Secondary safeties on Mirror balls

[office monkey]

More and more venues are insisting on them , but is there legislation which specifically requires them ?

[ramdram]

Would it matter if there were any legislation or not, from the venue's position? We read in the forum that some venues now require uplighters to be of the LED variety...now you have mentioned the secondary safeties on mirror balls...perhaps some venues insist on seeing all the PAT labels on your kit, before you start setting up???

 

I would say you would be wasting your breath arguing...it may be THEIR insurer insists that kit supplied by third parties, ie you and colleagues, has to comply with the insurance company policy, regardless of any legislation. Their risk is based on what their actuaries decide.

 

You may find this link useful, see last sentence in box (I did the research thing because we may have one for the "Palace scene" in our local panto and you provided food for thought, thanks btw):

 

http://www.terralec.co.uk/mirror_balls/299_0c.html

 

and:

Stage management Company PDF

 

Hope that is of some comfort?

[Ali2580]

I'm not sure on legislation however I was recently involved in a production where a mirrorball was struck by a flybar and therefore came crashing to the ground. Luckily this happened when there was no one near the vicinity or underneath the ball otherwise it would have been a wee dunk on the head.

 

There were two safeties attached to the ball in question however the way the bar hit it, it ripped off from above where the safeties were attached and therefore, wouldn't of mattered if you had six safeties, still would have fell.

 

As I say, not too sure on legislation but as we all know, accidents will still happen.

 

A

[Jamtastic3]

I had a mirrorball fall from a group of mirrorballs one night above a seated audience. It was pretty small and happened to fall in the isle but it didn't half give the audience a fright and me a red face!

Thereafter it was joke upon joke about mirrorballs killing the human race by the host on stage!

[WiLL]

Secondary suspension on mirrorballs is tricky due to the way they are constructed, usually they are a polystyrene core which historically is not great at holding onto bolts etc and a good strike from a fly bar can rip it straight out. However since they are quite light I've found that a good way to affix a secondary point is to either:

a) Drill a hole all the way through the ball (not always possible) which exits as close to the bottom as possible and use a long piece of threaded screw with a nylock nut and washer on the bottom, affix an eye to the top of the thread by drilling a hole through the threaded stud and inserted a good thick Key ring circlet.

 

or.. if the mirror ball is a small one..

 

b) Using polystyrene friendly glue affix a plastic eyebolt into the ball, not as strong as the bolt all the way through technique but should hold the weight of the ball in case of the primary suspension falling. However a solid strike can rip this out so care should be taken to place the ball where a strike is unlikely.

[office monkey]

More and more venues are insisting on them , but is there legislation which specifically requires them ?

Thanks to all for answers , clear as mud now !