Drencher set off by stranger backstage

[McIvy]

"I'm guessing if the band's kit has been damaged, it'll be the venue's insurance that pays out? "

Unlikely, I'm afraid...... This would end up as a liability claim by the Touring company, Band or Sound company against the venue, where they would need to prove the negligence of the venue owners or management.

 

From what we are told here, this is likely to be very difficult.

 

Also, although Adam2 is right about kit restoration sometimes, despite the reported early RCD trips, any wetted kit under power could well have suffered electrical component damage prior to trip.

 

Stage drencher systems are designed to be sacrificial for the greater good, but don't anticipate deliberate human mal-interference when not otherwise required.

 

Not a good day, Paul. Sorry to hear that.

[paulears]

That's useful info Ian, thanks - I will pass this on.

P

[alistermorton]

normal cat 5 etc is fine as long as you know what you are doing.

 

Here may be the detail - if you know what you're doing, and take care not to exceed maximum cable tension specification (and indeed minimum bend radius).

 

I was told one of the reasons they often had to go back in to recable networks was because the data cables had been pulled through ducts as if they were heavy power cables, and the cables had been stretched. Hence the "don't pull, lay" advice.

 

 

[Simon Lewis]

The advice might be slightly better phrased as, "Use low to moderate force when pulling cable. The maximum pulling tension for 4-pair, 24 AWG horizontal UTP cables should not exceed 110 N (25 lbf) to avoid stretching the conductors during installation". Although the minimum bend radius is cable dependent, for many CAT5 type cables it's 4x the external cable diameter..

[sandall]

I would have thought an even greater risk might be snagging on sawn (or more likely angle-ground) trunking edges. I remember tales of a major refurb (in pre Cat-5 days) where the electrical engineers pulled all the audio & speaker cables & stripped so much insulation that they effectively destroyed the lot.

[Peter Tovey]

I suppose I don't think very much about our remote release; fortunately no drencher but our external iron release is on the exterior of the building. Tucked into a corner of the yard by the stage door, completely unlabelled, but it certainly works! Unfortunately putting some sort of locked box over it would rather defeat the point...

 

And it was an interesting job moving it there 10 years ago when the old external wall became internal. 10m of conduit with no junction boxes and numerous bends isn't easy. Unless it's freed up much, it used to need a foot against the wall and an almighty heave to release. Very unlikely to be accidental and I suspect much the same for Paul.

 

I wonder if anyone's installed a remote cable-operated release any more recently..?

[Jevans]

I suppose I don't think very much about our remote release; fortunately no drencher but our external iron release is on the exterior of the building. Tucked into a corner of the yard by the stage door, completely unlabelled, but it certainly works! Unfortunately putting some sort of locked box over it would rather defeat the point...

 

And it was an interesting job moving it there 10 years ago when the old external wall became internal. 10m of conduit with no junction boxes and numerous bends isn't easy. Unless it's freed up much, it used to need a foot against the wall and an almighty heave to release. Very unlikely to be accidental and I suspect much the same for Paul.

 

I wonder if anyone's installed a remote cable-operated release any more recently..?

 

Yes, I'm very glad I didn't have to do that bit of conduit... It has loosened up a little since then; I think the weighting on the bottom of the stage release handle against the weights on the bottom of the brake downstairs has been tweaked. I've certainly had to play with it a few times to make sure the smaller stage managers can get the brake on in the first place - but you're familiar with that game!