Rigging Education Video

StradivariusBone

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So for some time now I've kicked around the idea of creating a series of "Stagecraft 101" videos to use as teaching materials for my new tech kids at the beginning of each year. This summer I finally had the time to set this up and create a short intro to rigging video that I'm hoping will give my kids some ideas before we start flying things. Eventually I want to flesh this out into a lot more content, but you've got to start somewhere.

Ultimately, I also hope this might be of some value to other HS TD's on the board here, as I know we all look for content to show our kids from time to time. Right now the video is unlisted as I'm still working on a few things and wanted to get some initial feedback before going fully live, but if it's something you think you could use have at it! Also, if there's something in there that's glaringly unsafe or incorrect feel free to smash that flame button on your keyboard. I'm a big kid and I've got my pint of ice cream ready so I can take the abuse.

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Thanks!
 
I like your video. I would have used it in several facilities. However, I always taught the operator to test the tension on each side of the purchase line. This will give an alert to an out of balance load exists. If one line is slack and the other under tension, there is an out of balance load. If the inside line is taught, then you are arbor heavy. If the outside line is taught, then you are batten heavy. I never assumed that an arbor was loaded properly, even if I did the loading. I now you mention checking the load in another video to come, but I would teach how to verify the load if you are giving any guidance on operation. I am aghast at the concept that runaways are sometimes considered part of the normal operation of "dangerous " fly systems.
 
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That's a good point too! I should add I received a couple PM's that were also very constructive and had some helpful insight into a few things I've overlooked.
 
2 questions, so far:

Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?

When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock? Sure, you won't fall as far, but if what you're putting on the batten is $30k worth of movers, I'm not sure that matters...
 
Nice work on the incidental music and B-roll. I assume from listening to it that the background music is buyout, and no clearances are necessary?

My only question is: why is there so much slack in your purchase lines? While I won't say ours are tight as a drum, they're pretty tight; is that uncommon?
 
2 questions, so far:

Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?

When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock? Sure, you won't fall as far, but if what you're putting on the batten is $30k worth of movers, I'm not sure that matters...
Would you not be loading the pipe [batten] with the pipe at the lowest limit of its travel thus it having no way to fall lower?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Do you have releases from the students (and their parents) whose name badges are visible in a couple shots?

None necessary. Thanks to a wonderful and unusual summer schedule this year, I had a few weeks time of a dark theatre to do all this. That's your's truly.

Nice work on the incidental music and B-roll. I assume from listening to it that the background music is buyout, and no clearances are necessary?

Nah, it's just a junky couple of tracks I whipped up in Garageband. I'm working on something a bit more substantial since it's very repetitive, but I'm trying to avoid the copyright hawks.

why is there so much slack in your purchase lines?

We just had a re-rope maybe 3 months back and I feel like they're still stretching a bit. Part of it might be the angle of the camera as I had it pretty close to the rope.

When weighting a line, is it not necessary to add weight *while* adding items to the batten, so as not to go past the 50lb limit of the line lock?
Would you not be loading the pipe [batten] with the pipe at the lowest limit of its travel thus it having no way to fall lower?

Yep! Can't fall off the floor as the saying goes. When we have taller pieces it's obviously a bit different of an animal, but having a lock rail halfway through the arbor travel tends to help with that at times.
 
None necessary. Thanks to a wonderful and unusual summer schedule this year, I had a few weeks time of a dark theatre to do all this. That's yours truly.

Didn't realize you were that young. Whipper snapper. ;-)

Yep! Can't fall off the floor as the saying goes. When we have taller pieces it's obviously a bit different of an animal, but having a lock rail halfway through the arbor travel tends to help with that at times.

No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.

And I dunno about you, but we have a hard time hanging the fixtures if the pipe's on the ground; our in-trim is usually 3-5ft, depending on what we're doing. If we hang 8 movers on a pipe at 5 feet, and the lock pops and they fall 3 feet to the ground, they're gonna break. :-}

Oh, one other note:

Redo the main title and shift the graphic right a little, to better clear the architectural element in the shot.
 
At 2:16, you talk about how to move the lineset saying that you "pull on the line in direction you want the batten to move." Going on to say, if you pull down on the line, batten moves down and if you pull up, the batten moves up. However, an operator should not be pulling up on the fron't purchase line. That releases the tension set by the tension block, not to mention it is a terribly inefficient motion for the operator. No matter which way you want the batten to move, you should always be pulling down. Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.
 
Didn't realize you were that young. Whipper snapper. ;-)



No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.

And I dunno about you, but we have a hard time hanging the fixtures if the pipe's on the ground; our in-trim is usually 3-5ft, depending on what we're doing. If we hang 8 movers on a pipe at 5 feet, and the lock pops and they fall 3 feet to the ground, they're gonna break. :-}

Oh, one other note:

Redo the main title and shift the graphic right a little, to better clear the architectural element in the shot.

Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load.

Now if a particular space has that in trim set to let's say 2', then that's a design flaw.
 
At 2:16, you talk about how to move the lineset saying that you "pull on the line in direction you want the batten to move." Going on to say, if you pull down on the line, batten moves down and if you pull up, the batten moves up. However, an operator should not be pulling up on the fron't purchase line. That releases the tension set by the tension block, not to mention it is a terribly inefficient motion for the operator. No matter which way you want the batten to move, you should always be pulling down. Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.
@icewolf08 Exactly and the first thing I mentioned to @StradivariusBone in a discrete PM.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
No, my point was that you're going to make the battens more than 50lb heavier than the arbor while hanging, overweighting the locks.
Most in trims are set at about 4' AFF. This means the arbor is all the way out against the upper crash bar and you are no longer using the lock to hold the load.

Our arbors hit the crash bar with the pipe ~4' off the deck so lighting, curtains, some set pieces are not usually an issue. We do run into the problems Jay's talking about when hanging walls or anything taller than 8' or so. That usually requires adding some weight to get it upright and then adding the final weight from the lock rail, but it is always different depending on what we're working on.

Down on the front line to move a batten in, and down on the back line to move a batten out.
@icewolf08 Exactly and the first thing I mentioned to @StradivariusBone in a discrete PM.

This is interesting! Our lock rail is above the stage deck so I don't usually start my kids off pulling down on the back purchase line because it's not unreasonable to think that they could accidentally lean too far over and fall. Once they are comfortable operating the system, then I typically introduce the concept of pulling on the rear purchase line to get a set moving, particularly anything with a lot of weight and dead inertia. I'd never been told that using the rear line was wrong, but I'd never heard that it was preferable to exclusively using the front line either.
 
This is interesting! Our lock rail is above the stage deck so I don't usually start my kids off pulling down on the back purchase line because it's not unreasonable to think that they could accidentally lean too far over and fall. Once they are comfortable operating the system, then I typically introduce the concept of pulling on the rear purchase line to get a set moving, particularly anything with a lot of weight and dead inertia. I'd never been told that using the rear line was wrong, but I'd never heard that it was preferable to exclusively using the front line either.
It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block as to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.

Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).
 
It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block has to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.

Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).
@icewolf08 & @StradivariusBone Alex; In full agreement and these are both points I mentioned to Strad' in my initial P.M. where I also agreed these were (Quoting Strad') "outside the scope of this (preliminary) video."
Your point about aircraft cable being heavy clearly is always a factor in play but becomes more and more of a factor as system sizes grow. The first single purchase system I worked with had a mixture of 50' & 70' pipes supported by 5 & 7 lines each. The differential weight was definitely more of a factor with the longer pipes.
The same considerations come into play as proscenium and grid heights increase.
With higher prosc's come taller legs and drops / set pieces thus grid heights increase to permit flown goods to clear sightlines.
Just when you become comfortable dealing with the feel of the shifting weight factor in a facility with an 85' grid, you learn the lessons anew when you're working with grids in excess of 100'. We've a 108' and a 120' grid in nearby cities and the experience of pulling an empty pipe in from the its highest to lowest extremes of travel can become an interesting experience with the operator needing to really lean into the operating line to haul the batten in initially then passing through the 'easy pulling point' and finally having to hold the batten back as it gains both weight and momentum wanting to run in on its own. Alex, I understand you're already well familiar with the concept but it may not be something coming appreciably into play in Strad's venue.
And then you make the jump to a double purchase system and the cable lengths and weights, along with the additional weight on the arbors, drives the concept of how much weight you're shifting, putting into motion and stopping home all over again.
Next comes a genuine need for compensating chain.
In the entirety of Canada, we only have one serious installation of compensating chain. In Toronto, the "Four Seasons Center" is the home of both the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company. Their grid for access and the support of spot lines is at 120' AFF (Above Finished Floor) with the system pipes supported by overhead sheaves underhung from overhead supporting structure. It's a single purchase facility with the lower idlers approximately 12' below deck primarily due to the entire building's low noise concerns. Servo driven assist drives are also accommodated in their first basement level. Every line set is fitted with a double-width compensating chain similar to what I'm told would be employed on a very powerful motorcycle. The compensating chain installation is done right in every way with the whole system being a smooth, quiet, pleasure to operate. Granted you've still got the joys of overcoming inertia [both at rest and in motion] to deal with but the first time you haul a pipe from upper EOT [End Of Travel] to lower EOT is a uniquely joyful experience.
With apologies for boringly droning on.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
It shouldn't require much leaning out other than to grab the line. One should be able to operate the lines without leaning out. Pulling up on the front line causes a slack line above the operator as the tension block moves up and releases all the tension it is holding. In a balanced system, this shouldn't pose a great risk, but it isn't ideal. On completion of travel the tension block as to settle back down, which can cause position shifts or other unwanted motion in the system.

Speaking of lots of weight and inertia, you might consider adding a sentence or two about the fact that in a single purchase system, when you move a balanced lineset you are actually moving double the weight of the scenery. This seems to be something that people gloss over a lot. If your lighting gear weighs 1000lbs, you are moving at least 2000lbs (more when you include the weight of the batten and hardware). Also, and maybe for future video, you might mention that a well balanced lineset is balanced at the center of travel, and usually slightly batten heavy at lowest trim and slightly arbor heavy at highest trim due to the fact that all the lift lines are on one side or the other (wire rope is heavy).

I think saying you're moving double the weight of the scenery on a single purchase system would greatly confuse the issue. If you're moving 1000 lbs of lighting gear on a single purchase system..... you're moving 1000 lbs of gear. If it's a double purchase system, you're effectively having to move 2000 lbs of gear, which is why you have to load twice the counterweights of course. I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.

I've never heard of pulling up on the front operating line to fly out the pipe...must be incredibly difficult to do smoothly.
 
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I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.
This. Yes, it may be semantics and/or confusing, but when you are talking about the total weight in motion on a single purchase system it is double the weight of the gear. On a double purchase system it would be triple the weight of the gear. Point being that just because system is balanced and easy to move, you can't forget that there is an awful lot of weight in motion.
 
I think saying you're moving double the weight of the scenery on a single purchase system would greatly confuse the issue. If you're moving 1000 lbs of lighting gear on a single purchase system..... you're moving 1000 lbs of gear. If it's a double purchase system, you're effectively having to move 2000 lbs of gear, which is why you have to load twice the counterweights of course. I understand that what you're stressing is that there are a total of 2000 lbs of weight in motion with a single purchase system though. All semantics, I guess.

I've never heard of pulling up on the front operating line to fly out the pipe...must be incredibly difficult to do smoothly.
@microstar Two comments, semantics or otherwise:
Single purchase: 1.000 pounds on a batten equates to 1,000 pounds on the arbor equates to 2,000 pounds of inertia at rest or in motion ignoring frictional losses and several other factors such as the weights of the various system elements themselves.
Double purchase: 1,000 pounds on a batten equates to 2,000 pounds on the arbor thus 3,000 pounds to move and stop.
"pulling up on the front operating line" I feel has been commented upon, critically criticized and corrected by one or more well qualified posters and then there's the additional problem / concern with the difficulties of watching for your high trim marks coming up from the comparative darkness below the lock before suddenly becoming visible above the lock when you've, by then, o'er shot your trim.
Yes, I'm well aware of additional warning trims and spirals of ooey-gooey sticky residue accumulating on the operating line.
Clearly pulling up on the operating line is 'bad form' and I suspect even @derekleffew would agree we've more than adequately flogged @StradivariusBone already. Possibly @teqniqal @MNicolai and @BillConnerFASTC may feel compelled to join in the "flogging". Personally: I feel @StradivariusBone has the beginnings of a great piece of work which will be appreciated by, and of great value to, many of our posters, particularly those working in the educational and amateur sectors.
I'll probably get deleted again for this but THANK YOU! @StradivariusBone for your efforts.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 

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