richard Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 Hello Have just finished doing a show in a theatre in Cairo and saw some very interesting, if slightly scary things. The theatre seem to have decided that they don't like plugs, instead, they have lots of bits of two core wire, some chocolate blocks on the wall, and some rolls of LX tape, they then simply twist the wires together and tape them up. If, by some bizarre chance, something has a plug on it, then they just tape the feed on to the pins of that plug, and that seems to do the trick. They also, unsuprisingly, have no safety chains, and have a habit when taking lamps down, of just undoing the bolt from the yoke and leaving the clamp in the rig, which seems odd.. Anyone else seen any 'interesting' methods from abroad?? Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James C Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 Not theatre-related, but in Nepal a while back I saw an electrician replace a 100W domestic fitting on a second-floor balcony by standing on the handrail and hanging off the fitting which he could just reach with both arms strretched up :o :o :o :o :o :o :P :) :blink: :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 An electrician friend had a holiday in rural India. In between dashes to the nearest "lav" (read "bush") he noticed that the method of connection to the local supply was, let's say, not strictly in accordance with the 16th Edition of the Wiring Regs. What you do is to take a long length of stiff wire and form a hook at the end. Then, using a dry pole, you drop this over the uninsulated conductors...... Hey Presto! Lights, microwave and CNN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 I was rigging a very large video projector a few years ago in a theatre in Istanbul for a product launch. Everything was plugged up and as I turned on the projector I was suprised to find myself lying down about 6 feet further back than I was a fraction of a second earlier. No earths, anywhere. Or to be precise, earths that had been disconnected in most of the mains plugs. So when the video projector made it's own earth it choose 240v, which being a metal chassis and a metal switch I found the hard way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 Both of these are second-hand, mind, but: Someone I know was doing a Pop concert in India. When he asked for the mains supply, the local electrician showed him an upturned bucket on the floor. Thinking this was a translation problem, he said, "no, the power supply." The electrician pulled the bucket off the floor. There were 4 big wires sticking out of the floor. He left the local sparks to worry about connection issues... And in Italy, apparently, there's a theatre with a kettle-lead patch panel. Only someone clever made it backwards, so the plugs are live. You just are very careful with it, apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 done a small gig in Han(g)over a few years back ,spent ages trying to trace a realy nasty buzz on the pa olny to find out ALL the sockets in the room were fed by domestic dimmers (for table lamps),then theres the place,again in germany that ran DMX,sound,pyros, tab controls and anything else they could squeeze in,all down the one multi core Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akegplighting Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 Again second hand but had a company come in and tell us about a show they did in some wierd county on top of a hill........ well the power was connected by just cutting a couple of metres off your tails and throwing them over the pylons and the earth was connected by wrapping unisnsulated earth cable round a rock and throwing off the cliff into the sea! Cant get much better than that! But the best was when they had to get the power cables off the pylons, naturally they would hae arched and kinda joined, apparently they sent some kid up a wooden ladder with a pair of insulated bolt cutters and just cut them off. if u see the section of power cable u see lots of litle bits attached apparently! Scary! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Don't pylons operate at 10,000v or something? Surely that's not quite correct....hmmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robloxley Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 Local distribution is often at 230V, especially in the countryside / villages - 4 lines (3 phases and neutral) a pole with take-offs to each house - often also with a street light and phone cabling on the same pole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stebee Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 I had a group in from St Lucia and Jamaica one time who were amazed to find ceramics in par cans. apparently the ones in their local "venue" are so old or so knackered that there are no ceramics, they just attach the bare ends to the bubble terminals and focus very carefully. and they wanted to batten a row of flats 40ft long together and hold it up with a brace at either end. sheesh ste Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 10, 2003 Share Posted September 10, 2003 I had a group in from St Lucia and Jamaica one time who were amazed to find ceramics in par cans. apparently the ones in their local "venue" are so old or so knackered that there are no ceramics, they just attach the bare ends to the bubble terminals and focus very carefully.And to think I moan about a lack of parsafes on Cans sometimes... Blimey! :) Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 The theatre seem to have decided that they don't like plugs, instead, they have lots of bits of two core wire, some chocolate blocks on the wall, and some rolls of LX tape, they then simply twist the wires together and tape them up. When I was in Mexico many years ago they were doing this but with masking tape rather than pvc. On the same tour, we turned up in a small hall with a home made lighting desk with built in dimmers. It required a two phase supply and the local electricity bloke turned up to wire it into the mains. Since we were on the second floor this was done by chucking the cables out the window and wiring into the nearest pylon. Unfortunately, he wired the neutral into the third phase. Big puff of blue smoke, no more desk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 GEEZ, and I thought our school was bad, (dimmers about 30 years old, cables that shouldnt even be used for line level speaker apps and just generally out of date!!!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Foster Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 I went somewhere the other day (a function room in a pub/club) which had one piece of truss and 11 par's, these were rigged with no safety bonds and also no bolts in the hook clamps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lightnix Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 An old friend of mine was on tour in Spain. At one venue they discovered that one of their lighting trusses was live. After checking their system through and through, they turned to the house wiring, found that the fault lay there and promptly fixed it. The house electrician was overjoyed, "Thank you, thank you !", he cried, "We've had that problem for three years !" :P :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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