Rigging touring rigs neatly!

[techietim]

Hi all!

I do quite a bit of setting up portable rigs and running for bands in various venues through church at the moment and one of my weakest points is my rigging...
It always seems to end up a mess (a safe mess though!)

My uncle seems to have a magical brain and can do it amazingly neatly but I've taken some more of his tips to try hopefully will be neater.

What are your top tips for keeping wiring etc. tidy when building a temporary rig?

Thanks in advance!

 

[museav]

Just to clarify and keep the discussion on topic, by "rigging" are you referencing flying things, trusses, etc. or are you referencing cable and stage organization?

 

[techietim]

Sorry, talking cable and stage organisation here, no flying or trusses.

 

[derekleffew]

... What are your top tips for keeping wiring etc. tidy when building a temporary rig?
...

Use appropriate cable lengths--don't use a 100' cable when a 10' will do.
When there is slack, hide/bury it out of the way, not at either end.
When cables must run on the floor/deck, run them in straight lines, as much out of the traffic path as possible.

Search CB for terms like cable management, attaching cable, taping cable, for similar topics. Most are in the Lighting Forum, but the methods apply equally to audio.

 

[len]

Lots of different lengths of cable, patience, and the willingness to do something a couple different ways to get it neater.

If possible, hang all the fixtures, then run cable. If possible, plan out which fixtures will be powered together before the rig arrives at the space.

 

[techietim]

Thanks guys! These are awesome tips

 

[museav]

A lot of getting the stage organized quickly and cleanly is also having everything stored and organized in a manner that supports it. If you have to dig through a case to find a 25' cable but there are several 50' cables on top then that just promotes using the longer cable. Also labeling and color coding for length, application and so on can really help - if you can grab one end of a cable and via the marking or labeling know the length and connector at the other end that can save a lot of searching, running the wrong cable, having to use adapters, etc. Or simply pairing connectors and connections by matching identifiers.

Planning also helps, if you can figure out what you need to run in advance and get it all right the first time that tends to be much easier and more organized then thinking you have everything and then having to add another cable here and another there and so on.

 

[venuetech]

When I cable an electric I loose fit all the necessary cables, making sure i have sufficient length. (it looks very bad at this point) then I will start at one end and work toward center (or vise-versa) tieing the cable to the pipe. note the circuit #s before you do the final tie up.

 

[FMEng]

I try to get all of the mic stands, music stands, monitor speakers, guitar amps, drums, etc. planted first, then make sure the musicians are happy with the arrangement before I run cables. Moving things around after everything is hooked up just adds some chaos.

 

[museav]

When I cable an electric I loose fit all the necessary cables, making sure i have sufficient length. (it looks very bad at this point) then I will start at one end and work toward center (or vise-versa) tieing the cable to the pipe. note the circuit #s before you do the final tie up.

Just wanted to point out that this is in the Sound, Music and Intercom forum and the OP noted portable rigs in worship venues so the question may be more specific to those aspects.

 

[venuetech]

sorry, i get lost on occasion.