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Ribbon Lift Failure


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Hi all, I was working at a Keane gig at the Brighton centre last night where one of these ribbon lifts failed. They were using four of them- they are rated for 500 lbs (and clearly marked as non personnel btw) and they were each carrying a cross bar with a Mac and a couple of other lights on.

 

Anyways, just before the first encore the stage right ribbon lift failed as it was being lowered, the ribbon interlock mechanism came un done and the whole column buckled, sending the Mac on an arc towards the drummer that was luckily interrupted by a forest of aluminium poles (don't ask- some crazy lighting design that's another accident waiting to happen).

 

Naturally the ribbon lifts have been "retired" and we won't be seeing them again this tour I think. But it sounds like this one failed in the same way as the previous mentioned incident.

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We had the "Orange - Enjoy Music" tour when I was at uni, and they had 4 Ribbon Lifts there. Two had Plasma screen on them, and the two front ones, which were faster, had a screen on them. I was one of the crew on site, and when they brought the lifts down in rehearsal, to reveal the stage, one of the bent quite severely. It was mentioned, but when they lowered it and raised it again, it "seemed to sort itself out".
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Hi all, I was working at a Keane gig at the Brighton centre last night where one of these ribbon lifts failed. They were using four of them- they are rated for 500 lbs (and clearly marked as non personnel btw)

This worries me a lot - the ship I used to work on had a Ribbonlift and was using it to raise and lower an cast member (during Defying Gravity, which is a whole other bucket of IP).

 

It's never been serviced, and was looking rather battered when I left. Raising the issue with the powers that be didn't seem to have any effect unfortunately, so I wonder how long before we all hear about a similar incident on board a cruise liner.

(That sort of thing was one of the reasons I didn't go back)

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Interesting, on the Keane gig - the news reports are quoting an audience member, who said

 

They started the encore and they had a big lighting rig on a stand which was lifted up into the gantry. It got caught on another bit of equipment and it fell over down the back of the stage
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