installation electrician wanting to go on the road professionally. any

[allenmaiden]

hi, this is my 1st post on here I am looking at how to become an electrician in a touring road crew. I have the want to do it and the time to travel as long as theres a decent amount of work to be able to quit my current job. obviously this is going to take time. :)

 

my main question to anyone in the know is:- what are the relevent qualifications to put on the table/courses required etc to become an electrician in a professional road crew?? obviously experience and contacts would build in time but what city and guilds or cards would be required please??

 

this is how I think at the moment knowing nothing!.** laughs out loud **....I'm presuming the electricians on tour are just 1 small gang that repair anything from a lighting can, to a mixer, to a lead, to the bus kettle etc. I can already change lampholders etc or obvious things that need electrical knowledge unless it's circuit boards. obviously fault finding is usually a lead loose or connection come off in a plug on a stage but would I need any qualifications/courses for any internal workings of equipment in particular if it wasn't just a lead gone down? I presume the tech's would sort their own mixers/lighting boards etc or would I have to step in if it needed taking to bits???

 

I am currently a fully qualified installation electrician to 17th edition regs and served my apprenticeship straight from school. I have only ever been an electrician and never worked as anything else. I am 32 and I have full knowledge of industrial, commercial and fire alarms etc, but these are qualifications in building wiring and not stage production wiring. I play guitar, have been in bands and had a disco light box or 2 in the past so I know the basics of how effects loops, sound and lighting channels etc work and I can read drawings.

 

another of many questions starting from scratch in this direction is what agencies are there around when qualified?

 

any advice or knowledge at all on how to get on the road professionally as an electrician is welcome. cheers! ;)

[paulears]

I suspect a touring electrician might be a little different to your viewpoint. I guess the first thing is that we need to know how up to speed you are with event electrics. So although fixing things when they break is one element, the job may involve lights of all kinds, control systems, rigging, motors (as in chain hoist type things) and supply systems. So the job probably means anything with plugs on is your responsibility. Depending on the venues and scale there could be many of you are just one! So you need to be aware of pretty well all aspects of the entertainment technical areas. You could also get attached to video - electrics tends to get extended into all the areas.

 

So what kind of experience in these areas have you got?

[Sam_Lowers]

Hi

 

Like Paulears said it can be a vast range of tasks that you may be given. When I have an electrician on site their main role is to run any mains distro or generators. Because this won’t take all of their time during a load in/out they usually have to have a basic knowledge of rigging so they can assist the teams in getting the show up.

 

It may always be worth contacting your local theatre and seeing if they have any evening work experience just so you can start to get to grips with how a show goes together then move on to looking at concert work.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sam

[lightsource]

hi, this is my 1st post on here :) I am looking at how to become an electrician in a touring road crew.

 

I am currently a fully qualified installation electrician to 17th edition regs and served my apprenticeship straight from school. I have only ever been an electrician and never worked as anything else. I am 32 and I have full knowledge of industrial, commercial and fire alarms etc, but these are qualifications in building wiring and not stage production wiring. I play guitar, have been in bands and had a disco light box or 2 in the past so I know the basics of how effects loops, sound and lighting channels etc work and I can read drawings.

 

I think one of the first things you need to do is get a copy of BS7909. (It'll hurt your pocket though).

 

Also ( unsure on this one).... does 17th Edition qualified, make you a competent PAT tester (or electrical safety tester to regs)? if not, then a good course may be worth a look into. I say good, because a lot of this industry uses a lot of non-domestic equipment that quick PAt courses concentrate on. So the ability to competently asses results is a must.

[allenmaiden]

cheers for the posts so far, all I can say is I currently wire 2 lived in houses a week with kids running round, dogs running all over the place and furniture everywhere to move and get straight again by end of play etc. I have to have power back on and cause as little disruption as possible to the occupiers while also shifting my butt and getting round problems. I'm o'k with pressure!. everything I do currently is under floors etc. at least this is in front of me to chase cables etc. possibly very high up but in front of me. ** laughs out loud **. I do have my pat testing c&g which is 1 good thing it seems. ** laughs out loud **.. I know a bit about generators and motors from my electrical past working in factories. I understand this is a whole different ball game though.

 

I am obviously not pretending to know anything and am glad of the info given and taking notes of these things mentioned so far. cheers.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Hi

 

Like Paulears said it can be a vast range of tasks that you may be given. When I have an electrician on site their main role is to run any mains distro or generators. Because this won't take all of their time during a load in/out they usually have to have a basic knowledge of rigging so they can assist the teams in getting the show up.

 

It may always be worth contacting your local theatre and seeing if they have any evening work experience just so you can start to get to grips with how a show goes together then move on to looking at concert work.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Sam

 

so basically I'd run suitable main dist feeds from the generators to the areas on stage and sound booth etc for everyone to plug into then after that I'd help them out wiring their stuff to plug in to my power supplies I've given them. that makes sense to me!. ** laughs out loud **.!! cheers.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

hi, this is my 1st post on here :) I am looking at how to become an electrician in a touring road crew.

 

I am currently a fully qualified installation electrician to 17th edition regs and served my apprenticeship straight from school. I have only ever been an electrician and never worked as anything else. I am 32 and I have full knowledge of industrial, commercial and fire alarms etc, but these are qualifications in building wiring and not stage production wiring. I play guitar, have been in bands and had a disco light box or 2 in the past so I know the basics of how effects loops, sound and lighting channels etc work and I can read drawings.

 

I think one of the first things you need to do is get a copy of BS7909. (It'll hurt your pocket though).

 

Also ( unsure on this one).... does 17th Edition qualified, make you a competent PAT tester (or electrical safety tester to regs)? if not, then a good course may be worth a look into. I say good, because a lot of this industry uses a lot of non-domestic equipment that quick PAt courses concentrate on. So the ability to competently asses results is a must.

 

I can pat test and recognise a fault in the results no problem. i.e. notice in readings if insulation is faulty, bad earths, how to soft test computer equipment etc. the 17th edition is basically safety regulations, yes. it does cover regulations required for fairgrounds, temporary installations, caravans, caravan sites, but not gigs/theatre. it will be the same idea though. I.p ratings (e.g waterproof) of equipment required will be the same etc. I also have c&G 2391 inspection and testing which covers testing for safety. cheers!

[lightsource]

cheers for the posts so far, Snip.... I understand this is a whole different ball game though.

 

so basically I'd run suitable main dist feeds from the generators to the areas on stage and sound booth etc for everyone to plug into then after that I'd help them out wiring their stuff to plug in to my power supplies I've given them. that makes sense to me!. ** laughs out loud **.!! cheers.

 

Ok, so how would you comply to the relavent regs and proove yourself competent ( while signing off all the necessary documentation with your own signature) with this........ (imaginary Scenario)....

 

Sync'd Generators with no easy way of earthing.

Lighting requires 150kW

Sound requires 25kW

You need to sort the phases out

'Mix' Tower is 20m away from the stage, with 2000 punters between it and the stage.

You need 250 litres of Diesel for the gennys in a secure area, in a public place.

 

Ok it may be at the top end of the scale, but for someone who wants to work in this industry as an electrician, it is a valid scenario.

 

How much knowledge do you have on 3rd harmonics ?

 

Edit to add.....

 

It's outdoors, so it may be dry, it might rain a little, or it could actually p155 it down, causing local flooding.......

[allenmaiden]

I suspect a touring electrician might be a little different to your viewpoint. I guess the first thing is that we need to know how up to speed you are with event electrics. So although fixing things when they break is one element, the job may involve lights of all kinds, control systems, rigging, motors (as in chain hoist type things) and supply systems. So the job probably means anything with plugs on is your responsibility. Depending on the venues and scale there could be many of you are just one! So you need to be aware of pretty well all aspects of the entertainment technical areas. You could also get attached to video - electrics tends to get extended into all the areas.

 

So what kind of experience in these areas have you got?

 

the quick answer to this is not much haha. supply systems I'd probably know a bit about, as long as I know the voltage, how many amps are pulling from the equipment being fed and length of run from the main intake/generator then I could work out the size of cable needed and stuff like that. other than that I've not really taken too much to bits. I know old disco lights I had had a motor spinning a reflector to make the light effect and a lamp but thats about it. ** laughs out loud **. this is 1 of the many things I need to know. obviously there are thousands of different lights/desks etc if I had to work inside them I'd be totally lost. also probably loads of types of leads. I know how to repair XLR's, jackplugs and the blue 240v/ yellow 110v plugs and thats about it, other than scart and rca but can't see them being used for video on that scale.

 

I do reckon if I was given a drawing to read that said for example..channel 1 does 4 lights at the back of the lighting rig in series, channel 2 does 6 lights at the front etc then I could wire that up. I don't know what to expect though is the thing. it is all not known by me what to expect or need to know at the minute. ** laughs out loud **. cheers for helping me find out this much so far and the chance to try and put what I do currently towards what you say is needed. I may still not have much of a clue but I think I can relate to some things a little bit in what I do now. any other thoughts or advice? e.g is most equipment in production 230v any knowledge or info will help me understand things as you tell me them I hope. the electrical safety issue shouldn't be a problem coz it's electric at the end of the day, so the safety theorys should be basically the same as it is in what I do now. cheers!.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

cheers for the posts so far, Snip.... I understand this is a whole different ball game though.

 

so basically I'd run suitable main dist feeds from the generators to the areas on stage and sound booth etc for everyone to plug into then after that I'd help them out wiring their stuff to plug in to my power supplies I've given them. that makes sense to me!. ** laughs out loud **.!! cheers.

 

Ok, so how would you comply to the relavent regs and proove yourself competent ( while signing off all the necessary documentation with your own signature) with this........ (imaginary Scenario)....

 

Sync'd Generators with no easy way of earthing.

Lighting requires 150kW

Sound requires 25kW

You need to sort the phases out

'Mix' Tower is 20m away from the stage, with 2000 punters between it and the stage.

You need 250 litres of Diesel for the gennys in a secure area, in a public place.

 

Ok it may be at the top end of the scale, but for someone who wants to work in this industry as an electrician, it is a valid scenario.

 

How much knowledge do you have on 3rd harmonics ?

 

Edit to add.....

 

It's outdoors, so it may be dry, it might rain a little, or it could actually p155 it down, causing local flooding.......

 

pfff! this is what I mean haha. stuff I need to know!!. 3rd harmonics?-not a clue, vaguely remember harmonics at college ** laughs out loud **. I'll work the cable size and insulation type required due to the factors and I.p ratings tomorrow as it's late. not good off the top of my head without my regs book obviously. obviously the phase seperation would have to avoid 400v occurring where it shouldn't at any time and have each phase as evenly loaded as reasonably poss. also avoid the chance where people could be subjected to 400v at any time. thanks for this. prob better you explain the answer than me make a tit out of myself guessing.** laughs out loud **. I'll hopefully get it then. ** laughs out loud ** thanks for this. this is exactly why I'm asking questions. cheers!

[osal]

the 17th edition is basically safety regulations, yes. it does cover regulations required for fairgrounds, temporary installations, caravans, caravan sites, but not gigs/theatre. it will be the same idea though. I.p ratings (e.g waterproof) of equipment required will be the same etc. I also have c&G 2391 inspection and testing which covers testing for safety. cheers!

 

would be useful on the gig I going on today where we start with a rugby field and get a festival going with 3-phase supplies to the stages and supplying electric hock ups around the site to publics caravans just for the week think last year we had 3 sparks in addition of the tech crew

[paulears]

For a recent Morrisey show, their production manager asked for two extra electricians, and while he was in the venue there were two sparks there testing the electrical installation. Hearing 'Morrisey' and 'Money', they volunteered for the job. They were actually quite useful when an unexpected three phase supply for the caterers appeared, but far less so when presented with standard production kit. After a few minutes they were relegated to keeping out of the way and not trying to help - their 'help' usually slowing things down quite a bit.

 

The reality is that there is an expectation of knowledge of how things are done, which is difficult for a newcomer - even jargon causes grief. Often time pressure is considerable, and people just demand things, then go away. They don't expect to train people. For newcomers this is difficult, because they could do the job easily, but only if they know what it is. It would be well worth a visit to the PLASA show later this year where you can see all of the kit, and poke around - then you will have an idea what kit is being used, how it is connected and work out for yourself the electrical requirements.

[Panchromatic]

Touring depends on tours being available, the best way would be to approach a local sound and lighting company preferably one that has a hire section, this would give you experience between tours on a range of subjects from first and second line repairs, installation work, set-up and strip down of equipment and a general insight to the industry. Being in this position would leave you in the right position to go out with tours, manned long and short time hires as well as getting you the contacts with local bands etc. A most sound and lighting companies would love to have thier own "spark" who could combine sound and lighting with electrical work on thier books. Where abouts are you based? Most bands would normally stick with the same company.

[Seano]

I am looking at how to become an electrician in a touring road crew.

 

I'm finding some of the advice you're getting here a bit confusing, to say the least.

Some of it relates to working as a site electrician (on a festival, for example), some of it relates to looking after generators and/or power distribution on a large outdoor gig. All well and good, but neither of those roles is a member of a 'touring road crew'.

 

A touring road crew *does not* include an electrician, as such. Probably the nearest thing to it would be the lampy looking after dimmers, but that is a skilled role relying mainly on skills you currently don't have.

 

Equipment servicing is kept to a necessary minimum - the gear is pretty much always on hire and beyond a certain point faulty gear will be swapped out. The person who services/repairs lighting kit is a part of the lighting crew, it is not a job in its own right, and your knowledge of electrical installation wouldn't offer much of an advantage I'm afraid. At the moment, someone who fixes washing machines is probably better qualified than you to service a moving light.

 

Before you have any chance at all of getting involved on a tour, you need to at least learn the vocabulary, the etiquette and some of the basic, basic skills associated with touring music. While you're at it, you need an opportunity to see if its really something you want to do when you have more idea of what life on the road is actually like.

 

The best (possibly the only) way to do this from scratch is to get some work on a local crew, 'humping' in other words. You'd need a thick enough skin to smile whilst being treated like an idiot and paid pennies, but there is no better way to pick up the basics - you're not expected to know anything, yet in a fairly short space of time you can get to grips with all the major hire companies, meet a lot of people and handle a lot of kit.

 

If you can fit in a few gigs around your current job, so much the better. You don't give a location in your profile - some places are better than others from this point of view.

 

Otherwise you'd need to find a more flexible way to make a living with your current skills (self-employment perhaps, dunno) in order to be able to fit some crew work in around it. That's probably essential anyway, because you *will not* be able to quit your job and immediately make a living as a touring technician with any security whatsoever.

 

Lets say you're lucky enough to pick up a 3 month tour and quit your job - you'll be 3 months (assuming you don't make a serious faux-pas) away from having no steady job and no longer being on tour.

 

Sx

[allenmaiden]

thanks for the posts everyone, I've read through and at least I've found out a few things. I've managed to get on the local crew for u2 this month, so that's my 1st step to check this side of gigs out at least. it's a start! and a big start with that stage setup. ** laughs out loud **. I just though I'd see about being a spark on a tour 1 day as I'd love to do it. cheers! <_<

[billy bobinski]

Hi there allenmaiden,

 

I think a couple of the posters have been a bit mean with you so far, trying to throw scenarios at you that you probably wouldn't encounter for years yet in a supervisory role. The best bet, is to do what you have done and start out with local crew.

This will definately give you the feel for the kit and you will soon realise how specialised it is compared to the outside world, same principals, but much much more in depth. Every venue is different, every rig, at every gig, which brings me onto my other point, doing the local will test you to see whether you either; a, think you can do it, (both technically and physically, 'cause it's bl****dy hard work) and; b, whether you fit in.

I'm not having a go at anyone here, but everyone knows that you need to have a certain temperament and mind set to work in this game, and unless you have come up "through the ranks" so to speak, neither you nor anyone else will kow if you're up to it, (this includes wife, parnter, family etc).

So to sum up mate, it's not just a job jetsetting all over the place hobnobbing with the stars.

 

Good Luck Anyway

 

Billy

[Pete McCrea]

I'd echo Seano's post, and Bob Bobinski. Working up by starting as local crew is going to give you an idea of the way things work, and if it fits with who you are, and gives you access to a range of different ways of working. It may also be where you make that contact that remembers you next time they need someone, and then they give you the call for a job or two.

 

But Local crewing can be tricky if you have experience - you can be tempted to chip in when it seems worthwhile, but sometimes the best thing to do is keep your head down and do exactly as they ask of you. Chiming in with "'ere you don't wanna do it like that mate" isn't going to win you any friends on the touring crew. Being a grafter will get you noticed.

 

All the best.

Pete

[allenmaiden]

I'll just be doing as told and getting on with it as you say. I know exactly what you mean. cheers.