Set neatness

[kwotipka]

It is nearly impossible to work in surroundings that are unorganized. Most of the work I do is one time type shows. Unlike a touring show that can be set up the same way every time, my shows are alway set up differently.

No matter how quickly you have to set it up, neatness and organization is very important. It doesn't matter that you are the best tech in the world. If you get called out for whatever reason and something goes wrong, someone else has to deal with it. When dealing with cable masses, LABEL THEM! Better still, label them with good tape that will not leave it's glue behind. Remove the labels when the job is over. Nothing like a hand full of week old glue.

Also, always remember to tape down cables or secure them in some way. A $5 roll of tape might save you a lawsuit.

[kwotipka]

You can see that as the shows get more complicated, it is very important that things get labeled. Sorry I don't have a shot of the back of the gear. It was a mess but we knew where everything went and when decks started to fail (two on one show go figure), we were able to swap in spares in very short order. This show was at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago. I had a great crew from the local union.

[kwotipka]

This was a pic from a while back. My video went down during setup. Started tracing out the lines and found this. The wheel of the cart snapped off one of the output ports. I will take some of the blame for this one although this area was completely empty until the locals started looking for a place to hide the road cases. Now, I put everything like this and 5 wire splices on small road cases (ie, monitor case, lens case, etc) to get them off of the floor.

[kwotipka]

This is a part two to the above post. Was going through my pics and found an example.

[jonhirsh]

Whats the point?

Keep it neat?

Thanks?
JH

[Radman]

Completely agree, a neat show is a happy show. Also reminds me, I miss video work.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by kwotipka

This is a part two to the above post. Was going through my pics and found an example.

I'm guessing the black "censored" square overlaid atop the photo of the blue 15" CRT case is to cover a vendor's logo for confidentiality purposes? Or are there unclothed body parts under there? How risque! Raising the DA off the floor means one doesn't have to bend-over as far to replug it and I appreciate that.

Yes, if the point is "Keep things neat" who can argue. If the point is "label your cables" ditto. However not long ago I could not convince an employee of one of the two largest video companies in the work that we should label the four Socapex power cables feeding video display devices. "Each plugs into the 120V distro and carries 6x 20 amp circuits so it doesn't matter which goes where." But if there's a problem wouldn't you like to know which bank of 6 breakers to start investigating? "Nope doesn't matter, just plug the male into the distro and run out all four cables until they stop, then attach the 4 Edison breakouts and plug in the 24 devices in any order." But if one circuit doesn't work, you have a 1 in 24 chance of finding it the first time. This IS Las Vegas, we're kinda good at playing with probabilities. "nope, just plug the s&^% in." Okay I plugged in 24 devices and the had better luck convincing the brick wall of my position.

I just explained to the wall, I'm a Lighting guy, we have 16 Socapex cables going into a 48 way dimmer rack. 16x6 circuits=96 circuits. 96 ckts into 48 dimmers, but not all dimmers are used and not every ckt on every multi is used, but some dimmers have 1, 2, or 3 circuits plugged into them. Oh and the 48 dimmers are divided equally across three phases so 16 per phase and the loads on the dimmers should be distributed such that the phases are as close to the same as possible. One more teensy, weensy thing. We also have moving light Socapex which carries 208V and looks and is identical in every way to the 120V dimmed circuits so let use the alphabet for the Conventional, 120V dimmed circuits, because hay look, somebody went and engraved A, B, C, etc near the female Socapex connectors on the dimmer rack, Smart Folk those Wisconsinites, Okay the letters are used. How 'bout we designate numbers, 1, 2, 3, for the moving light cables and so long as no idiot plugs a letter into a number, or a number into a letter, we won't send 208V thru a bulb that wants 120V max and will blow after 5 seconds. Letters and numbers was first grade, right? Boy lighting people are sure picky about their letters and numbers and channels and dimmers and fixture numbers and color numbers and DMX universe numbers and many use a database program called "Lightwright" to keep track of everything and they love to sort their lists every which way and they keep printing lists to kill off even more forests and why do lighting people hate trees so much, the green leafy kind, not the ones you hang lights on.

One last thing. When the CEO of the Fortune500 company is walking backstage it would be best if there weren't a cable stretched tight 2" above the floor just waiting to "clothesline" his ankle causing him to trip and fall. Even with no physical injuries his bruised embarassed ego will cause everyone within eyesight to never work for the company again. We all know that the best, more graceful dancers will exit the stage and trip over a painted line, bu no one should be allowed to trip over a cable on the floor.

[kwotipka]

Reminds me of the time I was called in to see why they were not getting power to part of the rack. Long story short, some idiot had wired a hubble twist lock wrong. Of the two circuits in the cable, one was getting 220 and the other was getting neutral and ground. Good thing that those BRAND NEW Meyers UPA's can auto range their input power. Sometimes it is just dumb luck that saves the show.