Design Drywall tape/Paper tape. (how to mark fixture placement properly)

I would like to know what the industry standard for marking fixture placement on dry wall tape.

I recently had the pleasure of working with the local stagehands union and I was basically laughed at for the way I marked my fixture placement on my paper tape.

Apparently it was confusing and I had to re hang more than a few units.

I dont want this to happen again so please let me know if anyone knows what they are expecting. I have a ton of future gigs with very similar crews.
 
I usually use receipt tape but thats just me. What works for you, works for you.

Heres what I do:

Fixture Type Dimmer or Circuit

Unit Number Color

A big line separates the two areas and also gives center of the clamp placement. I have also been known to put a star on the area if the unit is ganged. It can also be conviniet to write US/DS/SL/SR to tell which way the unit points.

So, the biggest thing is... why didn't you just ask the hands how they wanted the info presented? There is no "right" way to do this. I know people who do it like me, I know others who do printed labels, and others that use receipt printers.
 
I see you're in NYC. Working with the local 1's means NOTHING is going to be up to their standards. Next time tell them to learn and do your way and shut the ___ up. Tell them when it's their gig they can expect you to learn their system (that is the greatest way in the world, by the way, and nobody else does it right).
 
I tend to like unit type blank for dimmer # clamp mark color direction. If there is a gobo, I put that under the color. I happen to agree with bishopthomas on this one though. Its your system, your design. The fact that your putting tape up is a big plus, that should be enough for them to figure it out. If they cant read some combination of the information you have and cant differentiate between R69 and Gobo xyz or dimmer 1 and Source 4 30º then you probably have bigger issues, because they really are not doing their job..
 
I would like to know what the industry standard for marking fixture placement on dry wall tape. ...
If there IS an industry standard for making a hang tape, I don't know what it is. How did you do it? and What were the criticisms of the local crew about your method?

One method I like: Print out a duplicate of the yoke label for each fixture and attach that to your hang tape. Every possible piece of information is then right there. If the lighting position is a truss rather than a pipe, the label goes nearest either edge of the tape to indicate which chord the fixture is to hang on. If not using labels, I've seen only the UnitType and UnitNo. listed, with an arrow to indicate which side of the truss.

I don't recall and am not near my copy, does Shelley's A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting offer any suggestions on this controversial topic?
 
I don't recall and am not near my copy, does Shelley's A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting offer any suggestions on this controversial topic?

He makes a lot of suggestions, but the most relevant quote is:

[QUOTE="A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, Second Edition" by Steve Shelley, pg. 325]The first method transforms the distances shown in scale on the light plot into marks made on full-scale reference strips, ranging from rolls of adding machine paper, to drywall paper tape, to jute webbing. During the load-in, these hanging tapes or webbings are either attached onto the battens or taped onto the deck directly under the electrics batten while the units are being hung. Information about each instrument marked on the tape at the proper intervals (unit type, color, circuit, channel), which is then used to prep the instrument when it's hung at that location.[/QUOTE]

I am somewhat curious, though, how a hang card can be "wrong" or cause you to incorrectly hang units. The only real source of confusion I can see is mistakes between the channel/dimmer/circuit numbers. Could you share more about how you set up your hang cards?
 
Weird...Im having to reply twice cause my first one didnt take. This one will be not as long winded.


This how I marked my tape. I taped it to the deck below each pipe. I only put a line and unit #.

The units themselves were labled with. Fixture #, color, and break out circuit.

I didnt think it necessary to put any more on the tape because one there were only 30 units and two they were all lekos. as far as focus I directed them verbally.


Based on what everyone has said, it sounds like I was in the right. They were just trying to bust my balls.

Btw not to start a new question but how do those of you who use adhesive labels, how do you do this?

Is this a light write thing or do you copy paste directly into a template provided by the labels?

Thanks guys . awesome response for my first post!
 
I've never seen a hang tape taped to the floor, but then I work in arenas and ballrooms with truss, not pipe battens. Putting the yoke label on the hang tape wouldn't be so good in this case, as you'd be on your hands and knees trying to read the label.

As for generating the yoke labels, export from Lightwright into Word, then use a custom label layout and the merge feature. Something a smart ME once taught me: You're probably going to put black gaff on the fixture or connector first, then the label, then clear tape over that (to make sure the label sticks), so skip the adhesive label entirely and just use plain paper. Saves a little expense and aggravation.
 
I stock drywall joint paper tape and Jute (burlap like) tape used for the tops of drapes for crew chiefs that require such things in not wanting to convert to what we use. And 3" yellow barricade type non-adhesive vinal tape for our crew chiefs. They like it better and I find it cheaper overall.
 
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Ship, I believe the OP was more asking for situations where the entire package isn't completely shop prepped, like where you're using a combination of rental and house gear or where the complexity of the package doesn't mandate a complete shop prep. While labels on truss and breakouts taped to the correct lengths are much easier and more efficient for a tour, the extra time and expense to prepare all this often isn't worth it for a smaller sitdown show when just a labeled roll of jute will suffice.

Has your shop really gone twelve years without ever sending out a bad spare lamp, or did I read that wrong? If that's true, that's remarkably impressive. Even with the most stringent checkout in the shop, I'm amazed that not a single one has gotten through before.
 
Ship, I believe the OP was more asking for situations where the entire package isn't completely shop prepped, like where you're using a combination of rental and house gear or where the complexity of the package doesn't mandate a complete shop prep. While labels on truss and breakouts taped to the correct lengths are much easier and more efficient for a tour, the extra time and expense to prepare all this often isn't worth it for a smaller sitdown show when just a labeled roll of jute will suffice.

Or you are working in a traditional theater with a fly rail system.
 
I was always a fan of using a piece of white chalk to mark the batten. Easy to clean up afterwards, with minimal prep needed. You have someone read off the plot and another person going down the pipe with a chalk and writing hash marks at 1.5' centers, etc., writing the fixture that goes there (6x12 or 36deg), and an arrow showing a pre-focus direction if you choose. Went by fast and furious afterwards when you unleashed the electricians to go hang it afterwards. Just by walking up to the pipe they knew what they needed, where it went, and which way to hang it so it can be prepped for focus in the general position.
 
Ship, ..
Has your shop really gone twelve years without ever sending out a bad spare lamp, or did I read that wrong? If that's true, that's remarkably impressive. Even with the most stringent checkout in the shop, I'm amazed that not a single one has gotten through before.

No mover lamp has ever gone out as bad other than that one time. All PAR lamps if used are metered out etc. I keep a tight control of lamps and for the most part with few exceptions, only send out new lamps thus this assurance and not too hard to do working lamps history for spares.. Any box that returns in an open condition gets inspected and even if open but the proper lamp in the box, it is logged in as a test lamp and not sent out for shows - instead used in the shop. This with boxes that are sealed and we have to cut open to get the searial number on them or put one on it. Other brands don't require tape to close them and this was a case of one of them.

Had another lamp come back this week that had been sitting inside a personal road case for a few months. I didn't have any info filled out on its use, but given it didn't get returned with the normal spares I was suspicious. Common sense was correct in nope, the lamp inside the box was not the one marked for what should be inside the box. Person I mentioned before responsible for another un-marked or mis-marked lamp in turning that lamp back in - but he is sorry and think it still good. Nope, electrical problem with the fixture in lamp toast and so too is probably the fixture in power supply. Six months later I can probably figure out what fixture is having a problem but it's probably already out on another show and a lamp or two into bad power supply.

Still though in being suspicious about the circumstances, I opened the box that didn't have a lable on it filled out for why the lamp was changed. Nope, lamp wasn't the same as serial number on the box, this person as often suspect didn't fill out his lamp change tag and months later dumped a bad lamp on me. He also didn't know enough about why the lamp failed to swap out the fixture.

Mean to tell me in 12 years you have never before once sent out a bad lamp? Yea, kind of in I mostly with only few exceptions for PAR 64 lamps in bulk tested and metered, and otherwise with one or two exceptions, all lamps I send out are new. This unless some crew chief didn't have time at some point to mark a changed lamp as bad in a short form to fill out. Some lamp boxes I can tell when opened, others I cannot but at times I suspect a problem with. Hundreds of lamps in stock, I can only rely on trust or indications but yep, I seriously believe by way serial number tracking every lamp, I don't send out bad lamps.


Thanks for clarifying the tape.
 
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Hi folks;

Steve Shelley here. This is an interesting thread. I've used probably all of the marking/hanging systems discussed here. When i'm hanging a one-off in a proscenium theatre, i'll often just call off the dimensions with two people holding each end of a tape measure and a third person armed with chalk. in that scenario, we usually only hang one position at a time.

Other times my production electrician with export the Lightwright info into word, and then use an avery template to print out the info onto the labels. Then those labels go onto drywall tape at the assigned distance. that comes in handy when a multiple of lighting positions [including truss] are getting hung simultaneously.

When i've worked multiple-stop tours, i've used adding drywall, adding machine tape, or jute for the same process. jute allows you to move the labels easier, if the labels are marked on pieces of gaff tape. the problem i often have with any of these materials is where to affix them to the batten in order for them to be seen and read, but also so that they're then not in the way or getting ripped from the c-clamps getting hung on the pipes. i've tried taping the hang tape/jute/drywall to the system lines that run back to the tops of the arbors to get them above the battens. often though, the distance between the system lines makes the paper or jute droop, and then the distances are less accurate and it's harder to read the written information.

in those situations, i've found that just taping the hang tape/etc to the floor under the batten allows them to be used as a distance reference, while still providing the other information written on the tape. you have to be careful not to drag instruments across the tape--that will tear it. and if it is paper-based, you need to scamper and roll the tape up as soon as the batten starts to fly out to trim. otherwise, everyone is looking up and tripping over the tape and ripping it.

bottom line, hanging tapes can come in handy, especially if you're going to use them more than once, or if you're hanging more than one position at a time. one thing to consider is the amount of space that will be required to store and transport the tapes when they're not in use. on a show that has production crates, having the tapes in one of the first boxes that comes off the truck typically works out ok. on a burn & run tour, on the other hand, the tapes will need to walk in the door with you in one of your bags, along with a roll of gaff tape to attach them to the floor/batten/system lines.

hth,

shelley
 

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