Rigging applied outdoors

[broom_nikita]

I have this Paper roll that I would like to reliably setup such that it can be written on in an outdoors environment.

 

 

Lots of info on rigging, stretching tarpaulin, shelters, canvas and fabrics...how can any or all of these skills be used to quickly and easily setup

 

A portion of a bond paper(treat as a roll of fabric I guess) well enough to reliably work on even in a windy condition.

 

 

Anything suits this as long as any fittings, attachments etc can fit in a bag(suitcase on wheels type size could do).

 

 

I have carabiner hooks, washing line rope, paracoord, webbing strap rolls, cargo tension hook strap and some yacht/sail mechanisms.

 

 

Could use aluminium tubing or something similar for an easy one hand build - modular approach of some kind.

 

 

The biggest obstacle is on how to stretch it up knowing I will have endless hook and grab points at various heights and angles such as trees, mesh like fences etc.

 

The difficulty will remain to get the paper surface "sprung" enough for it to be written on etc....

 

It will be windy and provided its not a gale force winds to tear the paper ...this setup should withstand a good enough beating from the elements...

 

 

I have been thinking about this for some time and would like to just take a suitcase with a bondpaper to the local park or an outdoor space and setup within minutes... washing line style easiness.

 

Looked also at more rigid and less relying on the environment setups such as stakes, pegs ..camping gear or folding canopys ...anything that can fold and fit in a bag really.

 

 

Need the wisdom of genuine rigging and stage craft designers.

 

 

How long ? Any size ...at the moment I have only attached up to 4-5 metres and it was never reliable...I would really like this have the ability to extend lengths from 2 metres to 10 ...15 metres .depending on weather and circumstances of the environment etc.

 

 

Pictures of the local park's atmosphere/environment :

 

Outdoor stage available

Bond paper roll to be setup image

[ImagineerTom]

I'm not entirely sure what your question is but there is one immediate problem that springs to mind - the force of wind on a sail (which is what a large piece of paper is) is surprisingly high and paper is surprisingly fragile. A 10m2 sail is the sort of size you see on small yachts you see whizzing across lakes in a fairly light breeze; that should give you an idea of the kind of forces even a relatively light wind exerts on something that size - a quick "back of an envelope" calculation suggests that in a 20mph burst of wind (not that excessive or unusual - a truck driving past produces that sort of draft) you'd have the equivalent of 100kg weight battering against the paper (rough conversion, wind forces aren't measured in kg - obviously). Once paper fails it fails spectacularly - it only takes one person pushing over-hard with a pen and puncturing the paper, one spot of rain soaking the paper, one momentary change of wind direction to create a tiny tear that compromises the strength of the entire piece of paper very dramatically.

 

It would be helpful if you could draw up what it is you're trying to explain, but until then you really need to be thinking about creating some sort of object that specifically supports the entire area of the paper (so that damage to the paper doesn't compromise the entire rig) and also be considering a physically smaller piece of paper so that the effect the wind has on it is significantly reduced - five pieces of paper 1x1m each a short distance apart is going to be much more stable and dependable than one piece of paper 5m long.

[Junior8]

There are various proprietary pull out banner systems which might fit the bill. Usually they work by having an extending support at the back and the media rolls out of a box at the base. If you forgot paper, which I strongly advise, but selected another surface that could be written on with say washable markers pens you could probably get a company like City B to make something up for you. But these also suffer with the wind and I have come across few with a base sufficiently heavy to cope with anything stronger than a light breeze without being additionally weighted in some way. I was covering an event the other day in a market square where they all had to be tied to adjacent structures. Similar companies offer other modular display systems that have aluminum framework and collapse into a traveling case. A search on google willl find plenty.

[kerry davies]

Interesting factoid. The force applied by air pressure at sea level on a one metre square rigid sheet is 100 tonnes on each side in balance. Upset that balance either way, plus or minus, and interesting things happen.

 

Anecdotally; I once had a section of Heras take off, complete with concrete feet and stays, with just mesh on it and another time a promoter overruled me, hung banners on Heras and saw three brand new sponsor cars speared by it.

 

One solution, I think, would be to have rollers either side of a table or platen on which punters could do the doodles and the paper unrolled/rolled as required. Think of Ye Olde Town Crier scrolls.

[ImagineerTom]

I was trying to think of an existing product that would do what you want but even something like the bannerstands Junior suggests wouldn't actually work - I've seen them go over from the draft of a crowd walking past; they also wouldn't offer enough firmness/resistance for people to write on; it would be one of those situations where to get the "off the shelf" product to work you'd need £100 of custom ballast and outriggers thus negating the convenience of the original product.

 

In terms of something strong enough to withstand people writing on it and day-to-day winds some sort of supporting frame/board behind the paper, held in place by a network of guy-ropes is the right sort of idea (flexible, relatively cheap, surprisingly strong) but you still have to overcome the size problem & you'll have quite a steep learning curve with regards to spotting how and where to place guy-ropes as well as what things in parks are structural and what things aren't.

[the kid]

Might it be worth making a bunch of Heras triangles and linking them together maybe at angles as well to break up the wind.

 

Use some scaffold netting to add a bit of a writing surface ? Maybe adding some 3mm board to the back as well. But lashing the whole triangle back to a ballast sitting in the middle.