Safety Cables

How much of your lighting inventory is safety cabled?

  • Every fixture is safety cabled

    Votes: 96 68.6%
  • Everything not in storage is safety cabled

    Votes: 31 22.1%
  • A few particular fixtures are safety cabled

    Votes: 10 7.1%
  • Nothing is safety cabled

    Votes: 3 2.1%

  • Total voters
    140

chris325

Active Member
I'm curious how much of the lighting inventory of other theatres is safety cabled. My high school keeps all fixtures safety cabled, and on more than one occasion it has saved a light from falling. I've seen other schools that only safety cable some of their lights, or even none at all.
 
I used to do a weekly audit (usually late at night) and inspect every rig on the property for safety violations.

If it's above your waist while on deck, it better have a cable.
 
I agree with Bill. Every light I have, even those in storage, has a cable permanently attached through the yoke. Even hung as shin busters, the cable is there - and when someone not in the know moves the fixture to an overhead position, the cable is ready to use.
 
Wow, I really thought we had a poll like this a while back, but I can't find it. So...

Every fixture in my inventory has a safety cable that it always with it. All fixtures that get hung over people's heads gets safetied to the hanging position.
 
I agree with Bill. Every light I have, even those in storage, has a cable permanently attached through the yoke. Even hung as shin busters, the cable is there - and when someone not in the know moves the fixture to an overhead position, the cable is ready to use.

Personally, I've never much preferred the eye-thru-yoke attachment, but I understand why people prefer it. In the least, it'll stop video from stealing your safeties to hang their screens.
 
At the beginning of this school year, a fellow tech and I counted every light and safety cable that we had so we could order exactly what we needed and a little more. I safety cable everything, and I've gotten into the habit of checking that every light has a safety cable. Because sometimes when I look up, I see lights that have safety cables but aren't cabled to the batten.
 
We safety cable every fixture that is not on the ground. We do not safety cable anything in storage or mounted to the deck as it is kind of pointless and my department is too cheap to buy safety cables for every fixture (Don't get me started.) I do however on every show I design, personally check that every fixture not on the ground is properly tightened and has it's safety cable properly attached. Any fixture that doesn't have one gets one and if I can't find one I make one out of 1/8" Aircraft Cable and Nicopress fittings.
 
Alex you're probably thinking about the thread with the poll, "do you use the integral safety attachment?"

I want to point out my post on the 4th page of that thread that describes my new technique for attaching the safety cable. I've been using it for about 9 months now. I've yet to run into a situation where it doesn't work. It takes about 10 seconds longer than normal but I'm convinced it's the safest way to hook up a fixture. Check it out here complete with a picture.
 
All fixtures have either a cable or chain. If something is floor mounted then the cable or chain may be removed to avoid someone tripping on it if it can't be taped out of harms way.
 
Every light. Period. I dont care if it is 18" off the floor, it has a safety cable.

Mike
 
I've seen a lot of high schools that wouldn't safety cable their fixtures that were in storage on the catwalks, which seems like a ridiculous cost-cutting measure. The only thing I don't safety cable is barn doors, as the C'tran fresnels we use the barn doors on keep them well-secured to the fixture.
 
For the cost of an S4, you can pick up almost 200 safety cables! I always leave them attached to the fixtures, even if they are laying on a shelf. That way you never have to hunt and will be less tempted to hang it without one.
 
Here everything gets safety cabled (including barn doors) unless its a chin or stored on the upstage storage racks. We don't make a habit of storing extra instruments on the FoH cats. I wish we had the C-tran fresnels. It doesn't take much to knock the barn door off the front of a Strand.
 

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