IRW

This. I pay my (domestic) plumber and any other contractor I have round to my house when they present me with an invoice. I'm certainly not their employer though, I'm their client. I think the key term to google here is "contractor vs employee". There's a table on this page which seems to put it fairly clearly: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/differences-contractors-employees/ Whilst Kerry's post above generally covers it, with regards to contractor vs employee, the main grey area that I can see is that of "Time and Place", and maybe "Job Role", however, one could possibly argue that me saying to my plumber "The job of swapping the boiler out and rejigging the pipework needs to be done at my house, between 9 and 1", is effectively the same as saying to @Triode's mate Disco Dave "The PA needs to be set up by 7pm, you can get in from 1.", although as the equipment is yours, you will have a duty of care under various bits of legislation to ensure it is safe etc, on a slightly more industrial scale than me lending the plumber an extension lead and making sure there are no big holes to fall through in the floor. From what I understand in my brief bit of google research, as the contractor is working for you, you still have a duty of care to ensure competency and a safe working environment etc, but so long as the brief is kept along the lines of "this is the objective, it needs to be done by X o'clock, materials will be onsite, you bring the tools, crack on" then you are probably more at the 'contractor' end of the spectrum?

Tbf, I’ve never had a problem with 10 degree lenses (or indeed the odd 5 degree I’ve used) on a standard yolk- the bigger lenses are polymer rather than glass, so, relatively speaking, are lighter than their glass cousins- a 10’ is only 500g heavier than a 19’, and a 5’ is 100g lighter than a 14’. Both 5 & 10 are lighter than a 15-30 zoom tube, which is where I commonly see balance yolks. Now if you’re going to start putting scrollers on the front, that’s a different story, but given that we’re talking about the (generally) heavier LED back ends, I don’t think the balance would really be a problem.

Hope you have more success than I did!

Hi folks, We're looking to expand our pool of casual technicians at the Liverpool Empire Theatre Stage staff, lighting, sound, spot ops, board ops, wardrobe, and anything backstage related that I've missed out! Basic hourly rate is as specified (£8.91/h), although our BECTU house agreement means that some occasions are paid in a slightly more enhanced way. Get outs are paid at TMA rate. Please apply via the ATG careers website: https://careers.atg.co.uk/opportunities/job-search/job-detail.html?jobid=137300

Hey folks,I'm just trying to get my head around the 23 year old control system in my venue. Whilst I now understand the fundamentals, and have found a number of manuals online (including the programming guide), what I'm missing is the programming software. I believe this is what I need, but it doesn't seem to exist anywhere on the internet! The AMX website only seems to have modern stuff on it. I've dropped their current UK distributors an email, along with Stage Electrics (who originally installed the system) but given how old this kit is, I thought opening an avenue of exploration on here would be a sensible thing to do, in the hope that someone on here may have it on an old hard drive somewhere. Thanks, Ian

What Alister said. If it's such a low load, could you not just use a scaffold bar instead? What is the span between/extension beyond stands?

The short answer to this is, it depends on the system you are using. The long answer is what system are you using? If there isn't anything identifying on it, then you'll have to get the multimeter out!

Maybe he would have been slightly more amenable if you’d just said hello rather than jumping into him?!

Given all the advice you've received on here, why not just post your solution to help others in the future?!

Oh yes, I'm totally with you there, I always prefer a switch on the control box wall to desk-controlled non dims. If however the choice is desk control vs. no control, I would accept desk control, and have encountered many venues on my tours where this has been the case. Both good points, but exactly the sort of thing that I need to avoid as my 'little-to-no-cost-short-term' solution. I don't want to get into heavily modding these racks, as long term, I'll be looking to spec a non-LD90 solution, be that simple hot power distro, or something cleverer. Right now, I need workarounds such as DrV's Triac short/bypass method. For operational reasons, I'd prefer to not have to go to the dimmer room to power things on/off on a daily basis, but if saves the time and effort of installing/stripping out ridiculously long toured looms, it's an idea I'm willing to entertain as a short to medium term solution.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Dave- the idea here is to be able to provide hot power for touring movers/LED kit in remote FOH locations- does that make option 2 unwise, or would that sort of thing be reliably happy on the end of an LD90 'switched' channel?

If you don't need contol, thats very easy to do. Assuming all LD90s were the same, they're double pole MCBs so you can just disconnect the wires that fed the dimmer PCB and put the load wiring straight in. All the zero point sensing etc is done by the processor module which has it's own feed from the incoming supply. The ribbon cable from the processor to the dimmer blocks just feeds into the opto isolators on the dimmer PCB, there is no direct connection to the mains side. I'm fairly certain that even if you unplugged the ribbon, the processor won't notice the difference. Thanks Adam, I kind of realised just after I hit post that doing it this way would remove all control...It would be grand to be able to keep some form of remote on/off control, even if it's a case of having to park channels on on the desk, rather than through our handy control panel in prompt corner.I realise this may complicate matters a little!

Hey folks,I've recently become head of lighting and sound for a major receiving house, and part of my (long term) brief is to work towards improving the facilities with regards to hosting incoming companies, as many elements that I am responsible for have had very little investment since the venue's last major refit in the late 90s. Ultimately, I'm going to be putting together a phased update/upgrade plan, but there are a few areas in which I'm going to have to apply a couple of sticking plasters in the short to medium term using what I've got available to me. (i.e. non safety-critical stuff, but stuff that would be really, really useful on a day-to-day basis.) So, here's the situation: I've got LD90's galore in the dimmer room, with 100 channels that are available to a hard patch field in the dimmer room which services all of the FOH areas. That'd be great if I was ever expecting to put 100 dimmable lamps up FOH, but as it is, I'm already being inconvenienced by only having 8 independent outlets available to the patch field (via an LD90 'independents' rack), so it'd be great to be able to repurpose a bank of one of the dimmer racks to provide more hotpower on the patch field. Obviously I'm aware there will be control implications, but this isn't insurmountable. I've actually got plenty of spare dimmer blocks that have kindly been passed down to us from another local venue, so if it's a case of just bypassing the dimming circuitry on the module so that the MCB directly feeds the outputs, then I could set one of these up, and then simply replace the last block of dimmers that appear on the patch field- is this something that anyone else has done in the past, or does anyone know of any LD90-specific reason why this may be a bad idea? I've not actually gone to the trouble yet of opening up our independent rack to see how that's wired, but I can't imagine there's anything particularly clever in there? If I recall correctly from last time I had my head in one of these (about 10 years ago), they're pretty bare bones? Obviously all replies will be read with the usual 'danger danger, high voltage!' caveats in mind! There shouldn't be any mixed-phasing related problems, as everything that comes out on the patch field is all on red (yeah, I know, but that's the colour of the little tag above each channel...!). Thanks,Ian

Aha! Thanks! With regards to a BP111 (or, if you wish to feel dirty, a BP511), the pinout is: Pin 1: Mic Earth/Screen Pin 2: Mic Signal Pin 3: Earphones Earth/Screen Pin 4: Earphones Signal Assuming the bit in the middle of your drawing is a jack connector, would the tip be the equivalent of canford pin 1 or pin 2?

I errr, see......Haha! I do vaguely understand what you are saying, but hopefully someone will be along to convert what you said into a circuit diagram, which I will properly understand!

Hi folks,I'd like to make a footswitch that allows me to open my cans mic for when both of my hands are busy tapping away at a console- I've got a basic push-to-make foot switch, but when I tried to do this in a quick and dirty way before (i.e. just put the switch in line with the mic wire), I remember that it didn't work very well, but I can't remember exactly why (it was a while ago now I last tried this!). I assume that I need to throw a capacitor or something into the mix maybe? For ease of use, I'd prefer to keep it on the headset side of the cans pack (so with a 4-pin XLR in and out to go between headset and cans pack) in such a way that I'd just have to leave the actual mic button on the cans pack in it's 'on' position. Thanks, Ian

^^^ What Jivemaster said.

Hmm. Despite all of the concerns being outlined upthread, I think this is a bit strong - With all of the above posts in mind, I'd suggest that it's not the OP's place to simply 'condemn' the system given their admitted limited knowledge. Raise concerns, yes, outright condem, no.

As I said, it might be fine, but if you look at the bar/roof truss on the left hand side, you can't see any corresponding plate on the opposite side of the beam to where the angle bracket is. Basically, what is (or is not) holding the metal plates to the (wooden) roof truss could* be questionable in my book, and I'd also be a tad concerned about possible twisting forces on the wooden beam*- I thought that usually this sort of affair would consist of a custom metal bracket around the wood, such that the force acts straight down underneath the centre. Obviously any such forces in this particular situation are (probably) fairly minimal, but the point still stands to be aware of. Anyway, this is all conjecture that's not necessarily directly helpful but as Junior8 alludes to, 'good practice' seems to be a little bit on the hit and miss side from the general evidence provided, and it could well be that the OP is opening a can of worms that would greatly benefit from the assistance of a suitably insured/experienced freelancer! *risk assessment dependent

Sorry D_Y you really shouldn't get involved in this - you have no role in the school and they shouldn't really be asking you. There are a number of things about this install that I don't like from a quick glance and they need to pay someone to come in and look at it for them properly right through. The advice to employ an experienced freelance tech is the right route. My advice would be to contact the nearest Arts Centre or FE College with performance lighting - there is one in virtually every Hants district council area - and ask for their advice. Most of their techs aren't that busy at the moment.... +1. The dimmer pack 'install' is atrocious, for a start, and I'd be very interested to see a close up of whatever is holding the lighting bars into the roof trusses- it might be fine, but purely on the basis of a casual observation from the photo, alarm bells are ringing!

What about the sort of rollers that you would find on boat trailers? I can't find a picture to hand, but IIRC, my trailer has got a pretty much full-width rolling steel bar on the back of it that the launching trolley rolls over. Edited to add:http://www.irwdesign.com/br/trailer2.jpg http://www.irwdesign.com/br/trailer.JPG

I'm afraid this is very much in the area of 'if you have to ask...'. Seriously, you can't just take advice off an internet forum for fly system checks- every venue is individual as far as flying is concerned, and there should really be a specific written method statement/risk assessment for the checks you have been asked to carry out. You say it's not for a sign off, but in my view, and I'm sure many others on here, any sort of fly system checks would generally be deemed safety critical. Do you know what torque you are supposed to be checking the dogs to, or what the signs of potential failure might be? Generally speaking, I'd suggest that wire rope grips wouldn't normally be part of a day-to-day usage check, and if this isn't a daily check you're carrying out, but a bi-annual/annual safety check, then you really should be telling the chap in charge where to go...At least then it won't be on your head should something fail. Well, providing you're not underneath it...

Hi Folks, Being one of those folks who has fallen through all of the SEISS cracks going, I've been having to be a little careful recently with regards to unnecessary spending. Finally, this week, just as it looks like business will be picking up again soon, I find myself in receipt of a Liverpool City Region local business support grant- the catch is though, that money received via this grant has to go towards the business, so I'm now planning on using some of my remaining upcoming 'quiet' time to get a couple of tickets that I've been thinking about for a while, but thus far have never seemed to have the time & funds in the right place at the right time to look into. Number one on my list is an official 'something' to demonstrate my competence with regards to PAT/ISITEE- This is something I've been doing in venues since day one out of university (where we were taught the basics), but I've not got a specific piece of paper to say so. Can anyone recommend a decent course that (a) Will have an instructor who I won't end up correcting/questioning, & who appreciates my theatre experience and (b) May carry some clout outside of the theatre industry. Looking around, the C&G 2377-77 would seem to be something sensible- I suppose the ideal for me would be for it to be carried out by/on behalf of one of our normal suppliers. Although I'm in Liverpool, I'm happy to travel a bit in the interests of not experiencing the death-by-powerpoint/just press the green button/cut the plug off if it fails experience. Looking over the course content, I could literally probably teach the course to the class myself (I pretty much did with for my maintenance teams at a previous higher-education venue I worked in), so that's where the bar is set...! The second thing I am considering is something in the 7909 awareness field. Now this isn't something that's cropped up for me personally to date, but do we think it's only a matter of time before, as a touring LX #1 &/or production electrician, it would be beneficial for me to have, from an employability point of view? If the answer is yes, do we have any recommendations for somewhere to do it? I noticed an older post on here recommended James Eade, and they do have some courses coming up, under the title of "City & Guilds Assured Programme in The Application of BS 7909 to Temporary Power Systems (3 days)", but it's not cheap...! Thirdly, and this has cropped up while looking into the above, what are the general thoughts on the Event Safety Passport these days...? I can't say I've ever worked on or applied for anything which has asked for or required it. Is it one of those things that an office-bod looking through my CV will see and be impressed, but a savvy PM/TM won't really take much notice of, when it's up against the rest of my experience? Thanks, Ian

Hey folks,I'm having a bit of a sort out in the garage, and the following bits are surplus to requirements: 2x Selecon Acclaim F's 1x Selecon Acclaim PC 2x Selecon Rama F's Feel free to send me a message on here if you're interested. Happy to entertain sensible offers.

I'm not familiar with the datapacks, but if they're anything like the rackpacks I have in my garage, it's not a straightforward 'screwdriver fix', but is a fairly straightforward soldering iron job. See the first picture in my thread here. The triacs are the components that are soldered onto the board, and bolted to the heatsink that runs down the middle of the photo.