Pianist setting off pyro

[Mat]

Quick question. I was chatting to someone today about the am dram pantomime they did last year. They said that they had two pyro effects during the show which were set up by the company that brought in the rest of the gear. However the pyro was executed by the pianist who I would assume had had no formal pyro training. Is that legal?

[DeepSpacePenguin]

Whether or not it's appropriate depends on the pianists training. It certainly isn't illegal.

[Ynot]

Whether or not it's appropriate depends on the pianists training. It certainly isn't illegal.

You might want to go take a look at the other topic running at the moment where a band want to try some sort of foot pedal to fire pyro by the guitarist.

My initial response is that I'm personally not comfortable with giving control of pyro to anyone who hasn't got that responsibility and nothing else when firing - certainly not without knowing who it is I'd be advising. Others seem to think that it's maybe OK as long as the guy with the pedal is practiced enough and is competent to multitask...

 

But illegal? No not at all in the UK.

Not yet, anyway.

[brainwave-generator]

One solution that I don't think has been mentioned yet but is how I would approach it, is that yes the pianist (or guitarist or whatever) can hit the big red button, but does not have full control of it.

 

To be in full control of pyro you need to be able to see it all, see what is going on around it, and thoroughly make sure it's safe to fire on the cue.

 

What this means is, if you've got a spare person handy, what you can do is have a person in a worthy position make the unit 'ready', and the instrumentalist 'fire' it, with the worthy person able to un-ready the pyro at any time.

 

Unrelated to pyro I was doing some Kinesys work before xmas, which is a rigging automation system. We had DMX control coming from the lampy's lighting desk into the hoist control system, so that rigging moves could be performed by the lampy also doing the lighting cues, making it easier to keep it all in sync, as he could include the DMX programming as part of the cue programming. However, it was custom on that job that we had a second operator working for us, who was in possession of an Emergency Stop button, who could hit it at any time if he felt that there was any reason not to execute the rigging cue.

As it was we never had any reason to press it, but it was nice security to know that we still had ultimate control of the system whilst allowing a 3rd party user enough control to do their thing.

 

If you could achieve the same sort of scenario with your pyro setup, that would be a safe way to allow somebody other than a designated pyro operator to operate the pyro.

[rossmck]

I wonder if this was the same show... I worked a similar show where the pyro was fired by the pianist with my complete support for the following reasons;

 

They weren't playing at the time (obviously)

They had received a basic introduction in pyro safety

They had the best view of the pyro and uninterrupted line of sight.

 

The alternatives were the DSM (SL whose view was obstructed) or me (LX) from the back of the auditorium with a not tremendous view .. more than happy to have the pianist do it in those circumstances :)

[adam2]

In MOST circumstances I would advise against a pianist setting of pyro.

There is no law AFAIK that specificly prohibits it, but in most circumstances I would consider that it is potentialy less safe than a trained operator who is not liable to distraction by any other duties.

There may be some limited circumstances in which this is acceptable, as posted above, a detailed risk assement would be required to justify any such decision.

[paulears]

Trained Operator? I fully endorse the idea that to rig the pyro equipment, select the appropriate devices and change the cartridges an element of proper training makes sense, but firing them is not a solus technical job. The critical element is to prevent people being injured accidentally - mainly by being too close, or accidental misplacing of props etc. If the person with a full view of the stage is given the essential instruction, which is going to be what? 5-10 mins max, then I really cannot see why they cannot take the responsibility. This - I really think is the critical bit. You are giving them the responsibility for control of something that is potentially capable of injuring people seriously. Some people will not way the responsibility, but others take the role very seriously.

 

As we're talking about in the other topic, somebody taking pressing that button really seriously has to be a lower risk than somebody who may just switch on, press the button and then go back to their iPhone - hopefully having bothered to actually look and check.

 

My experience is that being 'technical' doesn't guarantee safety, indeed as when working for a venue, I've had to step in and prevent a firing, because I'd noticed the audience had got out of their seats and were standing up against the covered in pit - some only a metre or so away from the pyro. The touring person, tasked with firing the pyros was so into the show they'd not noticed!