Ynot

Just seen this e-mail which looks like it's been sent to a variety of contacts, so some of you may have also seen a copy.

Sadly, most of our more ancient kit has gone over the years but I guess someone out there might have something to add to their collection...

The contact mail is david.sandham@sky.com for anyone who might want to get in touch.

Below is a screen grab of the kit he mentions (The SL and Quartet aren't THAT old, though... 🙂 )

I'll add my 10p to the forehead slapping posts here - I've mentioned here a while back about another school I've done a few shows at where their PAT tester failed PAR cans which had no safeties, or had the old ceramic lamp holders... The latter on the basis that 'students could get their fingers burned if they stuck them in the back of the lanterns - but seeing as I was being brought in to light their shows because the students weren't allowed to do anything with LX, that much was moot anyway!

Yes - PAT is and should be all about electrical testing and safety. There MAY be other hazards identified during testing, and of course if they are REAL hazards - and not just something an experienced tech should be able to recognise and mitigate, esp if it is part of a standard MOU - then they could/should be noted, and then it's up to the responsible adults in the room to RA the question and deal accordingly.

I would say that for this sort of thing you're not going to find anything that will give you any significant resistance to fire, if any at all. But that said, other than any upholstery that may be on the chairs (which you can of course treat as normal, although any reputable seating SHOULD already have been treated at manufacture) I'd say that there wouldn't be a specific requirement to cover the timberwork. 

It should all be down to your risk assessment, and whether there are other mitigations you can cite. For example, if this is for a simple play, with no naked flames or cigarettes for example, no pyrotechnics within close range of the furniture and no tungsten light fixtures or other heat sources nearby, then you should be perfectly fine to not worry about treatment.

You don't say where you are (your profile doesn't even list a country) or where you'll be touring, but in the UK, there's little difference between venues as to what is expected of visiting companies as a whole - they may have some specific practices but they won't be far from the rest. So I'd be tempted just to get what info they publish about risks etc and if any of them have a clause which requires FR treatments of low risk items, then talk to them about what they expect.

You think you had trouble aclimatising...???
😮

I've been an amateur practitioner since the mid 70s when I started as a young whippersnapper, (and things were VERY different back then!)

And I'd been the man in charge of a small am-dram (250 seater) theatre for quite some years when I did my first casual shifts at the Hippodrome in Brum, in my early 40s I think - and THAT was a very weird feeling I can say! 😄 I fully expected to be - and certainly was - at the bottom of the pecking order, and was the oldest part-timer there, and older than most of the full-timers too. So going from my own space, knowing where everything was, and being responsible for everything technical, and supervising most of the other amateurs on site, I went to the extreme opposite, having to ask about what was expected and where to find stuff (and how to get to it!). I was very much overwhelmed to start with, but it didn't take long to get into a rhythm. And after a couple of shifts it became very clear that everything was pretty much the same as my small space - just that everything was that much bigger. The same problems existed, (eg never enough space for storage...) just on a different scale.

So - the advice is the same as everyone else here - take each day/shift at a time, do what you know you can do with confidence, and where you're unsure, or even don't have a clue, just ASK. Few crews I've worked with have ever complained that they were asked questions to ensure the noob is doing it right, although try not to ask the same question more than once - remember the answers 🙂

I have literally NO words at this point...

(Though I'm sure if I thought long enough (maybe 2 or 3 minutes) I could come up with a few choice ones...!! 😮 😮 😮 )

1 minute ago, ErnD said:

I am referring to the wiring - polarity, not in/out/

My statement was trying to diagnose if the fixture was wired with reverse polarity.  And I was saying, if the 1st fixture was reverse polarity then any fixture connected to its DMX out should not work.

In my case, the fixture connected to the DMX out does work, so I should be able to assume that the polarity is not reversed for the fixture in question

As my updated post says - your assumption above is incorrect.

Do you have a reversal lead? Or can you make one up with pins 2/3 reversed on one end?

If you use a reversal lead and the suspect light DOES then work, then you will need to put a second reversal in from the out of that fixture to turn the polarity back to correct before you add any other fixtures that are NOT wired wrong. 

Does that make sense?

Let's make sure we're talking about the same thing when you say 'reversed'.

If you mean 'Does it matter whether I plug the cable with my DMX signal into the in or out on the fixture' then as has been said - no that does NOT matter at all as 99.99% of fixtures are just a parallel bit of wire across the input/output. Though it's really not a good idea to do it that way. 🙂

If you mean 'reversed' as in the internal wiring of the fixture may be reversed - ie pins 2 & 3 are wired wrong - then yes that WOULD give you problems. Although often that means the fixture will behave very oddly instead of not doing anything at all. But that IS a potential cause of your issues.

As for whether lights further down the chain would work - if you're using straight cables, and the first light in the chain is wired wrong (internally) but the second is correct, then that second one will work as normal, as the data is simply being passed thru the reversed fixture pin for pin.

Few LED PARs will compete well with a good old fashioned P64, although that argument doesn't actually holed up against a '64 with saturated colours in front. There is a trade-off there, certainly.

Everyone here will probably have their own experiences with different makes/models of LED gear, and the market is getting pretty full with a wide variety of choices. Your best bet would be to listen to what those are, but then 'audition' a few of the most popular ones for yourself to see what suits YOUR needs compared to what others might have. 🙂

It's generally regarded as good practice to power your amps on LAST when turning on the PA setup, and off FIRST when powering down.

When turning gear on/off the 'pop' is just a quick mains spike that can be 'heard' by audio equipment and sent down the audio path and in worst case scenarios (if that path is pre-amp'd enough) does risk blowing a speaker driver. 

Different gear may sound different, depending on how the gain structure is set up going towards the amps, but rest assured, the way to avoid potential damage to the gear is to be vigilant in your power up/down sequence.

So you've joined a serious theatre tech forum JUST to advertise your alt fringe group to a Facespace page that itself was running out of control with loads of rubbish that wasn't anything to do with tech....

Hmmm... (tm)

If it's going to go anything like the 'dodgy' Facespace group, count me out.

Not really sure that there's a serious audience for such things, tbh. 
If something you come across is at all dodgy or unsafe, it's YOUR responsibility to at least highlight it to the proper AHJ or at best fix the problem so that it's no longer dodgy...

It never ceases to amaze (and concern) me that when things like this happen, rather than follow the properly establish evac procedures, otherwise sensible people think to themselves "I know - I'll stay in this place that's filling with smoke and flame because it would be a good idea to film it...."

Just now, Andrew C said:

Not that problem, but they don't seem to have ANY enclosures...

Erm...

An odd situation when searching on CPC at the moment - in list mode, I see the preview pics of the items that the  search returns OK, but after that every other item is coming up with a sort of broken link/description instead....

Anyone else getting this, or is it just me?

1 hour ago, Stuart91 said:

I can remember climbing a Zarges with a GoldenScan 3 in one hand. Not sure I could manage that these days...

Seriously??? 😮 😮 😮

I don't think I'd ever have managed that!

They're about 40 kilos for the 1200W bodies, even the 575W were 33...
And the bulkiness would have been an issue, too.

I sincerely doubt that there will be anything practical that will be sufficient for this that can replace a proper talkback setup. People have talked for years about using other methods of comms between stage and other areas, such as 2-way radios, but every other option has its downfall. PMR Radios are only simplex operating and anything using wifi or bluetooth will have lag issues and reliability problems.

Personally, I don't see the point in trying to replace a perfectly good system of communication - if you can't afford to buy, just rent when you need to.

1 minute ago, sleah said:

the Goldenscans look are bl00dy awesome HEAVY!! 🥰

I must say that I used to like the different versatilities of moving mirrors, especially the speed of movement compared to moving heads.

I think the OP means the problem is that when he sends a 'black' screen down to the LED wall, the screen does still emit light insomuch as it's a dark grey 'look'. ie not as black as the screens would be if they were powered off. I've seen exactly this on the few occasions I've used LED panels, (also using Novastar) and yes it is a little tiresome when you need a full DBO but are left with a big ALMOST black square shape in the middle of the stage. 

The reference to the LED screens being black I suspect is him saying that he has the monitors set to black backgrounds etc to try to emulate sending that blackness through the processor/scaler in an attempt to send as black as he can, and not specifically part of his problem 🙂

23 minutes ago, Glyn Edwards said:

That's because you're short! 

Me?
Short?
I've been described as many things, but never that!!

😄

Have to say that I'm with you on that one. I remain a huge fan of the ETC desks overall, but when we moved from Ion classic to Gio @5 I found myself having to use at least a couple of seat booster cushions when at the production desk position in the auditorium just to be able to see the screen and see the stage...

9 hours ago, kerry davies said:

You have carpet on your dance floors? How novel.

Just watched the video and it's the auditorium that's carpeted - minus the seats - so the space became a dance floor to all intents 🙂

Pop them in the 'FOR SALE' area here, perhaps rather than a general post?

11 hours ago, sunray said:

replicas available on google

Think they'd prefer to borrow if possible.

Only one I've found so far is £45, and not really affordable on a primary school class's budget. 😞

My wife has just asked if I have any idea where to find a Turkish lantern of the type that Florence Nightingale is alleged to have used - my answer was of course 'No, but I'll ask around' 🙂

So - this is me asking...

Needed for a school project in a couple of weeks so she's (ideally) looking for a loaner.