Loudspeakers - How to rig SRX725 speakers

[gafftaper]

I want to point out a few things for those reading this thread who may think, "I don't need an engineer and a rigger, I can figure out how to do that myself."

First, Speakers that are meant to be flown have a strong internal framework making that possible. There may be two variations of the same speaker that look exactly the same to the untrained eye, one is safe to fly one is not. You MUST KNOW FOR SURE you have a safe model to fly. Attempting to hang a speaker that is not meant to fly by the handles or running some bolts of your own into the case puts stress on the speaker in ways it was not designed to handle. The potential for that speaker to literally fall apart under it's own weight and fall to the ground injuring people is high.

Second key point when hanging speakers you are putting a lot of stress on the structure of the building. You need an engineer to tell you it is safe to put that weight at that point. Plus there are vibrations involved... will the vibrations at that point damage the building? Do you KNOW that for sure?

Third. A qualified rigging professional will DO THE MATH and KNOW the forces that are acting on the item to be hung. The rigger won't guess, the rigger will KNOW what is needed to make sure the speaker hangs safely. The rigger will also KNOW how to install a backup safety system that insures the speaker will not fall and kill someone. Finally a qualified rigger KNOWS where to get good quality hardware (not the Chinese crap at Home Depot). If you don't KNOW you don't belong hanging anything.

When hanging things, the smallest mistake in any of these areas can KILL. We want everyone to go home safely when the show is done. Never rig things on your own unless you have had the proper training.

[museav]

The issues are also in the application. People say they used a speaker rated for rigging and properly rated hardware not realizing these assume factors such as any load being along the axis of the hang point. It always interesting to see a good speaker flow using the right hardware but to see things like the load being applied at right angle to the axis of the forged shoulder bolts (they aren't rated for that).