GR1

I wouldn't even consider hanging any equipment except maybe at the top of a side wall in a room with an 8-9ft ceiling height. Your Risk Assessment should show an unacceptable risk of punters hitting the equipment and injuring themselves if they are tall or jump and I would hate to think where any liabilty for injuries would lay. I would look at the solution suggested above using theatre lights on booms.

I remember about a million years ago at a touring house I was working in a show came in which needed an absolute black out and achieved it by touring a load of wooden paddles on long poles which they gave to FOH staff who would on Q hold them up to cover the word Exit and the downlight below it which lit the exit way. It worked and didn't involve any adjustment of the exit/secondary lights. If there had been an incident the covers would have been removed from the Exit signs. Apparently they did this every where they went. I would not even consider offering anything like this in the technical rider for a venue. Make the show ask for it and the get them to tell you how to achieve it with their Risk Assessment, etc.

I would ask the supplier why they instruct that the wall is left on 24/7.

Before deciding what format to use I would talk to your Stage Manager - if you pick a format they are familiar with that will help with any problems on the road.

If you haven't already bought the main desk put that money into one of the simpler options above and hire a bigger desk for the very few times it is needed.

Good advice from J Pearce. Good luck with the recording.

My advice is that as you are unhappy with the results explain the problem to the policy makers and if they don't accept the health issues they are imposing on you and return to your preferred set up invite them to get someone else to do the job. It's not beyond the bounds of possibilty that you are doing a much better job than is required and the decision makers 'don't get it'. When you explain that this is a health issue if the policy makers don't accept your way of working you wouldn't want to be working for them any way.I've been in similar situations and sometimes people see sense and sometimes not but I'm still alive and I can hear properly.You have to value and protect yourself.PS: I agree with the comments Alec made above.

I would use something like a Behringer DS2800 Ultralink with 2 inputs and 4 outputs for each input. It costs £49 plus VAT and delivery from Thomann who should be organised so they pay the VAT before shipping to the UK then you won't have any nasty surprises cost wise. You could just use a cable Y splitter to feed the 2 Crown amps from the D&B link outputs but the Behringer is cheap so why not do it properly?

Back to what the effects are to us as an industry. Either set up a duplicate business in the EU or lose all that work and possibly face extinction. I'm self employed so I can't really do that. Happily for me I'm at an age where the main downside is that I can't live where I would like to in retirement but there is always South East Asia for that. World tours that picked up their kit and crew in the UK and used it all over Europe will do that in the EU and write one carnet for the UK so jobs and businesses go down the pan. I can't understand how anyone in our industry didn't understand that. I know people who have relocated their families to the EU to continue their careers because they didn't want a future as a minicab driver.It is done - hopefully the UK government will do deals in the back rooms to get this stuff going again but I'm not optimistic.The politicians don't understand how broken we are as a people, for them greed is everything.I used to like being British but now ...

If you don't like TUI's interpretation of Brexit wait until people start to travel again and the European airlines look for crew. Brits can't work on internal EU flights only UK to EU which is not how most low cost carriers operate their fleets. A lot of jobs will not come back to this side of the Channel.

Not relevant to our industry but to the EU issues. My local French delicatessen has closed for January to refurbish. It's clever because it allows big business to 'talk' to Government and put in place processes to get stuff from the EU. They drive to France and pick up local produce to sell in SW London and don't know how that is going to work out for them at the moment. I look forward to the Brexiteers upping their tax contributions to cover the tax our industry has contributed for decades working across Europe.

I'm working on the basis that it will be very similar to buying stuff from China but with the £390 limit before taxes and fees. I would expect the vendor to remove local VAT for an export to a third country.

Google Adda Supercases and a link to Companies House will tell you that the company was dissolved on 11th February 2020.

I use IKEA rechargeables with my Sennheiser G2 and I'm very happy with them. I get more than 4 hours per session and use an intelligent charger to cycle them every so often.

Your profile has you located in Somerset so I think you should look at the PLASA website for a level 3 qualified rigger in your area then explain your situation and ask them if they would be prepared to give you the benefit of their advice for the price of a very [very] nice lunch. In these days of Covid and with almost no rigging work you might get lucky. You will need to know exactly what you want to put on the truss because no one can reasonably answer what if questions.They will be able to explain the legal situation as well as the operational one. Once you have real world advice you can decide how to progress. I book riggers for the events I need kit hanging and without exception they understand the risks of their working environment and the implications for the other crew and the audience and always give me good advice.That is what I would do. At this stage I would avoid potential suppliers because they will only want to sell to you and you don't know what you want yet.

If they can generate proper RAMS and Insurance events will use them to get the risk of their books. They will have been seen to 'do something' to mitigate Covid risks. I doubt that a groundsman could give that confidence. If they have a few operatives with hard hats, face masks and clip boards on site telling people what they can and can't do that could be quite useful too.

Clear Heatshrink and a hot air gun. Available from RS and CPC amongst others. A lot of hire companies use it.

I play from my laptop USB into the USB input on my X32. I can run several effects simultaneously from the same laptop. I don't need a complex set up.

If you want to be able to cover all eventualities for that breadth of events you will need a Transit van full of tools and I know people who work that way. If you want to be mobile when going to jobs you need to pack for each specific job type and your role on it. There is no easy answer because the Tardis toolbox doesn't exist.

Why not put your name on ..? Then people know what to call you.

Businesses that I'm a supplier to have radio playing in their workshops. They have to pay a commercial TV licence for that to be legal. The cost is dependant on the number of employees. A company with about 40 employees pays over £1K per annum for their staff to legally listen to any radio station. My guess is that this would fall into this licencing regime rather than PRs because PRS doesn't take account of the fact that it is a broadcast but I could be wrong. Contact PRS or TV licencing for accurate info.

Put rostra in the pit to keep the MD in eye contact with both the cast and the band. Even if you have to get rostra made to measure it shouldn't cost much. Musical theatre is simple so keep the human contact where possible before looking for a technoligical solution.

Keep both ends the same. Pin 1 Screen Pin 2 Hot/Signal Pin3 Cold/Return.If you are wiring for unbalanced use link Pins 1 and 3.There are lots of diagrams on line.

What Stuart91 has written is perfectly correct. I have EW100, 300 and 500 G2 receivers and transmitters working together very happily. Do make sure the frequency bands are correct.

It looks as though what Mark writes is correct. To easily check this use the binding post outputs to connect to your speakers.