paulears

Sadly, he's not been back since March - so I doubt he will read this.

I never got a reply - read into this whatever you fancy!

The Historic Stage Lighting Collective know this problem too well! It's one thing saving the rare and interesting old kit, but making them light up is another! All I can suggest are forum requests like this one, and also searching the archives for questions about the item you have. If you discover a post from ten years back from a theatre with one, sometimes a request to them direct works - as they may well have scrapped the light, but forgot to scrap the lamps hidden in the store?

Just had a questions from a member - he says it looks like it's broken? Is it a working one? Paul Mods

Plenty direct from China at pretty well throwaway prices. Like this fifty quid for 5

Forgive me, but that is a flawed product - 2.5mm connectors do NOT fit Sennheisers, they use 3.5mm, so my spider senses are wondering if this is in fact a scam product. Their products appear to be light in detail, heavy on big claims - but I cannot find ANY independent reviews. I can buy them for £16 on AliExpress, however - it's a bit of low cost Chinese Hype - unproven, unscientific and probably totally useless. Please tell mw I'm wrong - and how you could possibly get a 2.5mm plug into a 3.5mm socket. I note it comes with a 4.4mm adaptor on Aliexpress - handy size. The spec says. Ultra (-24dB) High-Gain (-12db) sensitivity adjustment Custom minZ helix construction design, intrinsic shielding provided by minZ helix 6N silver/copper matrix wiring with FINAL6063-T5 aluminium-magnesium alloy shell Gold-plated printed circuit board with audiophile components (eg MELF resistors) Gold-plated 4.4mm male/female connectors

Radio mics and comms walkie talkies can easily integrate now quite reliably - and the differences seem to be just capacity rather than reliability. The killer is the regime you have to follow. One set in use, one on the charger is risky, you also need another set if you do two shows in one day, but then a system to put one set on charge after second show, take them off, and put another set in the radios, and the charging time is longer than the gap between shows sometimes. I have to admit I have gone back to disposables simply because I had to get people to come in early just to do a better swap, and then sometimes stay late to let a set finish, rather than leave them on, charged, overnight. The thing I did do was colour code each set - red green and blue tape, and you'd be amazed how often I'd have one or two red ones in the blue set, and some blues in the green - no idea. Somehow a few flat ones always seem to get missed. If you have a dedicated person to look after radios, this works fine - but for panto, with 70+ shows, recharging is just too risky we feel. It would be cheaper, but human error is the killer.

If I'm reading it correctly, 2 pairs of in-ears did odd things when plugged into the Pack, but the pack functioned fine on a 3rd pair. This suggests the two pairs were both faulty. This seems unlikely, but the third pair sort of validates the logic. The test, of course is simply to take the two 'faulty' pairs and try them on something with a 3.5mm socket. I seem to remember the output on the Shure IEM is short-circuit protected. It's possible the in-ears are sweat damaged and the impedance has fallen - I have a pair of Shures, that my Sennheiser pack doesn't like. It doesn't cut out but it is very quiet. All you can do now is test the actual in-ears and see how they fair vs the cheapo one. This one working normals suggests the pack is fine, but the two others are the problem?

Which scaler have you got, that could be the issue if something is adrift there?

I think it's our poor geography Guanzhou is not flooding but quanzhou was with the typhoon, 700km away! - I must admit I thought they were different spellings of the same place. Oops

I’ve now got lots of Chinese ones approaching their tenth birthday with no maintenance and once the fans get clogged the red channels in particular overheat and die. These are still made and apart from the fans that run all the time are pretty decent I’ve found. They’re also now even cheaper!

I suppose any business model that has a very small number of money generating days a year, impacted by weather, must have serious cash flow implications. What annoys first time invoicers is that they screw people down for prices, and only then reveal the terms - so few local suppliers get caught twice, and those that get squeezed shout loud and clear about it.

"Is it safe?" Always a rotten question to be asked. You know that whatever answer you give will be a tricky one. You want to say 'probably', or 'possibly' - each one just east or west of the dividing line. In a roof once, with a real engineer, and when something popped into my head I suddenly said - can I hang something very heavy from here? pointing to a point where several steel beams converged. I was thinking about something coming up in a few months. He asked how much weight. I was thinking about a big hang of speakers, and did some quick sums in my head, and said hopefully, '500Kg'. He simply said 'fine'. The quickness of the response foxed me. "Don't you have to work it out?" he explained he'd taken my 'heavy' as probably 10 tonnes, done the calculations roughly using what he could see and thought 10 easily coped with by the structure. My half a tonne was nothing. Next question - want me to email the paperwork or do you want it in the post? Tom is quite right above, the gear could be safe, but only within a specific context. This always happens when there's a mismatch in skill levels and underpinning knowledge. In panto - very complex and potentially worrying equipment is installed - and paperwork supplied. Then, once installed, a couple of the production team then get tasked with daily, bi-weekly and weekly checklists, and these get passed to me for signing off. I've very aware that a few of the items on these check lists cannot have been checked in the way the supplier expects, because the two people doing it are not even aware of the technical reasons for the check. I go and check these things myself, because I cannot accept their signature on the form as proof, or evidence of the condition. They can check webbing, and loose bolts, or lots of other stuff, but can they check something up in the grid, hanging in mid air, that needs a spanner and access equipment? Visually maybe, but can they work out a system for checking the difficult stuff. The worrying subtext here is that a keen and clearly able administrator is somehow expected to design a safety system, when they actually have a rigger who should be doing all of this, because out of two people, one should know, and the other not even be expected to? My 500Kg in my head was a really heavy load, in his head, a light one. You can have pieces of paper for each and every component saying they are individual safe up to a declared loading - but this package does not mean what you are doing with it is safe at all. If the supplier is rubbish, then you need to go elsewhere, but maybe the supplier isn't taking your request seriously, because they got a worrysome drift from the casual enquiry, sort of hoping you do go elswhere? Seems wierd business practice, but now I'm old, I often don't supply people based on a 30 second phone conversation. They ask a stupid question, very understandably, but then become very unreceptive to your follow up questions - you ask a deeper question to check understanding and decide they are not going to be easy customers.

There's a racecourse near me that does 90 day terms, take it or leave it. Most leave it.

That's absolutely the opposite of what I said. You've actually exactly agreed with me - if this is new to you, there is simply NO WAY you can have a manual to follow or a checklist, safety does not work that way. If you are a secretary, then why would you want to be the person who stands in front of the judge. They cannot tell you it is safe. This industry does not work that way. Almost certainly, they are thinking the same as me. If we answer the questions, then that might make it unsafe. A structural engineer will inspect an item and give it a piece of paper that specifies certain criteria. Unless you ask the right questions and provide the right source material, they are guessing. Many people massively over-build structures to reduce the failure risk, but at a cost in weight and cost. Your rigger is the person to decide. If they are not satisfied, then they won't rig it, because the onus is then on them. You should try to avoid getting involved with this - let your nominated person who understands the subject deal with the supplier. If they refuse to provide the information, go somewhere else. You've answered the questions already. If the supplier doesn't know or won't provide the info, walk away. You are totally correct - you don't know how well it's made. They should. warning bells are coming thick and fast. The snag is that you need to trust your rigger. If they know what they are doing, it's fine, but remember the person in charge at Hillsborough - somebody has to make the decision and be responsible. Certificates are evidence, but only if what you do with the items is linked to the certificate. Like I said, a certificate for static loading doesn't help if the damn thing moves. I don't think you are incompetent, but do the Judge Judy test. Imagine you standing in court after an accident. You know what she'd say. Who decides something is safe? A secretary might be really skilled at some things and have no knowledge at all about the physics. Your rigger out of the two of you would fare better with Judge Judy I assume? Lots of people collect certificates and method statements and assume they can then proceed with immunity. It just doesn't work like that, and if you have a rigger, why not just let them decide?

Most hirers provide paperwork that the 'average' hirer may need. There isn't really any standardised documentation. People tend to create what they need, so some hire companies would provide a risk assessment, and maybe a method statement, others won't waiting for the hirer to request things. In my own case, it's common for the hire company to provide nothing, apart from the hire item, and I never ask them for anything. Nowadays, responsibility is something that people decide for themselves, or maybe gets dictated by an insurance company, or membership of an association. If you don't know the answers, then you probably aren't best situated to devise them. It's the old reversal of the common phrase about competency - if you have to ask, then you aren't. Please don't think I'm having a go, I'm not - but it sounds like you got lumbered with something and have been dropped in it. Forgive me if you know what I'm saying here. What is a safety certificate? Are you looking for something to prove what you already think is actually correct? Let's assume it's held up by what to you appears to be a rather small and maybe flimsy shackle? You're looking for something that says the shackle is rated to 50Kg, and the chandelier is only 10Kg, so it's safe? That kind of thing? Or were you hoping you'd have a piece of paper that says "This chandelier is safe". Let's assume you see a shackle rated at 50Kg, and the Director has the great idea of letting it fall straight down, and the rope goes tight 300mm above the stage, making sure the chandelier always stops short - so that's safe yes? Probably not, actually, because you then enter the world of dynamic vs static loads, and that 50Kg may not be good at all. It means somebody (possibly you) gets put in the tricky position of thinking it's safe when it isn't. Let's say somebody's foot is under it, and on the 3rd show, it fails - and their foot gets broken? The certificate is worthless and no good waving it in court. Maybe you borrowed a similar organisation's policy? Are you feeling happy that it really applies to you? It's frequent for me to be given all sorts of documentation. The skill is in deciding if it holds up, and if I can rely on it. I hope this makes sense, but it's your question [quote]Does the chandelier from the scenery hirers need a safety certificate[/quote] that rings the warning bells. You can't really have a policy on the level of understanding a group has? There's not even a real determination of how you even measure understanding. What you cannot have is a paperwork collection, and then stick them in the file and you are magically safe. You're probably less safe. We get these kinds of questions often - if you explain what your concerns are, and why you need the piece of paper we can advise on what you really need, and how to manage it properly. P

Thanks Richard - I'll make sure Ian reads this. It did make me think that on the PLASA stand, we had the MMS, but really the 500 series needs representing as they were simply everywhere, and now ..... aren't!

I volunteered to do an hour, and really enjoyed myself. If the diary allows, I’d be keen to do every day next year. I detected two distinct groups of visitors. The young folk, who it was totally new to, and the others who just looked knowingly at gear they’d use in the past, but so many people revealed they are still using the kit. 23’s in particular people have, and are up in the air, doing their stuff. Equally, we’d been a bit sneaky and included a few special items, so people recognised the Sil, but not the fact it had the shutter set where the side shutters were worked from the top or bottom, neat for packed bars, plus the original Sil that few people realised was one! The strangest question was at first, I thought, a pi**take. A guy asked me about one of the cut away lights, asking if it didn’t spill all over the scenery? I spoke to so many people from foreign countries who were old Strand users, places I didn’t even know bought our lights. The thing that made me think, though, was some of the audio exhibits. The Pink Floyd PA for example, but what made me smile were a pair of 4x 12” WEM cabs stencilled Led Zeppelin. Rob already has some great ideas for next year. Like others my annual visit to PLASA gets less enjoyable with so many cutting edge products not really interesting me. I never even had time to wander around, so have missed great things no doubt, but I met loads of Blue Room folk too, which was great. I’ve also had to reassess my recent views on students too. Rob had three helping on the stand and they were really clued up, keen and nice to work with. Being blunt, the kind you hope to work with again. I also bumped into old friends from some colleges and they were keen to get some of the historic kit into student hands, which I’m hoping to arrange if I can.

The Historic Lighting Collective - (of which I'm a member) is trying to collect as many iconic pieces of kit as we can, and one of us is struggling with a 520i console - it fires up running Genius Pro, but while the LCD displays light up, they don't show any characters in the normal way. If anyone here still remembers the little tricks and tweaks that kept these going, I'd love to put them in touch with Ian. So far - we're looking at 300 and 400 series but would like a fully working 500 to match them up with. The collection is doing really well and growing, and I have to admit that some of the stuff we have already is really interesting. Like a wave projector device - a slide of the beach and sea, then a series of fluted glass gobos that go up and down in front of it creating moving waves. I'm more taken with these really old solutions to make productions work. Rotating cloud projectors with real brass clockwork motors. We've also got unusual versions of more common lights, including a Patt 293 followspot, adapted by ATV so that it could stay in focus as the subject got closer to the spot. Imagine chopping a 293 in half and adding counterweights and making it extend and shrink with a lever. If anyone can suggest a possible solution to the 520i issue, I'd be grateful. If anyone is at PLASA on Monday - I'm on the PLASA Vintage stand - with some of the collection.

Now I'm old, I'll own up to having made one I used for many years - doing all the things Blue Roomers would have hated. Pods wired with XLR in and out - 3 pin versions. Of course there was a possibility of me blowing up the odd mic with 12V, up to 10A from the power supply - but it meant I could daisy chain two or more pods and have two circuits down one ordinary mic cable. I was oddly, still not keen on the key turn, then single push to fire - so I used fruit machine hold buttons - big and red, and when the power was on, they lit up red. Then I had an even bigger one with fire on it - and it needed one of the 4 circuits to be held in and then the fire button pressed - so at least two fingers, or even two hands. Never had a missed fire using it for years, and piles of XLR cables, so never had to mess around with bell wire or other stuff. The snag was that when it came to giving it to other people to use, and being aware of pyro responsibilities - it was just simpler to hire in Le Maitre gear, with the paperwork, and let other people do the wiring and control it! I subscribe to the Judge Judy school of law. JJ "show me a piece of paper that says it's safe?" Me - "here's one I wrote earlier myself" - JJ "get outa here - just hire a proper one, not some home-made piece of junk". I was very happy with 3 Pin XLR and mic cables. Other would curse me.

The excitement for polished old kit on wooden stands is passing quickly. The historic stage lighting collective is getting lots of interesting kit donated but it’s very sad seeing the pile of what is essentially scrap stuff getting bigger. There’s lots of really historic stuff in good condition being saved but if it’s common and rusty nobody seems interested now. I think I’m most impressed by the Hewitt collection, amazing looking film lights

The same really as what you experienced. Sennheiser are the sort of base standard people compare to. JTS are fine as a budget alternative. Downside with the ones I had, and this is five years ago, was the plastic was a bit fragile for heavy handed people, and they’re sort of one off. Forget spares and repairs. If you need second hand replacements ebay provide ample Sennheiser, but JTS will be rare. Co-channel interference to be honest, depends on where you are, but normally it’s picking frequencies at random generating intermod type interference. Most other issues are the usual dead spots and antenna problems. Radio mics are always a pain, unless you have somebody skilled to look after them, and operate them. I’ve always thought buying them for schools and colleges is a waste of money, especially when they are rarely kept in fine fettle. They’ll work. But they wont be any better than the Sennheiser, probably worse. I’m guessing the Sennheisers were just randomly plonked on frequencies, with their normal antennas, put in the most convenient place for access to power and cables? They then phutted a lot and cut out as people moved?. Did you break any, or did any bits fall off?

If you’re officially retired but still want to do things that interest you, why not start yourself a small business? Take work that sounds nice, reject everything you don’t fancy, and take a few chances and buy kit and not worry? The best bit is that it works for tax. My turnover is very high, my profit quite low, and it works really well. I can buy interesting things and not have to justify them. It keeps you as busy as you wish to be and is sort of neutral, and that’s good for stress. I met a new client recently and told him yes, I could do it, but only if it was interesting. I told him that I was the age where I could simply retire at any point, so I only wanted projects where they kept me engaged, and I wasnt that bothered about the money. They were amazed. They gave me a tester and it went very well. I was honest, and pointed out things that if I perhaps would not have. It worked really well, and another project turned up this morning. Something I’ve not done before, so I’ve said yes again. I can get involved with heritage projects that take time, but don’t pay, but I don’t need to worry about what it costs me because the cost is still a business expense. Works really well for me. I’m sort of retired but not. It’s also really nice when old awkward clients demand stuff, thinking they’re in charge because they control the money, and you can say, ok, I’ll collect the equipment at the end of the month. They were just playing you, knowing it was a good deal they had, and then when they rebook you, you actually get paid more! “Why is the invoice higher?” You cancelled, so I sold that bit of kit you didn’t want, you’ve now got a new one and it costs more. He he

Shotguns, or even hyper-cardioids across the stage edge often result in weird comb filtering artefacts as people walk across the stage, which intrude less with boundary mics. The popular ones with the flattened cardioid-ish pattern work better than shotguns, but the killer feature is simply gain before feedback - hanging mics, mics on portal edges, or the floor always contribute so little. Great for recordings or show relay to breakout spaces, but just very poor value for money for amplification. Mic to subject distance is the key factor. Live mics more than a metre away from a sound source that is quieter than the ambient noise is just a bit pointless.