How prepared are you for a power cut?

[Ike]

After hearing the news about the major blackouts on the continent last night I got thinking about how prepared everyone is.

 

Do you have a ups and generator? If so when was it tested and is its capacity big enough, if not;

 

How good is your emergency lighting? Do you have the legal minimum, is it going to blind your patrons or will everywhere remain well lit? How do tabs, scenery and the iron affect light on stage/foh?

 

Do you have a UPS/backup on the PA? How will you give announcements, where will you give them from and who/what will give them? Will your cans/phone system go down and is there a backup? Are radios, loud-hailers etc. charged up? Do you know where they are?

 

Do you have a plan containing such things as when a show should be pulled, who decides and how evacuations are run?

 

There is a lot to think about but I get the feeling from working at a couple of ill prepared places that few people do until it happens to them.

 

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

 

Ike

[broadcast_techie]

A few christmas' ago I was working at Hull New Theatre when there was a power failure, (was working on spots so no responsibility). Clunk as spot psu went off and fire alarm lights flashing. Everyone was calm and professional, as expected. The second half had just started so the curtains came in (emergency lights kicked in) and Stage Manager apologised to everyone and sent them home. (I believe they had the chance to get a free ticket to another performance)

In this case it was only 2 phases lost, so there was still stage lighting as well, but no sound. Took a second to realise what was happening.

 

The key to the situation was that everyone was calm and there was no panicked evacuation.

 

I think cans must have been on a ups, as for the PA there is no need, and a professional SM is as good as any loud hailer...

 

oh and as for when to pull the show... as the second half had only just started there was the option of restarting it if the power was likely to be restored, but substation faults can take a while to get fixed so it's easier to send the audience home before they get too restless.

 

Kris

[bruce]

The concept of the audience "sitting patiently under the glow of the emergency lights, waiting to see if the power comes back on so that a decision can be taken as to whether to restart" concerns me a little. :)

 

In most public buildings (without standby power), the H&S rules say that if the power goes off, the building should be largely evacuated after a short period - in the case of the buildings that I work in (a University), it's 15 minutes. Remember, when you lose power, you also will lose heating and ventilation. You may also lose water (public buildings tend to use pumped supplies). So you've got no ventilation, no heating, no lifts, no toilets, potentially no phones, a fairly dark building and irate customers....

 

As with all these things, it's all about risk assessment and having procedures in place.

[Tourbus]

Whenever I do a gig I always have a UPS on the desk as a backup.

 

The main problem with is particurally I/we use a lot of movers these days is that if the rig dies mid show you have to wait ages for the movers to piss about and usually they need to cool before they restrike.

 

One good reason why so many LDs still spec VL5's and other dimmable tungsten sources :)

 

So as a word of warning, don't have movers as your stage wash! Use parcans and supplement them with ACLs and use movers for effect. I have and sometimes still do the occoaional gig where I have 72K and some ACLs and I am convinced I can do a better job than most LDs who spec 100s of movers.

[Tom R]

I was at a public fireworks event last night and was wondering...

 

The PA was run on the mains that is preinstalled into the park. If the mains was to fail and the PA was needed for evacuation purposes, where would they stand? Is it good practise to just rely on the mains and not have a backup generator?

[bruce]

Why would the PA be needed for evacuation purposes? I can see why it would be useful, or desirable, but was its existence a requirement of the safety plan? Was the presence of a working PA for evacuation purposes part of the license conditions?

 

If it were required as part of the risk assessment, then that same risk assessment should address the possibility of it failing and alternative options.

[Rob_Beech]

Also evacuating a park is different in some respects to evacuating a theatre, or night club, or pub, etc.

 

The same basic rules still apply though.

 

Also Tom if its the event I'm thinking of, if its anything like last year which I went to (not worked at) its an H&S nightmare anyway. people tripping over 3 Phase cables all over the place. very little light with random distro's placed in the dark for people to trip over.

 

Its important to note this was NOTHING to do with sound or light orientate events for the evening.

[Tourbus]

Why would the PA be needed for evacuation purposes? I can see why it would be useful, or desirable, but was its existence a requirement of the safety plan? Was the presence of a working PA for evacuation purposes part of the license conditions?

 

If it were required as part of the risk assessment, then that same risk assessment should address the possibility of it failing and alternative options.

 

From what you said before about sitting with emergency lights on perhaps thats an example.

 

Ie if everyone just sits there maybe you need to ask them to evacuate the building - or an an announcement letting them know to stay put and the situation is being fixed?

[bruce]

We're talking about 2 different scenarios here - the latter was specifically related to an unseated outdoor event in a public park... - in all but the largest indoor venues, as Kris says, announcements can often be made without amplification, and in a park, the risk assessment may not have required a safety PA.

 

But the same principles apply, whether its in a park or the smallest theatre. You do a risk assessment. What happens if the power fails? Do we need amplification to organise a safe and prompt evacuation, or to keep the punters informed? If yes, then look at ways to do this - either by having auxiliary power for part of the installed PA, or a separate emergency system, or having a megaphone available.

[Just Some Bloke]

I was at a public fireworks event last night and was wondering...

 

The PA was run on the mains that is preinstalled into the park. If the mains was to fail and the PA was needed for evacuation purposes, where would they stand? Is it good practise to just rely on the mains and not have a backup generator?

 

I work on shows over the summer months which take place in a public park (up to 3000 people). How to evacuate is really really easy. It's outdoors! You just walk away. The audience don't need as much help as they do indoors.

 

However we do have a backup PA:- it's called a megaphone! In the event of a power failure we would use this to let people know what's happening. We also have a host of stewards who would help them to find their way out.

 

Lighting-wise we have floodlights showing the exit routes which run on their own individual generators which are both an emergency measure and a practical measure allowing us to cut the stage power and start the get-out as the audience are still leaving the site.

[Sam Jelfs]

I seem to remember having studied the event that Tom is talking about (as did Tom) that part of the risk assessment was that the PA would be used to give announcements in the event of an emergency, but I don't have the paperwork to hand to confirm this.

[Chris Beesley]

I have just sat down and picked up the old laptop after completing a full weekend job at a local Bonfire & Fireworks display - we hired in a large genset from our local hire co (Adlington Welding) - as reliable as their sets are we still took a small petrol unit to run a 100V Horn PA for emergency backup. The secondary PA is not something in the organisers risk assesment, but is a "nice to have - safety net"

[goochr96]

On a slightly different tanjent, does I was wondering if any Theatres used such things as CHP (Combined Heat and Power)units. Basically a big converted diesel engine that runs on gas, turns a generator, thus producing electrcity. The the water that is used to cool the engine (bearing in mind when it leaves the engine it is about 80+ degrees C) is use to provide heating and hot water for your building. And solonging the price of electricity is higher than that of gas, a money saving and kind of "enegy efficient"

 

Just wondering.

[GridGirl]

Emergency lights are checked before every show - and when you check them, the house and foyer lights go out, so you can clearly see whether there's enough light to evacuate by! We don't have tabs or an iron (studio-style space) so no issues there :P There's no emergency PA, but it's not a big space so the stage manager can easily be heard, and there's a laminated emergency procedure sheet at the prompt desk and in the control room. Emergency egress routes are also checked before every show. Two actors from the show are responsible for getting disabled patrons out, and two more actors responsible for checking the upper levels of the building should we evacuate, while the stage manager co-ordinates the evacuation. I've not had to evac since I've been working there, but I'm sure it will happen sometime or other...

[Tom R]

Thanks guys it was merely a hypothetical scenario...I will enquire as to what the evacuation procedure is. Seeing as you couldnt even hear the countdown to the lighting of the bonfire (with a blow torch) I dont think you'd hear evacuation announcements!