I have been working in the entertainment business for many years. Recently the discussion of safety cables on gel frames, top hats, Gobo holders, etc has been raised where I work. I retrospect, the main items that I have seen fall over the years are the gel frames and top hats, etc. Does anyone have any knowledge or first hand experience with safeties for the lighting accessories. As an industry it's pretty amazing that we continue to overlook this issue.
Safety Cables For Gel Frames
- Thread starterBruce
- Start date
Fission
Member
Those poll choices are a little biased, I think. Setting up safety vs efficiency is a false dichotomy, and "why bother" has the ring of complacency. In truth, there are other reasons, and other options.
We pre-cut all our gels into safety frames, and store them indexed by colour. Many of our local PACs do the same. Falling cardboard does much less damage compared to metal frames.
Plus, with an inventory exclusively made up of Source Four equipment, I have a degree of faith in the gel frame clip.
In my experience, the hang and focus is the most likely time for a gel frame to fall. I don't know how much a safety cable would mitigate that risk, compared to revisiting safe overhead working practices.
We pre-cut all our gels into safety frames, and store them indexed by colour. Many of our local PACs do the same. Falling cardboard does much less damage compared to metal frames.
Plus, with an inventory exclusively made up of Source Four equipment, I have a degree of faith in the gel frame clip.
In my experience, the hang and focus is the most likely time for a gel frame to fall. I don't know how much a safety cable would mitigate that risk, compared to revisiting safe overhead working practices.
Last edited:
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
The HS I came from safety chained top hats in because of a incident or two where students had failed to properly seat the top hat In the slot and over time and one student walking up on the catwalk to plug something in quick before we had audience in was enough to shake the top hat free. Fission is right that most of these issues can be avoided with safe overhead working procedures. At the same time it doesn't hurt to air on the side of caution.
It's the little things that matter when we're talking safety.
We safety tophats and barndoors on fixtures that don't have retaining clips. Such fixtures are no longer part of our inventory having retired everything that isn't HPL or LED-based from active duty a few years back.
Once upon a time we were known to drill out the fixture's frame holder and stick a prong-style paper fastener through the metal gel frame to secure it. Then we switched to cardboard gel frames and stopped worrying.
