Dave m

Maybe rather simplistic, but the Manfrotto wind up effectively uses a winch to lull the load up?

therefore - LOLER?

It's not your problem. 

How will the school work out if the hirer complies with local H&S requirements?

Your not letting anyone down. You're justified to point out that it would be sensible to do an inventory of what is rigged before and after a private hire. and do safety checks.

It may be that the hire revenue doesn't cover the cost of those checks.

You should also point out that any stuff coming in must be PAT compliant 

Presumably ably the after school work is voluntary.

Some of the spaces that I worked in had chilli preset dimmers that gave a number of idiot proof settings.

probably out of budget but allowed a random user to hit a button to “command” a state, from fluorescents to houselights and DBO.

I was thinking the same but tank traps and poles

BT have apparently put a hold on the process nationally due to issues discovered in the past 12 months.

A girlfriend lived in an old stable and we would frequently go out on an unscheduled cinema visit because her electric went down. Fortunately her mobile worked mostly

agree it's a stupid thing to declare something obviously unsafe as "safe" but PAT has rules to follow and pass/fail.

Just because it passes PAT does not mean it's "safe" but other considerations to do with H&S should then be considered.

a vehicle cannot fail an MOT if every test complies, even if there's an open vat of acid on the passenger seat

I have never seen one explode either.

agree, PAT is electrical only, it could be covered in razor blades and pass PAT, and I suppose hung with a 5p cable tie.

Problem with pulling fuses is that the lights are on battery as well, although I guess that there may also be a battery kill system?
In one venue I worked what we did was have marshals with the lids of A4 paper boxes on bamboo sticks. They were made to be lightproof with a bit of fabric.

so in case of emergency the marshal could reveal them.

harder to deal with if there is stair illumination etc

Depends on your use but would something using girder clamps be made, but with a swinging arm that relies on a ratchet type fixing?

The idea is similar to the type of bracket that holds a table that folds down. I’m imagining a boom arm that folds up and clicks to hold it out of the way, another push upwards clicks it so it hangs down. Hard for me to explain.

even something that allows a scaff tube with an eye on the end, but could be pushed using a TV focus pole to click into a Terry clip to store it out of the way?

Probably mid 70's my brother and his mate ran a mobile disco.

It was full of widow maker leads and door bell buttons running 240v to flash lights.

They decided that smoke would be good so bought a boating flare and had a bucket of water standing by. On being lit, an impenetrable cloud of orange smoke covered everything, dyed people Trump colour, and of course, continued when panic took over and it was plunged into the emergency bucket. They were lucky and it seems amusing now but things could have gone a lot worse.

suppose there's no chance of a pole to the grid? or spot lines?

I remember working with a Chinese company years ago and they had simple slings that consisted of a loop of cord going to the centre of a dowel/stick. It was very fast to deploy or undo as a quick “over and under” ended up with a loop and a toggle. 
it held firm until turned through 90°

I used to use pouch laminator labels.

I would do a simple label on a laser printer, stick it into a credit card sized pouch, or A5/6 and whack it through the machine.

if you left a space, you could write on with a sharpie, and stick them on with carpet tape. There is also a 3M product for cars that really sticks.

it’s a bit slow but once done it works

There don’t seem to be any cross braces in the structural timbers?
I suspect that the whole floor was prone to a lot of bounce each evening

Allow for rehearsals and other possible funding events that you might want mics for. Depends if you have all of the mixing amps and speakers already that could be used or hired out.

a couple of SM58s are cheap, as said, tons of radio mics isn’t.

Would a heat source in the area of a standard bubble machine provide enough lift?

it could be combined with projection

can't you safety bond to the bar?

Normally a lantern is only fixed to the bar immediately where it is.

If worried about the bar and lights falling, safety bond the bar with it's own wire.

looking at the images on line are they supposed to be hung off a mains cable? maybe it's just a way of showing the cable and if so, why do they have a hoop/saddle?

scrap that - I found out that my idea was daft.

Grumpy Joes?

It's been years but....

I would at least give it a proper 5 second blast on the starter. They didn't always strike first time, so keep at it having allowed a minute or two between strikes?

Also maybe leaving the kit plugged in a while so the capacitors have a chance to recharge? They could have just died.

Do you get the buzz from Hell on striking? 

Thanks

Do you pay the price on screen if ordering from Thomann after Brexit?

or is there extra import duty?
 

looking at a couple of these

https://www.thomann.de/gb/gravity_ls_331_b.htm?glp=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyJecrNnw9QIVE-3tCh2NmgOLEAYYAiABEgLCEPD_BwE

I have made up camera cables with several coms, tally, video leads and power using expandable sleeve  then used heat shrink on the ends. Take it easy on the cable end when shrinking.

just to clarify - you mean speaker amplifiers with line outputs?

or 100v line amps sending speaker voltages?

it appeals to me as I did a gig at Bolton Arena and they had "big metal superstructures" that required a building site trailer style compressor but once powered were shoved around by a small crew. The stuff was kind of free standing catwalks that had an oil rig feel to them.

I watched a couple of USA based furniture lifting sales videos

We currently use large false walls that are basically boxes with small pallet truck holes in the base. When we want to move them we slide in a truck, pump and shift but it's a bit unwieldy and hard to steer.

As we have a new building planned I wondered about using air.

Vacuum tables are common in plan copying.

basically a perforated top so the paper is sucked flat to the table (or wall)

as well as making artwork flat, it ensures focus is simplified.

I am intrigued to know how much lift a Henry can generate. I force an experiment with a plastic bucket and Henry.