Recent content by MNicolai

SD9T in a high school -- absolutely wouldn't. I would lean more toward Yamaha CL, maybe DM7 -- but DM7 is far more horsepower than you need. There are other brands that would be fine as well, but Digico desks are near impossible for students to understand. The level of complexity makes it...

Programming complexity for students aside -- that also eliminates a ton of opportunities for students to be hands-on with fixtures. That's something I bring up whenever a project budget gets thin and they start looking at axing the followspots -- that's two fewer positions for students on tech...

The Ministars are interesting. Not super expensive and under 40lbs, but they have a couple caveats. Namely, the color mixing isn't CMY so anytime you change the colors, the fixture goes black for a moment (fraction of a second) in Blink Mode. Unlike Lonestar, Halycon, and some of the other...

Realistically, you need to discuss this with a fire protection contractor (likely the one who annually inspects your system and is familiar with the space). Yes, you have local detectors distributed around, but you may also have particle detectors in your HVAC system and elsewhere -- and your...

For ETC and Varilite, you can go a step above a dealer and get the regional product reps who can help arrange this. These reps work with territories, so for example, we have Sesco Lighting here in Florida and sales of ETC products flow through them whether it comes from Dealer A or Dealer B. We...

Lonestar may be a good choice depending on output needs. Fairly quiet, cost-effective, and comes with shutters. May not cut through a bright stage wash but that really depends on how you would plan on using them. Hyperstar is basically the same fixture without framing shutters if you're looking...

One of TT's finding in Indiana was that they had no understanding of the structure's limits which made it challenging for event organizers to understand where the cut-off threshold needs to be in spite of any meteorology reports they may have been receiving. That's in no way any excuse, but it...

Ballasts were water tanks. Hard to know how many were there in total since they were tugged by the collapse and possibly cleared away as part of the rescue operation.Eye-balling it from other images, the video wall appears maybe >2x the size of the one at Sugarland, which is a considerable...

Appears there were a fair number of guy wires, but how adequate they were is impossible to know -- and all the guy wires in the world won't do much if that video wall is swinging in the wind like a sail. The direction of wind looks like it hit that video wall square on.

In the video below you can see it was steadily windy before the failure and the video wall was kicking forward before the collapse. Looks like there was a sudden violent gust that did the structure in.Toggling through the historical weather data, not only did this happen yesterday, but it...

In that case, I would strongly recommend performing due diligence on a hoist solution. Fewer structural implications and safer/easier to operate. Not having to schlep bricks around also makes it a little faster to do turnarounds if the space is being used as heavily as it sounds like it is...

"Substantial" may or may not be a big deal here. It really depends on the original structural design and the margins the original structural engineer designed into that structure.One of the primary benefits of lineshaft winches or compression tube hoists would be that you're minimizing the...

What's the existing rigging configuration in the MS?

Depends on the end pin and pad. Mass and contact area doesn’t factor in much when the energy tuning forks from the body of the instrument.Yeah. Maso/Hardboard is better than vinyl, but hardwood is better yet.Lot of factors though. Subfloor construction, sleeper spacing, if it’s a sprung...

There is no simple answer to this question.Generally -- a wood stage floor versus a vinyl dance floor on top of that wood stage floor will perform the same in terms of decay time within the room. They're both equally reflective in terms of airborne sound. Keyword -- airborne.However -- for...