Tricks for storing gear in catwalks?

[gafftaper]

The new black box has a catwalk system. It's 5 seperate catwalks that cross the space plus a connection walk on each end all in a nice larger square. The only way up and down is via a steep ship's ladder. I'm looking at it trying to figure out a SAFE way to store things like spare cable, lens tubes, and top hats, up in the catwalks instead of hauling it up and down.

I don't want to just bundle cable and lay it on the floor as that's a trip hazzard. There are lots of pipes all over the place and I was thinking I could get a piece of unistrut and hang it at shoulder height along one of the end walks then devise some sort of system of hooks to attach to the unistrut for hanging power and DMX cable.

I was also pondering what to do with top hats and spare lens tubes... I was thinking a shelf about 12" deep and 36" high. Installed on the far cross over of catwalk... still leaves 24" to walk past it. U-bolt through the back of the shelf to the hand rail so it can't fall. Install some shock cord across the front of each shelf to keep things from falling.

There are definite safety issues here but If things are well bolted and steps are taken to prevent things falling... I think it can be made safe. Has anyone seen this sort of thing? Is it just a bad idea?

[Charc]

Is there any sort of nook/cranny that's out of the direct walking path? Is it possible to perhaps takeover the 4 corners, and clearly mark the area where gear can go? aka "Inside glow tape line."? People don't walk to the edges at corners anyways, so that's a possibility. Are your catwalks made out of pipe? Mine have the same diameter pipe everywhere, so I could hang excess instruments or whatnot on an unused side. Excess accessories, though, becomes harder. I like the shelf idea. I'm not sure if you need the shock cord though. If you made this shelving unit floor to top-rail height, with just a could U bolts, to immobilize it, It would probably do quite well. (Assuming this is on the catwalk itself.) As long as nothing is hanging out of the shelves, you shouldn't have a trip hazard or whatnot. Perhaps some sort of sliding doors, or something, could ensure that people don't leave something sticking out. What was your concern about dropping stuff though? Behind the shelves? Where?

[gafftaper]

I live in the land of earth quakes so "the big one" is always a concern. Although if the subduction zone out here goes off with a 3 or 4 minute long 9.0+ quake like they keep threatening, a few falling lens tubes would be the least of my worries. Thus some shock cord, or as you suggested doors or sliders are a good idea to hold things in a cabinet.

Unfortunately there is no out of the way space in the catwalk. It's a 3' wide path and that's it. There are no hanging positions or circuits accessed from the two end walks, only the center cross overs. So the end hand rails is where spare instruments will hang and in theory it's a good place to store other items as long as it doesn't take up a lot of room. Yes there are 1 1/2" hand rails and vertical support rails all over the place so it's easy to connect something to the catwalks just about anywhere. There are also lots of exposed I-beams above that could be attached to as well.

[icewolf08]

I am having a hard time picturing your layout. Do you envision most of your hangs and focuses to be done from the catwalks or from ladders and lifts? Most of the black-box type spaces I have worked in have about 80% of the lighting positions not accessible by the catwalks, thus making it impractical to store gear there. Point being, if you think that most hang and focus operations will be done from ladders or lifts then you may want to consider storing your gear on the ground.

Another issue that I see with storing gear in catwalks is that often catwalks are narrow and dark. Having racks that extend out from the wall may pose a hazard in that people could walk into them. Cable racks are especially less visible when they are empty.

There is also the issue that you are storing gear over people's heads. You will have students, staff, and patrons somewhere below the catwalks most times that the theatre is in use. You would need a pretty good safety system to keep gear on shelves and hanging brackets. It will be a real bummer when someone walks by and inadvertently bumps one of your SeaChangers off the shelf it narrowly misses some actor's grandmother. In your scenario above you give a walking space of 24" after installing a 12" shelf. When was the last time you tried to walk in a 2' wide opening, that is a pretty tight space, barely an average shoulder width.

Also, it is a lot easier to work on gear on the floor where you have a proper work surface and tools. Keeping everything in the catwalks means that you have to schlepp it around to service, or you have bring loose tools up to the catwalks. Taking things apart with lots of parts in a catwalk is probably not the best idea. You probably want to store your gear in relative proximity to where you maintain it.

Next on the list is workspace. Catwalks are generally tight spaces in general. If you start adding shelves and storage and make them tighter, it will make it harder to work in the catwalks. Not just walking around, but you then have to think about where you can bend over, and if you are working under a shelf.

I have one catwalk where I store things, and the only reason I use it is because the catwalk is not in service. It was built in order to maintain the cold cathode system that was built into the theatre that no longer functions. Since I don't have to maintain that system, the catwalk serves no purpose except as a graveyard for old gear. It is above a solid ceiling thins the odds of anything falling into the house are very very slim (you would need a lot of force to go through the ceiling).

The catwalk deck might also affect what I would think of storing in the catwalks. If it is made of something like solid diamond plate sheet steel i would be slightly less leery than if it were grating. Most cats have grating for a deck. In my cats, a stage pin connector will fit through the grate, so an entire cable could fall through! We often use this to our advantage when we need to pull circuits from one position to another.

Lastly, you work in a school, you have free labor, and hauling gear around is what theatre electricians are best at.

[gafftaper]

The catwalks are brightly lit and have good access to everything. The deck is diamond plate with about a 6" kick plate on both sides so nothing's going to slide through and it's going to take some serious work to knock something off. Due to storage location issues, nothing will truly be stored on the deck. It'll all be stored in the booth or again possibly in the catwalks. I don't envision a lot of lighting being done from the floor, although I do imagine a lot of work using the scaffold (5x7 rolling contractor scaffold).

Time for a look at the layout... the whole room is about 60'x60'. I took a bad scan from the blueprint and touched it up a little to make things more clear. The Red lines indicate battens with a raceway attached. I've got 15 circuits per batten. I've got 20 short battens on order that will be used to bridge gap between the two installed battens (red lines) so that I can hang instruments out in the middle (scaffold work for sure). The blue area is catwalk. The only way in and out of the catwalks is the ship's ladder in the upper left corner of the picture (I've got an emergency evacuation rope ladder on order). Yes I do have a cute little sand bag rigging system. I've got five 10' battens that I can raise and lower. They can only go out of sight about 8 feet so I can't fly much, but there are lot's of interesting potential uses. The system also came with some spare blocks and lines so I can run a spot line or two anywhere I want in the space. Anyway, that far right side of the picture is the area I was thinking about for storage. If I placed a shallow 3' wide shelf right at the end of the 3 central catwalks it would be pretty unobtrusive. I was thinking the far left side of the picture would be my dead hung area. The round circles on the print are where the HVAC comes down from the ceiling (yep right in the way).

[avkid]

Boo............that mixer better not be behind glass!

[derekleffew]

gafftaper, could you also show a drawing, with elevation dimensions, of section thru a typical catwalk with the hanging battens?

No open shelves, ever! Only cabinets! For fixture storage, two vertical pieces of unistrut 10' apart, then 2 or 3 horizontal pipes between them, easily vertically adjustable as ERS are longer than S4Pars. First location for these "racks" on the upstage catwalk, then if necessary move to the SR side. Same thing for cable except a single vertical of Unistrut with 2-4 6" U shaped cable hangers, of 1.5"x1/8"x2' strap steel, painted white with a band of white gafftape on the tip of the onstage part of the U to protect sharp edges and write what kind of cable, and possibly how many, go on that hook.

Consider painting the floor of the catwalk light gray, easier to see small items, screws, etc., no matter how good your worklights are, and the audience will never see it. Also lets you know it's time to send a freshman up to "sweep the cats." Teach all crew members to make a choke, or lark's head, on the top handrails, with their unused "two cubits long" tie lines. They will always be handy, and won't have to be picked up off the floor. I hope you've ordered a bunch of sidearms, or 1.5" 18"-36" pipes with half-couplers to sidearm off the offstage sides of the catwalks to hang downlights around the perimeter.

I'd keep particularly delicate, small items, like gobo rotators, of course all gobos and color media, in the booth storage.

Those are my suggestions. More later when I think of them.

[avkid]

Painting diamond plate is a huge amount of fun.

[gafftaper]

Phil the audio behind glass has been a HUGE screw up. Originally that separate room was for video. I said, I would much rather have Audio in a separate room without glass so that you can hear what you are mixing. They switched audio and video but put in glass that doesn't slide AND they didn't build a counter for the console in that room. First order of business in the booth is to remove the window!

The good news is that the system is cobranet based. So if I have an audio Dependant show I can easily move control out into the house via ethernet.

[Charc]

Wouldn't it be best to have every window as sliding glass? That gives you a lot more flexibility. Hey, and is your booth air conditioned?