Just a write up about our newly completed install of Clancy Power Assist and line shaft winch systems for our electrics.
Under a City of New York funding grant, we replaced the existing counterweight systems for our 5 primary electrics and 2 lighting ladder positions. The electrics use full length raceways (40ft.) and typically have 27 instruments (#1 thru #4 electrics), the #5 electric is a steel ladder truss pipe with Socapex cabling and has 12 L&E 6ft. MR16 MiniStrips, while the ladders - which have 3 - 30ft. horizontal rungs spanning the US/DS wing, have 24 ellipsoidals each. Our website shows the plot and ground plan – Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Due to combined weight of the raceways, pipe and lighting units, the electrics had "married" arbors for the #1 thru #5 electrics and the positions were a b _ _ _ h to move, requiring 2 people to operate. The ladders were operating at the capacity limit of the arbor as well.
Thus the grant to update these systems. I believe our budget was slightly over $240,000, of which a HUGH chunk was electrical. No comments necessary about the costs of doing business in the City of NY, FOR the City of NY !.
Portion 1 of the installation was to have power run to our stage left counterweight rail position. We had a 100 amp, 3 phase service run, with individual fused switches located adjacent to each winch location, as well as controls on Stage Left & Right for the ladder line shaft systems. Note that the typical Power Assist winch draws 5.5 amps on a 120/208 volt, 3 phase system, so you do not have to have as much power local as we had run. In our case it was cheaper for the electrician to run 100 amps, as he was tying in to an existing 100 amp breaker, thus saved having to install a new panel and main breaker.
The options then for the rigging system portion was Line Shaft winches, or Clancy Power Assist.
For those of you not familiar with the Clancy system, it's essentially a chain motor mounted to the floor where the bottom purchase line floating floor block sits in a standard counterweight system. The motor feeds a chain that attaches to the bottom of the arbor, feeds thru the motor and up to a segment transferring to a 3/8" aircraft cable in mid travel, with the cable moving over the head block and attaching to the top of the arbor. Thus the winch, chain and cable replaces the purchase line on a counterweight system. The capacity of the motor is 2000 lbs. The arbor(s) remain loaded with 1000 lbs of counterweight, but the overall capacity is 2,000 lbs. In operation, the counterweight on the arbor never moves and never needs additional or fewer weights. The motor can handle all the loading of the pipe, be it no load, or up to the 2,000 lbs system capacity.
In our installation, I.Weiss, the rigging company, had to replace the 55 year old arbors with newer Clancy arbors, as well as replacing all the electrics head blocks, loft blocks, aircraft cable and fittings, which added significant cost to the installation in terms of labor and materials.
Our ladder positions were updated with Line Shaft winches. These are essentially a horizontal pipe shaft (in this case running US/DS) with cable drums spaced accordingly, at one end is a motor that turns the shaft. It is my understanding the reason they used line shafts for the ladders was an issue resulting from the need for much mule-ing and fancy cable paths to assorted loft blocks, required to get the aircraft cable from the head block to the loft blocks, all of which were custom on the existing counterweight system. Thus the decision to place 2 line shaft winches. It is also my understanding that the Power Assist systems can be more cost effective to install as compared to a line shaft winch, and in our case the rigging company did not want to have to do a grid iron load analysis, which they would have had to do if they went to 5 additional full stage width line shaft for the main electrics.
In any case, the control heads are the same winch to winch, and consists of a box (4”x 8”x 8” high, approx.) that mounts where the rope lock had been mounted. The control system we opted for (Scene Control 50) does not have a central computer driven system, but does allow for recordable target positions to be set at each station, up to 4 positions, at any height located between the maximum and minimum limits.
We used the main electrics last week for a tour of I Love a Piano, and again today when I re-rigged our ladder positions and hung the 48 ellipsoidals on the 2 positions. One cautionary note about line shaft systems is to never let the pickup cables go slack as the cable may skip a cable groove on the drum. This can foul the systems.
If I had one nit-pick, it would be a request to Clancy to replace the “At Target” neon indicator light with an LCD screen that indicates which target you are at – 1, 2, 3 or 4.. Right now it's a guessing game, as the light is lit indicating you are at a target, just not which one.
Other then that I can only say that it was a joy today to simply press “UP”, when finished. No continually shouting “Add 4 more weights !”.
Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College
Under a City of New York funding grant, we replaced the existing counterweight systems for our 5 primary electrics and 2 lighting ladder positions. The electrics use full length raceways (40ft.) and typically have 27 instruments (#1 thru #4 electrics), the #5 electric is a steel ladder truss pipe with Socapex cabling and has 12 L&E 6ft. MR16 MiniStrips, while the ladders - which have 3 - 30ft. horizontal rungs spanning the US/DS wing, have 24 ellipsoidals each. Our website shows the plot and ground plan – Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Due to combined weight of the raceways, pipe and lighting units, the electrics had "married" arbors for the #1 thru #5 electrics and the positions were a b _ _ _ h to move, requiring 2 people to operate. The ladders were operating at the capacity limit of the arbor as well.
Thus the grant to update these systems. I believe our budget was slightly over $240,000, of which a HUGH chunk was electrical. No comments necessary about the costs of doing business in the City of NY, FOR the City of NY !.
Portion 1 of the installation was to have power run to our stage left counterweight rail position. We had a 100 amp, 3 phase service run, with individual fused switches located adjacent to each winch location, as well as controls on Stage Left & Right for the ladder line shaft systems. Note that the typical Power Assist winch draws 5.5 amps on a 120/208 volt, 3 phase system, so you do not have to have as much power local as we had run. In our case it was cheaper for the electrician to run 100 amps, as he was tying in to an existing 100 amp breaker, thus saved having to install a new panel and main breaker.
The options then for the rigging system portion was Line Shaft winches, or Clancy Power Assist.
For those of you not familiar with the Clancy system, it's essentially a chain motor mounted to the floor where the bottom purchase line floating floor block sits in a standard counterweight system. The motor feeds a chain that attaches to the bottom of the arbor, feeds thru the motor and up to a segment transferring to a 3/8" aircraft cable in mid travel, with the cable moving over the head block and attaching to the top of the arbor. Thus the winch, chain and cable replaces the purchase line on a counterweight system. The capacity of the motor is 2000 lbs. The arbor(s) remain loaded with 1000 lbs of counterweight, but the overall capacity is 2,000 lbs. In operation, the counterweight on the arbor never moves and never needs additional or fewer weights. The motor can handle all the loading of the pipe, be it no load, or up to the 2,000 lbs system capacity.
In our installation, I.Weiss, the rigging company, had to replace the 55 year old arbors with newer Clancy arbors, as well as replacing all the electrics head blocks, loft blocks, aircraft cable and fittings, which added significant cost to the installation in terms of labor and materials.
Our ladder positions were updated with Line Shaft winches. These are essentially a horizontal pipe shaft (in this case running US/DS) with cable drums spaced accordingly, at one end is a motor that turns the shaft. It is my understanding the reason they used line shafts for the ladders was an issue resulting from the need for much mule-ing and fancy cable paths to assorted loft blocks, required to get the aircraft cable from the head block to the loft blocks, all of which were custom on the existing counterweight system. Thus the decision to place 2 line shaft winches. It is also my understanding that the Power Assist systems can be more cost effective to install as compared to a line shaft winch, and in our case the rigging company did not want to have to do a grid iron load analysis, which they would have had to do if they went to 5 additional full stage width line shaft for the main electrics.
In any case, the control heads are the same winch to winch, and consists of a box (4”x 8”x 8” high, approx.) that mounts where the rope lock had been mounted. The control system we opted for (Scene Control 50) does not have a central computer driven system, but does allow for recordable target positions to be set at each station, up to 4 positions, at any height located between the maximum and minimum limits.
We used the main electrics last week for a tour of I Love a Piano, and again today when I re-rigged our ladder positions and hung the 48 ellipsoidals on the 2 positions. One cautionary note about line shaft systems is to never let the pickup cables go slack as the cable may skip a cable groove on the drum. This can foul the systems.
If I had one nit-pick, it would be a request to Clancy to replace the “At Target” neon indicator light with an LCD screen that indicates which target you are at – 1, 2, 3 or 4.. Right now it's a guessing game, as the light is lit indicating you are at a target, just not which one.
Other then that I can only say that it was a joy today to simply press “UP”, when finished. No continually shouting “Add 4 more weights !”.
Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College
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