ImagineerTom

The paint will be a choice you will regret as you will have yellow powder stains everywhere. From some quick calculations the flint pigment will work out about the same cost as carpet per m2 with many complications and any kind of “fixed” paint will be 3-4 times the cost per meter

Because of quite basic physics reasons “wireless” technologies really don't have a chance under water. IR will be more stable than radio but only marginally. For this to have any hope of working reliably you should be looking at hard wired solutions.

“Marquee” or “exhibition” carpet is around £1.50 per m2 and would be your safest and most practical way to create a yellow pathway.

ETA - they sell 3 inch thick sheets for £32

inch thick 8x4 sheets are £10 from b&q, stick together to form the required thickness...

The problem is that the rules and principles from before simply don't exist any more; there's an awful lot of legislation and principles that were grandfathered in when we were all members of the same club. Now we're not a member (and currently in the "3rd nation" category) not only do those old norms no longer exist but also, until new agreements are in place, we have the lowest ranking and least leeway so simply assuming it will be business as normal isn't a good idea. I'm speaking here not as an outside but as someone who has actively been involved in importing/exporting/transporting "showbiz" stuff post Brexit in and out of the continent over the past year and for much larger events going forwards. Far and away the biggest problem we encounter is that so many fringe elements of compliance and co-operation don't even have a tick box on the paperwork; let alone guidance notes and expertise; admittedly we are at the fringes of the already fringe showbusiness industry but none the less there are real frictions and problems because of the grey areas that currently sit where before there were well established process's.

You’ve got this! making the jump to a pro tour is a big jump. You’re surrounded by pros who won’t judge you if you ask for help or express concern that you don’t understand something. Take a deep breath, clear your mind and carry on with the job- if you don’t understand then ask, but you wouldn’t be on this roll if someone didn’t believe you can (maybe with a little nudging) do the job you have been awarded!

Might that be a conceivable defence in a prosecution - yes, will that stop you getting stopped, fined and kit confiscated because on the face of it you are breaking the law; no. If you're using your vehicle to transport someone else's kit then your insurance has to include that provision otherwise you're not insured; there is no legal obligation / defence of "the show must go on" so if you're using a personal (or personally insured) vehicle to transport someone else's kit then you're uninsured and breaking the law. If your vehicle is insured to carry other people's kit, the police stop you and you've got a load of kit in it that you try to argue is your personal items they're going to be questioning why you've taken out extra European insurance cover for "other people's kit" if that's not what you're doing. As to the question about who "owns" a rented desk that's rented in your own name... well if you're transporting it from gig to gig then it is part of your job and you are transporting goods for hire or reward; if it's not part of your job then why didn't you send it with a courier? There's basically no answer to this question thread that doesn't turn into you achieving some sort of reward (note "reward" not "cash" is the used word quite deliberately) so you're screwed. The definition of exactly what is "your" kit is also interpreted differently everywhere; here in the UK VOSA have tried to argue that anything that couldn't ONLY be used by you would be considered as theoretically someone else's kit and you would have to take it to court to prove it was yours and yours alone. IE if your trailer is full of "Fred Smith's wizzy whirly merry-go-round" kit and weird looking tools for assembling that merry-go-round AND you are Fred Smith then it's probably going to be classified as personal goods. If on the other hand your trailer is full of generic tools (especially multiples) then they take the view its not exclusively yours and that you could be trying to get cheap insurance / skirt the law by classifying it as your own stuff whilst actually running a secret man and van service. Thus you get the fine and impounding and have to fight it in court. Different vehicle regulatory bodies all over Europe have historically all taken slightly different views. Just to complicate things further; getting a VISA to work as a sound engineer (for example) might not also give you permission to "work" as a driver moving the desk from gig to gig so even if you have the right operators license, have the right insurance depending on the wording and terms of the visa you have you could still be breaking road traffic laws because you're not legally allowed to work as a driver. Over the next few years as the visas get created and harmonised this will be less of a problem but it shouldn't be forgotten that right now the UK has very new, very basic visa agreements and definitions with Europe that simply cannot cope with the fringe-cases that the entertainment industry predominantly presents.

The rules are better described as "personal possessions" - if you're carrying professional equipment that can't be ONLY used by you or anyone else's items then it falls under the commercial driving regulations and as noted requires Taco's, drivers hours logs (and the working hours of a typical tour manager-driver will be waaaaay outside legal limits) and appropriate commercial insurance alongside all the carnet et-al paperwork required if you're crossing any boarders.

I have a working sketch that doesn't use the latest libraries and doesn't have error checking; every time I compile one to use I have to make sure the libraries haven't updated (because so much has changed since this was written) plus I do like the idea of having the error checking and selectable channels; but the guides on how to implement the newer libraries are nowhere near as user friendly as the people who recommend them think so I've had no luck modernising my sketches

oh then definitely could be easily replaces with something much more durable and less "frictiony"

From the pictures it appears the bobbins are a plastic(?) held inside a metal strap - if they are that simple then it would be a very basic task for any engineering company to machine up new "inserts" in an appropriate material like PTFE or self lubricating nylon.

Couldn't decide which forum was right for this so mods feel free to move. I'm a self taught, basic arduino programmer; I've got a sketch I eventually managed to create ages ago using nrf24 wireless libraries that is now hideously out of date - core sketch is fine but the wireless side is practically stone age. I've spent the weekend going through tutorials trying to get my head around how to update it so that it uses the more modern libraries and error checking (all things I like the sound of having) but it's such a leap up I'm getting nowhere with it. I've asked on the arduino forums and get the usual unhelpful responses, snide comments and links to tutorials I've already tried and failed to follow well enough to translate to my sketch. Any BR members more comfortable with Arduino able to update the sketch to the new protocols / features for me in return for beer tokens? Transmitter is currently a 75 line sketch Receiver is 40 line sketch taaaaa t

If you mean total black out as in all emergency lights and signs off, all walkway lighting off, absolutely no light whatsoever It will all depend on what your risk assessment says, what your premises licence say (and or what variations a licensing officer will allow) and what your insurers say they will allow; there is no legal number. If this is the sort of black out you mean then also be aware that in order to (effectively) bypass lots of fundamental health and safety protections you would have to demonstrate a compelling NEED for the total blackout.

I can see these being very popular on ships where space constraints mean buckets are a less practical solution due to the amount of dead space they require around them.

I could probably take an educated guess about which ship you’re on…. there will be a management/support contract in place with the suppliers to answer technical queries for that setup …. But you’re not the first team to ask that question and to date (because of the kit actually installed) outside of turning down the brightness significantly or cutting the power completely, there’s not a way to make those specific screens properly “black”

If you just need something that when turned on spits out a fixed DMX value then surely this is the sort of thing a microprocessor (arduino, raspberry pi, etc) would be perfect for - I know there are a lot of DMX libraries and pre-existing programs out there for DMX control requirements.

[quote]Displacement is not really an issue. Even from the gigantic 300bar cylinders you get from BOC now, you only get ~12m^3 of gas. In a theatre that’s virtually nothing. Helium always rises, even at cryogenic temperatures (4K), so unless you have someone with their head placed against the ceiling, asphyxiation is not an issue. At the flow rates you are probably going to be looking at it’ll be the same as welding argon.[/quote] I've got to push back here as you're making all sorts of assumptions about what the venue is. 12m3 in Theatre Royal Drury lane (with its new super fancy ventilation system) isn't really a risk, but 12m3 in a small theatre with Scaff grid or bars mounted directly to the ceiling and poor ventilation; suddenly someone climbing a ladder to refocus a light is sticking their head right into the helium zone. Same problem if its an older house with a flytower and grid with no specific ventilation at grid level - half a dozen performances and you could very create an effectively oxygen-free grid. Some theatres have a ventilation system that constantly changes the air in the auditorium, others recycles a certain amount of the air so the helium could end up being recycled into the auditorium and again pooling in an area with poor ventilation and causing an issue. Since there have been HSE prosecutions / fines for shows pumping oxygen displacing gas into an auditorium causing injuries you've got quite a high standard to meet to justify the claim that you can do it safely and have all the appropriate procedures and hardware in place.

Helium is lethal by displacement - it doesn’t kill you but it stops you inhaling enough oxygen so you have zero chance of writing a risk assessment to show that pumping helium into the auditorium can be done safely…. I would also have to do the maths but my instinct is that the volume of helium relative to the weight of the bubble would produce negligible “lift” You can make bubble go up by blowing them with a fan but pretty quickly the come down again ruining the effect you are trying to achieve. I’m not sure what you describe is possible at all to be honest.

Really good work. Well done!

they are great on straight stairs and straight flat, the turning circle on them is horrific so turning 90 degrees in a narrow corridor or staircase is very frustrating.

This - on many festival sites cable runs have to go through public areas and so trackway isn’t an option.

You’ve missed the joke then….

Ah then it’ll cost less to fill it up with diesel!

Good sites have good quality red, stored in good quality bunded tanks and dispensed in a controlled manner and in that instance it makes no difference if the digger is on red or white, however we loose a couple of (diesel powered) heaters per year when they’ve been rented out and the end user has pumped a few weeks of dirty/polluted red through them. I can see why a rental firm to an unknown client would insist on white as it’s easy to spot if it’s polluted and it’s frankly much harder to get it “dirty” than red because of the distribution system.