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I had to do a similar operation on our stock of (also budget) Stagg KingPARs. a) the main reason, I think, for the failures was they tended to overheat. And that overheating was down to a poor ventilation system which just sucked in all the dust & crap that gets generated during the life of a stage with several full builds a year. b) the replacement COB chips are no longer available. I had the very last 11 chips that my Stagg dealer could find ANYWHERE, as they've moved on to something different now and don't manufacture back-catalogue spares. Something to definitely bear in mind when buying cheaper. c) replacing those chips wasn't difficult per se but was fiddly - it involved getting into the front of the lantern and soldering at a steep angle due to the case being in the way. Didn't appear to be an easy way to get the whole kaboodle out of the case so just ran with it.

Got feelers out to the local colleges - no hits as yet. Also to the rehearsal/recording studios that are in the area - again no positive hits :( As the band are on stage - on decking upstage - the point of that is that they ARE seen - it's part of the production. So ideally at least half the screens need to be transparent, so solid options aren't really an option.

Hmmm... Wasn't expecting a flood of answers, but zero is quite indicative... Is this not something that is often hired out? Found SFL has some but so far few other 'tickles'.

Or indeed put a new lamp into a pitted holder - both circumstances will lead to quickly degrading the good part from the bad.

This is a key statement. It will be a balancing act between trying to accommodate the band's wishes/actual needs vs additional costs involved in providing for those. I would say that if the BAND are the ones who want the specific lighting states, then it's the BAND who should be offered the choice of having the kit and paying for it, or simply going with what you have available at the price you're willing to charge the venue for it all. As has been said, riders are seldom met 100% and in my limited experience they're often completely out of date with items that have changed or been dropped, or the band actually tour with some kit themselves etc etc. Strike up a conversation with whoever looks after the band's tech (not usually the promoter) and talk direct with them about what they NEED vs what they'd LIKE.

Fo an upcoming production with a 17 pc band on raised decking upstage I really need to screen them off to help with preventing/reducing feedback risks - ideally I'm looking to borrow, (an-dram show) but if a hire is needed then a hire is needed. Theatre is mine in Nuneaton, Warks, so midlands based would be best, so options people, please. Already put feelers out to a couple of local colleges but need alternatives please.

As this topic is very close to 4 years old, I suspect the OP has been there, done what he needs and finished the show...!!!

OK - so let's clarify what exactly you're asking... Are you directly associated with the church, and as such being asked do do this as a freebie, or mates-rates job? Or are you loosely associated and being asked to quote for the job of installing the projector? Either way, are you looking for a way to tell the client - in a way that brooks no argument on regulatory or safety grounds - that the idea of using a cheap bit of truss from Fleabay is the wrong way to do the job, and as a result the method that you will NOT consider installing? It does strike me that if you're looking for reasons not to do as they ask (and to be honest, I'd certainly not be doing that job with cheap truss and end-supports) then simply say that. If they're asking you as a local tradesman then they should be taking your word on the matter - and taking your advice on what WOULD be the best and most cost effective solution.

Seems to be a bit of conflicting info online about what's happening to Prolyte Group, a company whose products I'm sure are used by many a BR member daily... AED Group posted a copy of a letter from Prolyte which says they're in financial difficulty, but Prolyte's own web site doesn't appear to have shared the same (That I've yet found)... In fact their own news page shows articles as recent as the last couple of weeks all looking positive... Does anyone have any more detail??

I think you've sort of had the answer - and that it depends on what the status of the church is which I'm not sure you've yet clarified.

There are plenty of trusses available that can easily cope with a 10m span, just supported at the ends, and still have capacity for load. A type, litec QL52, JTE supertruss, prolyte s52, total fabs OV40..... Consult the manufacturers load tables. Granted the generic stuff off eBay probably wouldn't fall into this list, but your statement above is incorrect. I'm not commenting on the situation the OP is in, just the statement about truss. That is a fair point BUT the OP is talking about a budget solution. And as I think someone else has said, buying in 10m of top quality truss (and the suitable fixings to mount it) that will be sufficient for the job is almost certainly going to exceed the budget by several orders of magnitude.

And 10m of truss of any sort is going to need at LEAST 3 pickups to support its own weight even without anything on there (and let's not forget that once they have a 10m truss in the sky it won't be JUST a projector for very long! So are there properly rated and tested points from which to suspend those pickups in the church roof? I suspect not.

You certainly won't get any of the major suppliers selling you anything that's not in the original packing. Whether you can find anyone in the local area who MIGHT have a part-used box that they'll let you have is a long shot, depending on what you need. And strictly speaking it may not be legal for them to actually sell on the products without a license (I'll let Linc or Brian answer that one for certain).

I always understood the 'international' element of IATSE was that they joined forces with the Canadians north o' their border - nowhere else across any seaboards...Though of course I could be wrong

Brexit. I knew someone would utter the fatal word...But as we don't do politics in here I'll resist :) (Though I seriously doubt that Brexit itself has anything to to do with their decisions as it affects the whole of the EU regardless of whether we're in or out)

This has resurfaced again... Posted by one of the contributors on the FB Lighting & Stage Pros group page... One would have hoped that we'd have been further down the line than this by now...

Pixels is definitely looking interesting...

It's an am-dram production, but a company I've worked with a few years now and they're not shy of spending some budget in the right places. I've not yet looked at video flooring but it can be added to the list depending on costs - anyone any idea on the cost of a square floor around 3.6m a side? Just looked at that, and the tile size there is 610x610 - I have limited space on the floor as we have side builds and a couple of small revolves which reduce the space available - from memory I think we only have room for 450mm plus change per square. Oh - and update - LSI-Live no longer has the Chroma Deck anyway - they've sold up and been absorbed by another company :) I've spoken to a few dance floor suppliers, and joined a FB group for sparkly floor peeps but from what I can establish the trad disco dave floors are NOT very versatile when wanting to address each one as a specific square - they tend to be either random on/off or all on/all off type of thing. We did talk about clear topped deck, but not sure the squares aspect would be right when going between decks. And I think based on the above, would be slightly too large at 2 foor centres. There's no rake on the stage, and yes, the front row or 2 wouldn't see much at all, but the aud is quite a decent rake and so MOST of the punters would get the gist - just not the 'cheap seats'... :) Believe me, that's one of the other things being looked at as well as the physical side - control. We have a couple of the guys who are far more savvy than me on things like Arduino and Pi etc who are playing with ideas at the moment - makes for some interesting looks from the punters when we're playing with LEDs and bread boards etc over a post rehearsal pint :) But we have an ETC Gio with 8 universes available overall, and if necessary we could pull the old Ion out as well to support, but I don't think we'll need to :) Hmmm... 64 tiles x 4 colours plus master level, 5 channels = 320 channels, unless I'm missing something. On the very basicest of setups... Power shouldn't be a big issue - if it does end up a self-build I'd probably fill in around the tiles with a custom deck to the same height so that the grid floor doesn't sit above the main stage, which will leave us plenty of options to lay power under that floor from one of the multitude of 16A/32A/63A options dotted around stage. Until we know exactly what we're doing and how many LEDs/controllers are involved we won't know what we need to supply but that will come.

I'm designing/managing a production of Chess in November and one aspect we're looking at is the build of a custom 8 x 8 chess board LED floor. We've been looking at the available options from the wedding dance floor community but to be honest the scope there is limited, as is the control of individual squares, which is something we want to capitalise on ideally. Hence why we're looking at a custom build. What may sway the decision to move on this is the potential for hire to other companies looking forward, which can compensate the expense involved in creating such a beastie. So what I'm looking for here is the potential for hires to other companies in the future. The plan will be to construct an 8 x 8 tile floor setup with 450mm/500mm squares on a timber frame and aluminium separators for the squares. I'd say we would build it in four sections at 4x4 panels each making it more transportable. We've not yet settled on a suitable control option, but are looking at either standard DMX to LED off the shelf boxes or a bespoke Pi/Arduino solution. One of the calculations we're looking at will be the size and thickness of the tiles to cope with chorus dancing about on them. As I see it the floor would be viable for Chess, or (if we invested in a full set of white perspex/acrylic tiles) potentially the likes of Saturday Night Fever for example. So - the question is whether there might be a market for the floor if we go ahead and build? UNLESS of course someone has already done this and has a suitable floor in stock somewhere (that I've not yet managed to find...)

This is where I'd go, personally. Even without haze the hard lines of the profiles can be quite striking as a marker for your 'walls'. And though there are no theoretical windows you might (if you have enough kit) like to try something I did a while back and use 4 profiles properly spaced so that you get a larger coverage area but maybe leave a very small gap between them as they hit the floor - creating a type of cross-hair effect. I used it to simulate the bars of a hatch in the deck of a boat - the actor was imprisoned in the hold with the only light coming from above. But like a gobo can, it gave the light beams a little more depth.

I used to have one or two of the REALLY heavy cast Seecol bases/stands somewhere - no idea if we still have them, tbh - will have to look.

That bit depends on how often the flats are used and re-painted.Ours can be potentially given different coats of emulsion 7 or 8 times a year, and after a couple or three years use you will struggle to find, let alone remove, most of the screws. The idea of re-facing flats is sensible IF the circumstances are right. We've glued & nailed ours this last week or so, which mean re-facing won't be an option, but then our last stock lasted 20 years+ as they were also built solidly. It's a choice to make.

Depending where you are (and if you can be quick) I'm looking to dispose of a fair number of our older flats - ranging between a couple of years old and over 20 years in some cases. We've just decided to replace all of those with new - 3 x 1" PAR frames faced this time with 3.6mm ply (most of the old ones are hardboard). There are a stock of 14 foot (thereabouts) and 10 foot flats at a variety of widths from 12" to 4 feet that you could cut down and reuse easily at your 8 foot height. I've literally just finished the last new one today, and we need to sort getting them to our off-site stores, but will need to clear the older ones out for space. If you can get transport to the midlands in the next couple of weeks (sooner rather than later best) you can have these for free. Or if anyone else wants to grab some, feel free to shout up.

Hmmm... © Hawthorn's day rate is more than the IPS week rate ... That's before asking the question of course :)

Going to be needing a number of electromagnetic kabuki drop units at the end of September for a week. The last time I had these I hired from a local pro theatre but as far as I know they've stopped doing external hires now, which is a shame. So - on the lookout for around 8 of these. Impact have some in MK, but hoping for somewhere closer if poss.