that the cue has worked. Don't depart from actual seconds or a simple count (1and2and3and is as good as anything) to a matter of 'feeling' - everything in running a show to a plor is mechanical after all. Feel the pause is not good enough it has to be planned.

Just for clarity if any small white metal/Mazak/Zamak components are frozen it won't be rust unless this is in the pin/fixing/fastener if ferrous it will be something else. It might be corrosion - this material will corrode in certain circumstances - but it will often be muck. In the case of a lantern hinge of this sort the alternate expansion and contraction can allow ingress of all sorts of dusts which then get compressed. If I recall aright there isn't much clearance in this component. I think I would always start with a quick drop of good old 3in1 and leaving it a day or two or simply knocking the hinge pin out and doing the same. Never force white metal.