Pack it correctly

[kwotipka]

This perfectly good Ashley Protea Eq/delay/etc met it's end in shipping. Whoever decided to pack this, didn't bother to pack it correctly. When the case was picked up by the handle, the face smashed into the bottom of the case and rode that way the whole time. I didn't get a shot of the front of the unit but you can see some of the damage by the way the front panel ear is bent up. When packing items or building road cases, remember that they don't often get loaded in the truck the way you intend. I have seen audio consoles, light desks and my beloved video desks come out of the truck, upside down, on the wrong end, etc. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

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Originally Posted by charcoaldabs

Okay, run this by me one more time, as its a good educational topic, like a three hour lesson on the motivation of house lights.
To pack something correctly, in this circumstance, you mean to place it in the road case so the face is pointing up, as to avoid damage? Or do you pack it so the sides are pointing up and down, as they have no connectors or controls on them anyways? What are the ABCs of packing?

First, foam all sides all the time. because that EQ was only surrounded on 2 sides, not all 6 it moved verticly. Whenever you pack anything, you try to make sure that it can not move in any access. Really, to move this piece it should have been put in a small rack.

[kwotipka]

Sorry, I guess I should have been a bit clearer. I work with a company that often rents out gear piece by piece. This particular eq was flown in because the job got a bit more complex. If things are shipped by a private carrier like UPS, FedEx or air freight, then, depending on weight, it needs x amount of inches of foam all the way around. The case will be tossed onto carts and out of airplanes. I have seen my road case fall from the cargo door to the ground many times.

An 4 rack eq in a six rack space box will have a similar fate depending where it is in the rack and if the box traveled upside down or not. The smaller the box, the more abuse they tend to take because they can be tossed.

A few of us are having the discussion of how racks should be packed. Most 19" rack assemblies have a couple of inches of foam around them and are packed in another case. The problem is that as these things bounce around, all the weight is on the front panel. This leads to twisting of the frames and I have seen some front panel damage due to this. I suggested that the equipment racks be designed so that they travel on their back (face up) so that the gear is suspended from the front panel. The down side of this is a heavy piece of gear like an amp will suffer the same damage because of the excessive weight pulling down now.

So, the general feeling is that small lighter items like eq's, CCUs, etc should travel on their back. Amps and other items should be stacked against each other and travel upright. Of course anything that has rear support should be secured there as well and then it really wouldn't matter. However, it seems like more and more items do not have this ability.

Now, before anyone says, everything needs to be stacked together, consider this. In video world as I am sure for audio world, various pieces of gear have different depths. While it would be nice for a nice tight pack, it would be near impossible to get you hand in there to plug and unplug things. So some spaces have to be left between things at times. I try to stack things so that it provides the best mechanical support and the easiest accessability while keeping them within reach. Now, a nice patch panel at the back of the rack would be nice as well. However with the configuration of the gear changing weekly, this is not an option.

Makes me jealous of the touring crews.