Sav Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 Hello, I was wondering if anyone out there has an I-beam/winch for moving sound desks to the back of an auditorium. We currently have to carry desks over the backs of folded down chairs up at least two bleachers and with the bigger desks (Midas XL3, Heritage etc) across three bleachers. I am looking for a venue near Kings Lynn that I can come and have a look at. Also if anyone has any horror stories regarding such movements I would very much appreciate like to hear them as I can use them as justification for us having one installed.Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted November 21, 2003 Share Posted November 21, 2003 If the movement of a FOH desk from loading bay to FOH mix position is a partiularly difficult journey involving lots of obstacles and steps, if the majority of your venue's programme is shows which involve big and heavy FOH desks, and if a lot of them are one-night-stands, then I think you'd have a case for asking for some sort of mechanical assistance on health and safety / manual handling grounds. Yer typical big FOH desk (Midas, Amek, etc.) is a very big, very heavy beast - carrying one properly involves anything up to eight people, several of whom will by necessity be moving backwards at some time or other during the operation. If they have to negotiate steps and obstacles while moving backwards and at the same time lifting their corner of a bl**dy heavy sound desk, the potential for trips, falls and injuries is considerable. While a risk assesment is not always the universal solution to problems that some people imagine it to be, I think it might be worth risk-assessing this particular situation, and flagging up the likelihood of someone going a*se-over-tit onto the auditorium steps and suddenly finding a couple of hundred kilos of FOH desk heading vertically towards them at great speed ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Go and have a look at how Dengate in Northampton do it. it so easy when you know how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Do a risk assignment on the movement of a sound desk over seats to the rear of the house, trips ñ trapped fingers ñ manual handling etc. Then every time you move a desk and someone trips- stumbles, or cannot lift the load, report a ënear miss.à it wont be long before management have to do something about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James C Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 hmmm...A few years ago, on an outdoor show in the docks we needed to get the extremely weighty 48-channel desk down from the 1.5m high control position, as the hire company wished to swap it for a 36-channel desk, which was ample for our needs. Time ran a bit short, as did bodies, so we ended up asking a friendly forklift driver for assistance. Hire company-man turned up early, and went a whiter shade of L090 to see his beloved desk being lowered (carefully, mind you!) to the hardstanding by a mechanical beast covered in clay, rust and cement dust! Perhaps not such a practical solution in your average theatre... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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