Ground support on a hill?

[i_hate_fisicks]

Hi Roger,

 

Thanks for your input. Those of us who did the gig last year were very much of the opinion that that structure was not to be done again. Good to have that confirmed.

 

Incidentally, the Litec towers are used with safety steels.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul

[John Jones]

Why does anybody want to dance on a hill?

 

:blink: HUGE excess of quote trimmed!

[Shaggy]

Thanks for the comments, theres some intersting points there that will be looked into. Now more relieved that this gig isn't happening. Will be interesting to see how the local company that is doing the gig this year handles it. It looks like the gig will be able to have a higher budget next year and so more options will be open, won't be doing it myself but the use of the litec towers will not be considered. Can anyone suggest a better way of doing it? Options I have heard said are getting a tent that can be flown in (sounds good) or getting in a specialised system for hills (do any exist)?

[colydog]

Im curious too

 

The Star events website advertises 4 tower stages.

 

If no-one can go on them, do people hire these for decoration?

 

Maybe they are for those bands just too cool to turn up.

 

Mmmnn.

[johnhuson]

The Star events website advertises 4 tower stages.

 

If no-one can go on them, do people hire these for decoration?

 

Where abouts on their website did you find a four tower system. Having worked quite a bit on Star Events stages I have never worked on a four tower ground support system.

[RogerB]

Dear all

 

I didn't say it was impossible, just that there need to be suitable measures in place (with a high enough factor of safety) to prevent failure. We do occasionally do 4 mast ground supports when there is no realistic alternative, but....

 

Key points:

 

We don't do them outside (due to wind loading)

We use galvanised steel mast truss rather than aluminium, which is massively stronger. We have 2 types, the weaker one will carry a minimum of 8 tons with a large factor of safety.

Our safety devices to back up the hoists have a minimum breaking strain of 44 tons

We NEVER use individual free standing mast bases. In these situations the mast bases are always founded within a stage sub-structure and cannot move. This makes a substantial difference to the carrying capacity and overall safety.

We never use manual lifting devices as these cannot guarantee that the grid remains level at all times.

We have our own engineers who check everything we do

Our ground support crews are specifically trained - ground support engineering theory is outside the experience of most riggers, as rigging deals mainly with tensile forces and ground support deals mainly with compressive forces.

 

A 4 mast system in a picture on our web site probably looks pretty much like anyone elses, but you'll see from the above that the devil is in the detail.

 

Best regards

 

Roger