Suggestions for Very Limited Space

[marcusianl]

Hello CB,

I'm in a medium sized public high school and we're trying to get our equipment organized, specifically:

• cables (XLR, 1/4", and StagePin extensions)
• microphones (4 wired Shure handhelds, 6 wireless Shure handhelds, 12 Shure wireless beltpacks and the accompanying behind-the-head headsets, and 4 boundary mics)
• Stock lighting instruments (7 PARNels and 6 S4s)
• Clear Comm headsets and beltpacks

I have a lot of ideas for easy ways to do this (pegwall, standing cabinets, etc) but a couple of things complicate it. We have an extremely small amount of storage space. The band and chorus store their orchestra shell and risers in our main storage area (a good sized L-room), and the other major storage area is a cage at the back of the stage, but that has one of the school's grand pianos and one of the mini-grands. The rest of that space is taken up by filing cabinets to hold our gels, safety cables, and frames (I'm pretty happy with that set-up).

The other issue is security. Anything we do has to be able to be locked and preferably be out of sight. We have a small paint room where all our instruments not in use are stored, but that is supposed to be only for paint as it is combustible storage.

Any ideas on a relatively cheap, simple solution that will keep the above equipment organized? Right now all the mics and clear comms are in a rolling tool cabinet and the cables are in a 3'x2' cabinet hanging on the wall backstage. Some of our instruments are hanging on a railing above the stage because it is the only secure location we could figure out besides the paint room.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

-Marcus

[kiwitechgirl]

Can you build a "meat rack" for your lanterns - the best way I can describe one is like a multi-railed costume rail, but obviously made out of steel 48mm pipe! If it has a relatively small footprint you can still get a few rails on it, and put it on wheels so that you can wheel it into a lockable area and then out onto the stage when you need it. Do you have a booth at all - if you do, maybe see if that can be fitted with a lock and keep your comms and mic equipment in there.

[ReiRei]

Well, at my high school we hung up ALL of our cables, except stagepin extensions actually, on a wall behind the booth door. Peg wall is very useful for this problem. It never got in the way and it turned out to be a good place to store them when not being used.

We had a black metal box/cabinet in the sound booth with about three shelves that housed all of our microphones, extra clear comms & gear. If you go with a cabinet you can lock I suggest getting a lock with a combination, not one of those school locker locks, something like this:

http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/178555_lg.jpg

You think I'm going overboard but you can never be too safe with that kind of equipment. That same lock saved my school from losing over $6000 worth of brand new sound equipment.

[marcusianl]

Our auditorium has a set of heavy-duty locks just like that which are all keyed the same, so we could use one of those. As far as the booth having a lock, it does, but the windows don't, and you can easily climb in through the windows (we do it all the time if we can't find someone with a key). We have some wall-space in the booth that can lock, but it's not much. We used to have two racks boxes and amps, but we went digital so it's all one now and the other rack area is empty but has a lock. I'll see if we can get some peg board up here in that space for a few XLRs and the booth clearcomms.

@kiwi, do you think you could find a picture of such a set up? How would it be constructed? Just like a rolling costume rack, but with steel?

[Gretsch]

I would suggest building a meat rack (to get an idea of a meat rack use the search function) as well as weld expanded steel onto the back side of the rack and put hasps on the front edge and a wall, that way you can push the open side up to the wall and put pad locks through the hasps and your lights are completely secure...just a thought

[gafftaper]

I keep all my xlr cables coiled up and in one of those plastic milk crates. If cables are properly coiled you don't need them all spread out on a wall. I like pistol cases for storing microphones... the basic ones are cheap and nicely padded. Build a meat rack for the lighting gear. Keep your wireless beltpacks locked up in a file cabinet drawer.