Recent content by mstaylor

Same company just ordered new CMs at LDI and called me to give them the pinout on their cables, I was loading in a show with them at the time. Pins 1,2,3 hots;pin 4 was ground, pins 5,6,7 are control. For the record, pin 5 is the center pin. They own hoists from two other companies that use the...

I don't know squat about theatre rigging, I am an arena rigger, but if it is homemade, definitely get someone to look at it. Even if it was professionally built, it is old and not inspected in a long time. To top it off, you admittedly know nothing about how to operate it so you also need to get...

Many circus acts are hired as an entity, Wheel of Death, Death Ball, elephant acts. Cirque is a little unique in that most do other things in the show so the lines blur quickly. Traditional circuses, even ones like The Big Apple, hire the act as an entity, they carry their own liability and set...

Exactly why I say mostly, nothing is idiot proof. They are just too damn persistent.

I have used different colors to keep depts straight. I work in an arena that I have cables I use for sound, video and headsets. My maintenance dept have cables for sound they set up. They are horrible at using, rolling,maintaining and retaining their cables. They constantly break them,lose them...

My problem is simple, the install is crap and I should change it but in the mean time here is my problem. I have a two station base station that the moron installer made one channel. He installed one side of the arena to channel A and the other side to B. He also have several homeruns to the...

Also once you find the offending station, check each part of it, cable, belt pack and headset. Many times it is a bad connections in either the belt pack or cable taking everything else out.

I figured most of the acts were IC, while the other performers were employees. If the Wheel of Death performer is an IC then OSHA has no say. The fact remains it is dangerous, it is no different than guys playing sports, the risk is there.

Good question. I am getting ready to attend a Stagemaker motor school, I will ask them the same question. Especially since I just ordered 24 hoists to hang curtains around my second floor bowl, much like the OP. I am insisting that we set the house to anticipated masking and not change once the...

The GT 180's rated weight is 440 lbs. It is going to slightly over max weight so I wouldn't.

When I went to CM motor school, one of the first things he said was they don't recommend hanging over audience period. Happens everyday but that was CM's stance.

Valid point len. I speced P-14, the company that would interact with most uses 7 pin soco. The second most is P-14. I found the P-14s to be more stupid proof. Obviously not completely but mostly.

I have seen the spinner and flameout problem. I smoked a cable and the controller circuit exactly this way. This company routinely insists on the breakers being turned off when changing cables. I have also seen brand new cables do this. In my experience the truss end of the cable tends to break...

The other thing I have experienced is if you buy them to be hung motor down, you can flip them and go motor high. However, if you buy them to be motor high it doesn't want to be flipped. A company I do a lot of work with bought some used and when you tried to run the chains out in the box it...

Thanks for the quick response. Half will be an install, half will be inhouse hoists that will be hung on a per show basis, esentially like a rental that never leaves the building.