Control/Dimming - Non-Permanent Shutdown Procedures

[derekleffew]

For Road/Touring/Temporary/Portable dimmer racks and PDs.

[iLightTheStage]

More recently, I've left systems powered on over-night, following the belief that there are less issues with MLs if they do not lose power.

However, I've started to feel un-easy about this. As the Master Electrician, I am taking responsibility for the power and the safety of that system. When I am not there, the safest setup possible, is for the power to be cut off. If I have not arrived for the day yet, then the system should not be powered on... and I get rather peeved when I arrive (always early) to discover someone has powered on my system.

My $.002 (the economy isn't what it used to be)

[JD]

With the exception of a lunch break or other food run, all power is off and locked off when I am not in the building. If it can be arranged, even the cams are disconnected. I simply can not justify the added liability of having the equipment powered, or supplying the temptation for someone to “play” with things.

“A dead cable maketh no sparks”

ADDED:
One thing I should add is that we operate in the North-East, where there are lots of summer lightning storms, and plenty of ice and snow in the winter. This adds the following risk list:
Lightning hits
Surges from attempted power restores
Ice snapped service feeds
Vehicular disruptions
One of my pet peeves is that linemen use the neutral conductor as their guy-wire. If the span is stretched, guess which conductor snaps first!

[Pie4Weebl]

Where working at a venue where the power comes from an outside contracted company and turning the power off an on are two added calls which may or may not happen on time, sometimes its better just to leave it on.

[techieman33]

Guess I should have read the question first, I thought you were talking about permanent racks so I voted never. But when we have a road company in the house we require that power be shut off overnight if they're staying more than one day.

[Jeroen]

We power off non-permanent installations when we are not there (overnight). Main reasons:
- protect equipment against lightning strikes
- avoid that not-knowing people 'play' with the equipment
- liability in case of a fire

[icewolf08]

Every time that I have worked with portable dimmers and PDs I turn them off at the end of the day. It just seems safer. Plus, it helps to deter people from trying to play with gear, especially if your company switches are lockable.

[lieperjp]

We powered down our dimming system in high school (which was just a bunch of portable 4-pack shoebox dimmers) because we didn't want anyone messing with it. It was portable because it was only set up for events, everything was taken down after events. This is because we didn't have an auditorium, and everything was in the gym.

[renegadeblack]

Im just starting to use portable dimmers for the first time. I have some shoe boxes on trees in the house because last time we ran cable all through the house to reach the locations and it was just a mess so we went with portable dimmers this time and at night, I unplug them. Why? Why not?

[ScottH]

IMHO, equipment should never be left on overnight. Especially moving lights. In reality, you will have less issues by shutting them down. This gives them a chance to cool and re-calibrate every morning. If you are not shutting them down at night then I pray that you are at least lamping them off (for the sake of your lamp budget AND your local fire department). Keeping moving lights running and exposed to their own heat (lamp or electronics) puts them through a lot of strain and will only cause more problems for you (and even more than that if you actually own the gear).

Even if your power is coming from another company, you can still power down YOUR dimmers and PDs. More than anything your dimmers should have a chance to cool. Sensor touring racks have a thermostatic switch that shuts down the fans when the rack is within a safe temperature and kicks them on as soon as a dimmer is activated. Smaller portable dimmers (shoebox dimmers) obviously have no fan and are convection cooled. However if there are no dimmers on, then your only worry would be someone turning them on without your authorization.

Long story short:
Manage your heat, give your movers a rest and prevent anyone from messing with your stuff.