Distro...Sortof

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While in the discussion of distros, most sound companys (and lighting comanies) end up building there own out of off of the shelf (i.e. Home Depot) electrical parts. This does save alot of money but you run the risk of having your show shut down, (in the US that is). Most electical inspectors that come in for spot checks will want to see the UL label on that distro, and if it is not there they may not be happy about it. Home grade components are not designed to be thrown in trucks and have shock loads put on them. The are rated for home use, and should be used only at home. I have seen shows shut down due to home made distros, so keep that in mind before you tie in.

 

[audioslavematt]

...most sound companys (and lighting comanies) end up building there own out of off of the shelf...

Not nescessarily true. Any truly professional sound company worth its salt is going to have a nonproprietary distro. That is where you'll run into a lot of 3-phase distros. Some major distro manufacturers are Motion Labratories, Applied Electronics, and TMB. Proprietary distros in a lot of cases will be 240v single phase with varying amperages. In some cases, the leads are exposed and they aren't well maintained. Those are the ones that make me nervous.

 

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Not nescessarily true. Any truly professional sound company worth its salt is going to have a nonproprietary distro. That is where you'll run into a lot of 3-phase distros. Some major distro manufacturers are Motion Labratories, Applied Electronics, and TMB. Proprietary distros in a lot of cases will be 240v single phase with varying amperages. In some cases, the leads are exposed and they aren't well maintained. Those are the ones that make me nervous.

Very True, I am an electrician so I usually get the job of tieing in the audio guys then I am back off to lighting land. A company that invest in a good distro always has a higher place in my book then the guy who threw a distro in an old cable trunk and called it a day. Then again I have seen large production companys such as clearwing come in with their home made distro.

 

[CURLS]

Just to spark in some imagination I'll throw in a few tidbits.
We all have to remember that the way each country (US, Canada, etc.) does there electrical work is different. In the mostpart here in the US the paying that electrical guy to come in tail in for us is very standard. As the one guy said yes some venues will allow you to cam in yourself and have an electrician check your work. But, wait why do I want to slow down my load in just to sit there in tie in when I could have another guy do just as good probably even better of a job himself. Furthermore, it all depends on where the gig is. Like on the union gig im on today i know that there is already an electrician on the call who is going to take care of that for me(better yet i'm not the one thats payin him, and taking the risk). Besides if I tried to do it I would get my ass chewed out 11 ways to sunday.

On the question of actuall distro's though. Yes, in todays world you will see all kinds of distros coming to a town near you from all different sorts of companies. The one im working with today has cam in and then a front panel of cusom made motion labs stuff with 3 pin and 5 pins twist, mini cam, and even edison curtosy outlets.
However, in our shop and other's there is still the remnince of the oldschool homemade distros. Hell I can't tell you how many Clair Brother's shows (largest int the world) that I've been to with a guy showing up with his distro that is a breaker panel with cam locks coming out the back to piggy back off of me. That crap is prolly older than me.

Ah, and the last subject to stop on is the idea of why we don't use a bunch of 20 amp wall outlet circuits to power amp racks and foh and who knows what all else. Mainly b/c like i said earlier the standard wall outlet receptacle is a 15 ampe Receptacle however the service to it and others is 20 amp. So, if the most I can draw is 15 amps im pretty much screwed and would be blowin breakers all day on just one amplifier alone. Wait I still have 3 more amplifiers just in my first amplifier rack on this side of the stage and you only have 3 20 amp service's around your stage? Well I brought 8 amplifiers. Looks like I only get to use 3? Nope doesnt work that way!!!

Welp thats all for now!