Building A Booth

[mjw56]

Hi everyone,

im looking into making a booth out of an existing room in the back of our auditorium which appears to have originally been a projection room/ticket booth. the walls of the room are 8" CMU and 1 wall carries the joists of the 4'deep spot booth above. i want to put in a 4'x8' window so the SM, light board op and myself ( i am the stage crew moderator) can see comfortably out to the house and stage. im not worried about the structural or layout aspects of this project as i am a co-op @ a structural engineering firm, my problem is the music department head. we tried to get something similar to this done when the new chairs were installed but he didn't go for it. i don't think its that he doesn't want the booth i think its just that he doesnt want to have to deal with the additional thing going on in the department. (he is also the director of 4 different bands and the producer for both annual shows). How do i get him to let me do this project??

[Footer]

Do a search for building a booth. You are going to need more then just working at a design firm before you go cutting holes in walls.

[mjw56]

i should have clarified that the engineers are all available for help and calcs, and i am a structural engineering student in my junior year @ drexel university and after re-rereading my initial post see that that portion is poorly worded. it should say that the structural and layout aspects are well taken care of by myself and a number of licensed PE's

[Footer]

I thought you were in a High School situation, hince the answer. If you got all the engineering taken care of, I would do up some drawings and get a cost estimate. I would also write up a formal proposal about why/how you are going to do this project and the benefits it will provide. Have your university maintenance dept take a look as well. I am not sure if you are private or public, but that can affect how this work has to get done. You could have some union issues as well if you want to do it yourself, if you can at all.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by mjw56

...i want to put in a 4'x8' window so the SM, light board op and myself ( i am the stage crew moderator) can see comfortably out to the house and stage. ...

A 4' high window seems unusually tall for a control booth. What is exactly a "stage crew moderator" and what function do you perform in the booth during a show?

[mjw56]

thanks that does help a lot. make a sales pitch!
but just to clarify some more, im @ drexel, and on Co-op at an engineering firm, and i moderate a group of high school students. i graduated from that high school in '06 and started moderating there in late 2007. no students will be doing any work on the opening in the CMU or the reinforcement going in place. frankly i just dont trust them to get it right or that it will look good if they do it and i cant afford to do it twice.

[mjw56]

as to what a stage crew moderator does, i take the design concept and make blueprints for building, i manage all the construction and costs (but don't directly have the power to say "ok spend the money"), watch out for the safety of the students, i give technical advice to anyone who wants it, i help build and give direction on how to use tools. and most importantly keep the students out of trouble and from killing echother. what i don't do is design the lights. basically u name it, i do it. my function during the show is to provide emergency tech advice and to again generally over see the students. and to put out fires (literally, exploding spot bulbs and a floor covered in sunflower seeds don't mix)

the 4' high window was really just an arbitrary number, first 4x8 is the same size as a piece of plywood (to lock up the opening), and between the double 2x12 header going in and the 4' hight of the window i can remove all the block up to the joists and not have to deal with blocks falling out of the head while im trying to install and ill have a sill roughly 3' off the floor

[Footer]

Is this a public school you are helping at? Are you paid staff or a volunteer? There are some huge issues with knocking holes in walls in a public school situation without pulling the proper permits and have the proper labor in place. If it is a public school, I doubt even if you are qualified you could do the work yourself. Added to that, you still need to consider power requirements in the room, dimming/audio connections.... etc. I am not saying it can not be done, but you need to go through the proper channels beyond the guy who is in charge of the music dept. When I was TD at a public school, the head of maintenance would have had my head if I knocked a 4x8 hole in the wall.

[mjw56]

First its a private school and the maintenance staff consists of 2 guys who could care less. the music department head has final say over what happens in the auditorium also.
on to technical requirements though, the dimmers ( 4 leprecon VX2400 racks in a permanent install) are already in place on a platform backstage (about 9' off the ground where the old Frankenstein light board used to be) that has a 3phase 400 amp service. the light board (ETC expression 125) is already back there( where i want the booth). i want to move the com system power supply back there as well and add an IR cam for use as a green room video feed and so we can see in the dark better. i dont think were adding much to be worried about power but there is a sub-panel in the room with 3 or 4 slots open to tap. and before anythone says anthing about opening up panels i also worked for an electrician doing service installs ( 200 amp is the largest ive ever done). the music director doesnt want to move the sound board in there but im leaveing space for that too.

i feel like im missing things that should also be in the room but i cant think of what. so if u have any ideas or more concerns throw them out there.
oh and im paid but im not on payroll. i get paid out of the operating account.

thanks for all the help and ideas so far.

[wfor]

Sound board inside rooms=bad idea.

You can't hear anything...
A lot of new installatiosn sink them right in the middle of the house.