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knightdan65

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Everything posted by knightdan65

  1. Looks like my naivety has got the better of me once again! Thanks for the clear response - my research does seem to support your statement. Guess I'll stick with hiring for now and slap it on the capital bid for next year
  2. Hi All, I know naff all about projectors and AV, beyond the basic concepts and terminology behind image projection. Nevertheless I'm endeavouring to source a projector suitable for use in a college theatre, the relevant dimensions of which are below: maximum projection area: 7m width X 6m height maximum distance from projection source to surface: 12m maximum possible height of projector position above stage level: 6.3m Intended use would largely be projecting / back projecting images and videos on to gauze cloths - no need for 3D stuff. I have a budget of just £750 ideally the projector itself would weigh less than 30kg Does such a thing exist? Or am I limited to hiring? Not too keen on going down the used / ex-hire purchase route Thanks in advance
  3. Thanks all for the input and the sympathy! It is indeed frustrating that H&S will insist on carrying out checks that could be completed internally, and moreover, that it should come from my budget (a tower check alone is £325 + VAT and only covers the same ten minute check over that I do every week anyway) - believe it or not that's a substantial chunk of my annual running budget. But alas, such is the nature of educational theatre (and theatre in general I suppose), I'm very much at the mercy of the H&S elves. For clarity, I did not design the tower as such; the structural and mechanical design was developed by Interlink Alloys Ltd in response to my criteria, so they have advised me on its usage parameters. We've not had to deal with LOLER rated equipment here in the past, so this is a new realm for me and so I'm more than happy to have this aspect covered by a professional engineer. Obviously the more cost effective route is to get me trained up to do so but once again, H&S and senior management here have very little faith in their own technical staff.
  4. Abingdon & Witney College has a small theatre dept, consisting of a 65 seat black box auditorium, rehearsal studios, workshops and offices. I am currently the technician but am moving to a new role within the dept, which has created a vacancy for a 0.5 technician contract, payable at pay band 4 (20 - 21k). The job involves general maintenance and upkeep of the theatre's spaces and equipment as well as providing technical support for student productions, which will often involve supervising production students working across lighting, sound and stage roles. Additionally you'd work alongside the theatre manager to invest in and develop the department's resources. Please see the link below to view the job role and apply. It is listed as 'performance and production technician' Working With Us - Abingdon & Witney College (abingdon-witney.ac.uk) Dan Knight Theatre Manager AWC Theatre Abingdon & Witney College
  5. I did put this idea forward, but the college's H&S dept are insistent on having external suppliers come in to provide a third party view of our equipment and practices (at huge expense of course).
  6. Hi all, Hope this is the right place for this question. I'll shortly be taking delivery of a custom access tower that has an in built pulley system for roping fixtures up through the tower. The tower will therefore need both an annual pasma inspections and a loler check. Does anyone know of any companies within 50 miles of Oxford that would be able to do both in one hit? Thanks, Dan
  7. Update (for those interested in how this thread panned out): Interlink have designed us a custom tower with an appropriate work height and a built in 3-1 pulley system to lift fixtures up through an oversized hatch. We'll retain our single width for focusing / tight spaces. Thanks all for your input
  8. Anyone know where I could find a workshop manual for a Martin mac 600? I've requested one from Martin a couple of times but to no response. To be clear, I'm after the actual service manual, rather than the standard user instruction guide. Reason for request is that I have some belts and switches to replace but having not worked on them before beyond general cleaning etc, I'd appreciate something to refer to. Thanks, Dan
  9. This is also a great point I think. I wonder - as a total aside - what the process would be to get the OP registered as a PASMA trainer / assessor. Wouldn't it be great if students could be taught the correct 'PASMA' process for erecting the tower, and leave college with an industry ticket too? In the past we've sent small groups of students who were keen to get PASMA trained but budget constraints have stopped us doing so. What you suggest is intriguing and I think I might propose it, though the college would stipulate that I continue to supervise regardless (and rightly so), so I doubt they'd stump up the dosh if the only reason for doing so is to give students a better experience. Sadly, this seems to be the precedent in FE these days. Lots of food for thought here folks, thanks very much. On reflection, I think enough people have voiced similar concerns about the nature of the Monkey Tower to persuade me against it. Genies etc are unsuitable due to their weight and Tallescopes only enable a single operative. So it looks like I'm back to scaff towers as many have advised. I've contacted Interlink to design a custom tower with staircases instead of ladders and oversized trapdoors, which should make getting equipment from the floor to the bars a bit easier. So in principle we'd use that for rigging and keep our existing span 500 for accessing tighter spaces.
  10. Didn't expect this level of response - thanks all for your input. Given the discussion this has prompted, I feel I ought to add some more info: The venue is a college studio theatre. Stage is not raked and we have 5 top bars at a height of 6.3m. Currently we use a span 500 single width tower with a platform height of 4.2m. We run a backstage production arts course here where students learn rigging and focusing at height (among other things). Here are the issues: 1. We get (I'm happy to say) a lot of girls on the course who tend to be on the shorter side and struggle to reach the bars without going on tippy toes and over extending - not a safe practice in my view, especially when trying to get a 25kg moving light up. A taller tower is of course an option, but only solves half the problem as you'll see in point 3... 2. For the purposes of instruction and paired learning exercises, I need something that can comfortably fit two operatives (either myself and a student or two students) plus some tools and equipment. This rules out tallescopes, reachlift and most small MEWPs. Equally however, anything with a footprint greater than a single width tower would cause problems when focusing with a set. 3. The bars themselves have a point load rating of 20kg p/m (30kg at mounting points) and so are not suitable for lifting from - we have to rope fixtures up through the tower. This becomes rather difficult when moving lights are introduced, due to size and weight. So, the criteria are: - a working height of around 6m - a two person basket / platform - a capacity to lift equipment - a footprint no larger than a single width tower - easily portable and storable - under 500kgs in weight - a sub 5k price tag So far the Monkey comes closest to ticking all the boxes, the two major caveats being A) it has no rescue facility (but then, neither does a tower) and B) it requires constant repositioning (which, while certainly being a pain in the a**, isn't necessarily a safety concern in and of itself). Maybe I've answered my own question, unless anyone can think of any other alternatives? In any case, I'll book a demo in. Really appreciate the time everyone has taken to input on this
  11. Thanks all - I'm enjoying the cleudo-esque direction this thread has taken. The guys from Monkey Tower have offered a free demo so I'll take them up on this and see what I think of it in the flesh.
  12. Hi, Looking for something more efficient than an access tower for rigging at 6m in a small theatre, but can't use scissor lifts etc due to floor load limitations. Anyone used one of these 'Monkey Towers' as an alternative to conventional access towers for rigging etc? Any significant drawbacks? Thanks, Dan P.S have already investigated the winch bars installation route, but the price tag makes this a non-starter for now.
  13. Hi pal, thanks for the advice. Pan makes a nasty grinding noise but functions normally. Tilt is more problematic. At moderate to high speed it intermittently 'falls' as it gets towards its range limits as though the belts are slipping over the gears or the stepper motors are struggling. Belts and gears appear to be in good order. Martin have advised to replace belts and final pos switches as a first resort. Waiting for them to tell me if they have any left over at the bottom of their spare parts bin from ten years ago!
  14. Thanks pal, I've been on the phone to Martin and they have advised to try replacing belts and final pos switches as a first port of call. I'll bear your advice in mind if this doesn't solve it.
  15. Sorry to bring up this old thread again but I have now encountered a similar issue and am wondering what the resolution to this was?
  16. Hi folks, Don't do a huge amount of work on moving lights beyond general cleaning/lamp changes etc so I'm in foreign ground here a bit. I have a mac 600e that's been sat a while but needs to go up on the bars next week so I've just been giving it a once over. I'm getting an awful loud grinding rattle from the tilt function and the gears driving it on each arm appear to be slipping intermittently as the head reaches either end of its range of movement, meaning the head freefalls until the gears catch it again. Seems okay when moving slowly or in small increments but it hates running the test sequence! I'm thinking that the belts need to be tensioned or possibly replaced, though they look okay (to my admittedly amateur eye). Second thought is that the motors need renewing. Any other ideas before I go any further? Also, does anyone know of anywhere (UK preferably) to source parts from? Thanks, Dan
  17. I teach backstage production at level 3 in a tiny studio theatre, so our numbers are lower than yours I suspect, but last term we put on two productions which were recorded and live streamed. All productions are designed, built and opped by students. Trouble was, we were only allowed on site for two days a week instead of the usual five, yet we were still working to our standard 6 week production schedule. It damn near killed everyone and left morale at an all time low, despite being one of the only colleges around still actually able to do shows. This term we've re-written the next assessment brief to exclude the necessity to actually do a show. We're now 100% online and using EOS Nomad with Capture to teach lighting design, and sending out resource packs for them to build model boxes. So they still have to design a show for their assignment, they just won't actually be staging it. It comes with the obvious downside that they don't get to realise their ideas on a physical stage, but on the other hand, it forces them to work to a much higher level of detail when producing working drawings, rig plots etc, since the brief is that they need to spec their shows as if it really were going on, but without them having any access to the venue during the design process to try things out and experiment as they normally would. Time will tell if this has been a successful approach or not. As for the performing arts course, they seem to be doing lots of baking.
  18. Hi all, Looking for some help from anyone who uses EOS Nomad with Capture. I have built some scenes in my capture project and would like to trigger scene changes from Nomad. I know this is possible, but the manual is quite vague on the subject and I'm too dumb it seems to figure it out myself. From what I gather, each scene can be assigned to a DMX slot (each of which covers 4 values - so slot 1=0-4, slot 2=4-7 etc) and then I can patch a camera view to move up through those values, resulting in a scene change. I've assigned my scenes to their slots in capture but am struggling to patch a camera to Nomad. I've tried creating a new fixture reflecting the DMX parameters of the camera, but to no avail, and have also tried simply creating a generic fader to move up through the DMX values for each scene slot, but no luck there either. Any ideas? Many thanks
  19. Can you cut a piece out of a hem or similar to see if it burns? Not particularly scientific but might give you an indication of whether you need further inspection on them or not. Nice thought, but sadly the finance bots need something on paper from a recognised body before they'll take any notice of an actual fire.
  20. Hi, We have a number of black cotton drapes at our college theatre, that were installed in 2001, when the theatre was built. The college has no record of their manufacture, warranty or service information. They are very tired and I'd like to replace them. However, the college will only shell out if I can justify it as an essential H&S concern. So I'm wondering the following: - Assuming they were originally treated with a flame proofing agent, are they likely to have lost their flame retardancy by now? Is there a generally accepted 'shelf life' for flame proofing on stage drapes? As far as I know, they have never been cleaned. - Can fabric be 'inspected' for flame retardancy, and if so who might I go to for this service? I am aware of companies like Gorts who can reproof drapes but does anyone actually inspect drapes for safety if they're not dedicated fire curtains? Might the local fire service come out and have a look? Grateful for any advice
  21. Sorted - a combination of my own kack-handedness in plugging sensors in the wrong place, and a little fine tuning need on the drive pulley to the second beam wheel. Thanks folks!
  22. Thanks all! Didn’t get a chance to look at it today, but now I’ve got some ammo to go in with in the morning
  23. Hello hive mind, Had an issue with a sticky shutter on a mac 600 today, which I rectified by removing the guts and bending it back to shape (it had warped in the heat by the looks of it so it was scraping along the plate thus causing friction). However, after reinstalling and reconnecting everything I now have error messages: COER and BT2ER. A quick look at the manual tells me that the colour and beam shape 2 wheels have lost their index position, suggesting to my mind that either the sensors are damaged or the magnets are missing. Does this sound correct, and can anyone suggest a remedy? Thanks, Dan
  24. Hi, Putting together a setup using EOS Nomad with a couple of touchscreens, in order to emulate a Gio. Thinking of running a tablet or iPad with the OSCrfr app to use as a 3rd surface / remote control device. Has anyone tried this app With EOS? Any notable bugs or flaws? Ta
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