foggers and hazers

[punktech]

hey guys, so i'm helping out a good friend of mine at my school. he's putting on a dance party as part of our end of year festivities. he bought a bunch of DJ lights of it (some of them are pretty kick ass). but many of the effects they have are gobo effects that will be lost without a fogger or hazer. the venue it is going to be in has particle detectors as the fire system. will a fogger or hazer set these off??? and if they will not set them off is there any kind of documentation we can get to prove they will not set them off???

the thing is in order to get the school to okay our use of a fogger or hazer we have to present documentation to prove the machine won't set off the alarm system. we have to present this to both the school and the local fire marshal.

the show is this friday, so please be speedy with replies! Thank you!

 

[len]

ANY atmospheric CAN trigger ANY fire detection system. There are too many variables to say whether it will or won't, such as density of the atmospheric, type of particulate, type of detector, air flow in the room, whether the system was installed and calibrated properly, etc.

The first thing is to assume that it will set the alarm off.

The second is to assume that you will be fined for doing so.

The third is to have good communication with the venue, the manager, the fire department, etc., so that the first and second things don't happen.

In some localities, to get clearance, you simply have to have a fire marshall on site for the duration of the event. Other places, they just turn the system off and notify the fire department. In these situations, the venue usually has fire and police acting as security.

 

[punktech]

thank you, i'll talk to my friend and he and i will talk to the school and explain this. i really hope we can get the okay to use a fogger or hazer.

the people in charge of this venue at my school are very ignorant when it comes to this kind of thing; do you guys have any advice on how to explain all this to them and that this is the solution used pretty much so industry wide for these situations???

also part of the problem in getting this okayed is that last year a day student did something similar, but he invited a bunch of townies. and well, what ended up happening is that his stupid high-school buddies ended up smoking in the sound storage room. and when the alarm went off they all blamed it on the fogger. the school got a huge fine and now they're very confused about foggers and such.

we don't want to repeat what this other kid did in any way. we want a good, clean event, and we are having a strict students and pre-registered guests only policy. we want the effect of haze very badly because, as i already said, many of the effects these lights have need haze in the room to show up.

 

[len]

I don't deal with schools, so I couldn't tell you how to approach it.

Since I work in hotels and banquet halls mostly, I usually just ask if they allow them. If the answer is yes, I get written policy and approval. If it's no, I just forget about it and design accordingly. I find that the bigger convention hotels are more well informed and experienced, and the smaller hotels and standalone banquet halls are less so.

 

[Grog12]

Search function 4tw. We just had this conversation extensivly here http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7486

 

[punktech]

grog, after what len said, i've given up on trying to find one that won't set off the alarm. what i want to know now is how to explain to imbeciles who have nasty memories of past events gone awry, that it will be okay to turn it off for one event, and that it is actually a common practice to do this.

 

[Grog12]

grog, after what len said, i've given up on trying to find one that won't set off the alarm. what i want to know now is how to explain to imbeciles who have nasty memories of past events gone awry, that it will be okay to turn it off for one event, and that it is actually a common practice to do this.

First off, don't call them imeciles. This is going to become a talking game on your part and if you go in thinknig they're imbeciles it'll read in your presentation.

Find prescident from other local schools/theatres/history of the one you want to use the atmosphere in. Put it all together and present it proffesionally.

 

[Ross]

ANY atmospheric CAN trigger ANY fire detection system. There are too many variables to say whether it will or won't, such as density of the atmospheric, type of particulate, type of detector, air flow in the room, whether the system was installed and calibrated properly, etc.

The first thing is to assume that it will set the alarm off.

The second is to assume that you will be fined for doing so.

The third is to have good communication with the venue, the manager, the fire department, etc., so that the first and second things don't happen.

In some localities, to get clearance, you simply have to have a fire marshall on site for the duration of the event. Other places, they just turn the system off and notify the fire department. In these situations, the venue usually has fire and police acting as security.

In the middle of tech for a huge show the fog repeatedly set off the fire alarm system. Don't necessarily recommend it, but they solved the problem by simply mounting a box fan in front of the problem sensor.

 

[SHARYNF]

particle detectors are the usually cheaper smoke alarms and in most cases foggers and hazers will set them off. Usually the better alarm system for venues that want to use smoke and haze are ionization or heat rise detectors.

SOMETIMES there is the ability to turn off the alarm detection system in a specific section

Sharyn

 

[tech2000]

My school district this year put out a ban in all school buildings, banning all use of foggers/hazers unless you could convince the school administration to get the fire marshal to disable the fire system in the theater for the duration of each show.