Water Fountains

[techismylife]

I'd like to create a water effect where water is shot in a straight column around 20 feet in the air and then falls back into a trough. It doesn't need to last long and is only used one time per show. Multiple columns would be nice, too. Any help is appreciated.

[jumpjet]

20 feet, huh? That's some good distance. How large a spray does it have to be? The smaller the spray, the less effort it is going to take to launch it.

[propmonkey]

compressed air to shot the water from a tube?

[techismylife]

i'm thinking anywhere from 3/4" to 2" diameter column of water. 20 feet would be good, but its the concept i need the most help with. Here's what i'm thinking so far:
A large open trough/water tank with sloped sides, roughly 4' wide by 16' long with either 4 or 5 fountains spaced evenly along the center line. I'm wondering if it is best to do 1 pump that stays running and then a valve at each spray, or a pump at each spray that just starts when i need the effect. Thing is that it needs to be at maximum height when it starts, not build up. Also, does anyone know of anywhere to order supplies for this?

[propmonkey]

so is this just a one shot or do you need a constant stream for like 30secs?

[techismylife]

1 shot--instantaneous. I'm now also considering what it would take to make a water screen that something could be projected on. (This would need to last longer).

[kingfisher1]

what exactly is this for. sounds neat but i would just lik to be the bad old pessimist for a second. i was doing a show involving a large poicher of water, a big spill and an actor with a broken leg. enough said
on a brighter side, i know disney world uses this effect as landscping. maybe try and contact a grounds maitnence pearson or something to see how they do it. Going through a large corporate beurocracie might be very frustrating but sometimes it actally works.

[techismylife]

This is for a basketball team intro. I saw the fountain style effect on broadway and would like to recreate it--it reminds me of a pyro gerb and water can be pretty mezmorizing with colored lighting. So I've got a large basketball court to work with and structural beams about 40' high, the roof another 10-20'. A water screen would be neat and I could project various colors and then use gobos to project the team name on the screen. The ground level portion of the system has to be portable and well designed so it can be moved off and leave no water on the court for the players. But if for some reason it spills over, I will have capability to clean it before the game begns.

has anyone worked with http://www.tsunamiscreen.com/ ?

[ricc0luke]

Ok... intanous...

Get a tank, a pressure tank, fill it with water and fill it with compressed air... lot of it...

The outlet of course should be at the bottom... then run high pressure hoses to where you want the jets...

Frankly, I think it would be easier and in this case even safer to use to pyros...

Putting water anywhere near a basketball court is a good reason to have an athletic nut kill you. No matter what you would do there would certain to be some splash... Not to meniton the fact that water is heavy...

Use pyros. They might even be cheaper than trying to build your own apparatus to shoot water...

As far as lighting goes, you don't need water for lighting... Useing some cool lighting throughout the room else where and incorperate it with the pyros...

Water in this case is just not a good idea...

Keep in mind that shows on broadway cost tens of millions of dollars, they aren't something just thrown together...

[Radman]

You could possibly use fog, which can be lit as well. Otherwise you will undoubtedly have to put a LOT of plannung into the effect, as well as multiple test runs and reworkings to get it right.