Okay,
@PrioryTheatre let's go:
Get your rigger involved first. This will save you money and frustration, because you need that experienced set of eyes on site to see the problems you can't. It will absolutley be quicker and cheaper this way. If you buy all the gear ahead of time and install it yourself and it's wrong (hint: it will be, in some fashion), I can't imagine someone rolling in and signing off on something they didn't spec or install. Then on top of that you have to pay the extra funds to buy or fix what gear you've got, and the time it takes to make corrections. Which in turn costs more money. Get a rigger from the start, and this will make for greater percentage of success on the first try.
https://www.stagelightsandsound.com/
https://www.declercqs.com/about-us/
These are a couple companies in the 415. I don't know anyone there personally, but maybe it's a jumping off
point for you.
American Crane and
Safety could be a way to get your feet wet, however- industrial rigging does not always, nor consistently equate to
stage rigging. The average crane company never touches what we do, and I find it a little odd that although they display an
ETCP badge on their class
page, they don't say who the person(s) teaching the class are. Find out, and cross reference them on the
ESTA website under the
ETCP tile.
You want to learn more:
good. Find a real live human to connect with. You cannot learn it all from reading or online materials- that's a pretty good way to wind up accidentally in "knows just enough to be dangerous" territory. Nobody likes that, right? Right.
Here's some suggestions:
The
Stage Rigging Handbook, 3rd edition, by Jay O. Glerum
Entertainment Rigging, Revised and Expanded 2nd edition by Harry Donovan. Yes, it's really 100 bucks. You might find it on sale for 90. Don't fall for these wackadoodles on Amazon selling it for $400.
Delbert
Hall's
book is excellent. I think he even shows up around here occasionally. There's a workbook sold separately for practice putting these equations to use.
Free Stuff:
Watch everything Bill Sapsis has ever put out. You'll get your
blind mown:
https://sapsis-rigging.com/remoteseminars.html
Delong Rigging Solutions offers excellent content, and I highly recommend it.
https://www.delongriggingsolutions.com/one-shot-training/
Check out our own
@egilson1 and his company
ERS. I highly recommend the podcast at the very least.
http://entertainmentriggingservices.com/index.html
Chicago Fly
House has a great YouTube
page:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnZjB4DpKLWfhK9W94LUIw
And then, if you're talking about working at height: how's your fall protection program? Are you sure it's up to speed?
Keep coming back. We're here to help, but the Forbidden Zone is found in giving specifics instructions/solutions to online rigging problems. Without seeing things in person, we can't advise specifically. But ask anyway- that's the only way to know if we can or can't contribute.