Labeling instruments?

[Charc]

So I want to take inventory of our lighting gear, and label everything. So I supposed I have to questions.

First, how can I label my instruments? I'd like something like console tape, and tape it onto the yoke, but I have no idea about what types of tape might melt / burn up / discolor / become a gooey mass, under the heat from a 360Q (lamped with a 1000w! ), or a S4, par 64 etc. Is there any specific product made for labeling instruments?

The second question is, how best do you guys suggest labeling and organizing the instruments? We're starting from absolute scratch, on the organizational end of things. I thought maybe a different count for each type. (6x22-1 ; S419-1 ; PAR64-1) with those types of abbreviations. Perhaps their wattage also on the label, or a separate label for wattage.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[jonhirsh]

For S4's i sugest you inventory the fixture and lens tube separately.

For everything else at my school the in house ME used paint pens on the yoke and that seemed to work just fine.

JH

[soundlight]

Don't use any kind of tape! At all! Use paint pens. Someone used spike tape for inventory once, and we took it off this year...powdery residue is all over the yokes. We use paint pens, with a different color dot for each time we clean the fixtures, which is every few years. Paint pens are also good for writing (and color coding) degree numbers on S4 lens tubes.

And as mentioned, inventory S4 lens tubes and instruments separately if you have more lens tubes that S4 fixtures.
For the labeling, people should know what it is...I wouldn't even label them as to what they are. I'd just put a dot after inventorying them to make sure that you don't inventory an instrument twice, and keep an inventory that has how many fixtures, lens tubes, lamps, etc. that you have.

[gafftaper]

I've seen stencils and white high temperature spray paint on the side of the instrument itself, but just a paint pen on the yoke seems the way to go for me.

If you want to number each S4 then that's good but other than that I wouldn't give them a lens designation as those can change. Just S4-1, S4-2 is good enough. Anything else could get really confusing if you start swapping lens tubes.

[Charc]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

I've seen stencils and white high temperature spray paint on the side of the instrument itself, but just a paint pen on the yoke seems the way to go for me.
If you want to number each S4 then that's good but other than that I wouldn't give them a lens designation as those can change. Just S4-1, S4-2 is good enough. Anything else could get really confusing if you start swapping lens tubes.

That's true, I wasn't thinking it through, as for the foreseeable future we only 5 S4s and 5 19º lens tubes.

So it's not worth numbering the instruments? Just counting them? I guess numbering would be useful if you had extensive records, and could say "clean 6x22-36, it hasn't been cleaned in 4 years" but I guess all we really need is a head-count?

[BenFranske]

If your theater loans or rents instruments to other theaters it becomes important to have individual numbering of fixtures so you know which instruments are where. Paint pens on yolks work or if you have a bit more money you can get real permanent adhesive metalized inventory tags from a commercial vendor.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by charcoaldabs

So it's not worth numbering the instruments? Just counting them? I guess numbering would be useful if you had extensive records, and could say "clean 6x22-36, it hasn't been cleaned in 4 years" but I guess all we really need is a head-count?

I don't know of any permanent installations that number their fixtures. I'm sure that some do, but I don't know of any. You just keep an inventory of how many you have, check the inventory at the beginning and end of the year, and when you check inventory, you also see if any of the fixtures need to be bench focused, have their lamp replaced, have shutters steel wooled due to rust, etc.

[stantonsound]

I just bought stage pin plugs that were engraved with my company name and telephone number, and have a red cover on them. They were only about $.20 more than the normal ones, and are great for a quick identifier. All of the shops in town use a different color, so when I started getting bigger, I picked red and told all of them. One shop is yellow, another is orange, and another is white. It is great! I still label everything on the instrument with a red paint pen, but the plug is an easy way to see it.

[SteveB]

Originally Posted by soundlight

I don't know of any permanent installations that number their fixtures. I'm sure that some do, but I don't know of any. You just keep an inventory of how many you have, check the inventory at the beginning and end of the year, and when you check inventory, you also see if any of the fixtures need to be bench focused, have their lamp replaced, have shutters steel wooled due to rust, etc.

Ditto.

We have +600 fixtures in 3 theaters and if asked, I could give a very close figure of what types and how many per theater (not exact though as 2 spaces are Dept. of Theater spaces where I only do servicing). This is absolutley true of my main space, where I know the exact types, wattages and position of +300 fixtures.

I don't bother labeling any of it, as it ALL gets serviced/checked by a 6 person crew over 3-4 weeks in August. Anything needing fixing we fix. Anything that breaks during the year either gets fixed right away, if there's no available replacement (such as all my S4's zooms and fixed lens, as well as the Shakespeare fixed lens units), or can go to a "I need fixing" hamper to await summer maintanence (typically Pars).

In short, I never saw the need to do a identifier label for ea. and every unit. If I were renting it out, that would be a different story as I would need to know who/what was having trouble with a particular fixture and when.

Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College

[icewolf08]

I agree, unless you are tracking a rental inventory it is probably just extra work to give your fixtures unique numbers. I take all of my lens tube for all fixtures and paint the color frame holders to designate beam angle. I use the same system for source fours and for our older Strand axial Lekos, since each of the S4 lenses is roughly equivalent to one of the 6x beam angles. As for labeling what is ours, paint pens, or in my case, silver sharpies.

We inventory, clean, and bench focus every year (and as needed), and we tag finished units with spike tape. Since we change it frequently it doesn't seem to degrade, and since we clean units, it is no big deal.