Burying Cables

[mrmattday93]

Am running a stage at a local festival next month and was wondering how best to deal with the power/multis between foh and the stage.we usually do indoor gigs and so use carpets offcuts gaff'd down, but obviously wont work outside in a grass field.

 

 

my question is mainly any tips on going about this? im presuming to obviously not just dig a trench and put the cables into it, but should run them in something? Would standard PVC pipe ( like guttering down pipes) of the right diameter to accept the cables and connectors be acceptable?

 

cheers,

matt

[Jivemaster]

Will the landowner permit you to dig a trench?

[timsabre]

If it's just a few days it's normal to bury direct in the ground, assuming you're allowed to. I have seen people wrap the cables in cling film to keep them clean. Rubber matting is also a solution for less enthusiastic audiences, depends how rowdy the gig is.

[kerry davies]

Have you thought about mixing from stage-side? On most of my community festivals it was the sensible solution. Digging a slit is OK but can be hard work and I never knew a site owner willing to have trenches dug to accommodate pipework or ducting. What one does is insert your spade at an angle, raise a piece of turf, slide the multi in and press the turf back down.

 

Another option is to run a line of pedestrian barrier from FoH to stage and use that to protect the multi. At Roskilde they do that with two rows of Mojo with a two metre gap though if Foo Fighters were appearing at your gig I hope you wouldn't be asking us.

[Seano]

Digging a slit over any distance is possibly best done by machine, eg: Ditch Witch

If you're burying cable directly, it's a good idea to chuck a rope in with it to pull up first and break the soil.

[Brian]

Digging a slit over any distance is possibly best done by machine...

 

Is there a friendly local farmer with a sub-soiler aka a mole?

 

[david.elsbury]

Or if you have sufficiently solid structures at each end, a catenary wire between (say); a foh mix scaffold tower and the main marquee could be set up?

[mac.calder]

If you are using an ethernet based digi core (eg Dante) and will be doing this frequently, AirFibre from Ubiquity can give you a 2GB duplex link between FOH and Stage without trenches - which could carry both DMX and Audio.... then all you need worry about is power. There are other solutions a lot more expensive - including some laser based ones, however AirFibre as a complete kit comes in at under AU$6,000 - in labor alone you would make that back in about 6 events. We did something similar for a car racing event, with multiple end points around the track using a combination of fibre optic cable and AirFibre and it was solid as a rock. A total of 64 channels of Dante audio and 3 live-encoded video feeds were on the network.

[Wilflet]

Id generally dig in at a first choice if allowed. no trunking just open up a flap, throw the cables in and close it up. Like a natural cable ramp.

If not allowed to dig in we use cable ramp at a lot of small festivals.

for the more community end of the spectrum we've got rolls of coconut fibre matting maybe 4 foot wide which we lay over the multi, some sites want it pegging down, some the soil isnt deep enough for pegging. generally speaking any chance of it being a trip hazard is removed within a few minutes of the event starting when loads of familys treat it as a very long picnic blanket and sit on it. (iv actually had promoters ask if were bringing the picnic rug again this year- they had no idea what its actually for)

 

If you can find out whos in charge of the health and saftey for the event, have a chat with them see what they prefer - the debate about which methods we all like becomes quite moot if they will only sign off on one and its not the one youve gone for and you need to send someone to b&q for a spade 5 minutes before doors.

 

 

[Simon Lewis]

If you do bury directly, a catering roll of cling film put around your cables helps reduce the amount of cleaning needed afterwards...

[Jivemaster]

Actually it's probably not your choice which method to use. The landowner will have a say, the H&S people will have a say, the nature of the event may speak volumes.

[MarkPAman]

It's also worth finding out what other cables need to be run. If somebody else is running stage lighting & there's to be site a lighting pole by the FOH desk position, as my local festival has, then it probably makes sense to work together, whichever method is used.

 

The going rate for the chap "chucking in" my CAT5 with the site lighting power and letting me pinch desk power from him has been to make a cup of tea for several years now!

[dbuckley]

Old thread, but...

 

We did something similar for a car racing event, with multiple end points around the track using a combination of fibre optic cable and AirFibre and it was solid as a rock. A total of 64 channels of Dante audio and 3 live-encoded video feeds were on the network.

 

How and with what were the video feeds encoded?

[mac.calder]

Epiphan Pearls - Video signal in, H.264 encoded video stream out.

[dbuckley]

Thanks :)