Safety Issues in the Theatre

stantonsound

Active Member
This is an extension from another board.....

We had been discussing a rather unsafe situation in which a person was flown during a show using a $99 automotive winch, with no safety system in place. To continue a general discussion, what unsafe practices have you witnessed in the theatre and what did you do to stop them, if anything?
 
The carting around of occupied elevated genies without outriggers happens plenty. I simply refuse to do that, that's the most I can do to stop it. Thats the one that pops to mind at the moment.
 
Almost every venue I've ever been to has some sort of safety issue that exists because "That's the way we've always done it" The introduction of compulsory risk assessments on all regularly performed tasks in the industry in the UK and Australia has put paid to a great many of these poor practices. They just don't seem to go away though, I was just having coffee in a the coffee bar in a major city hotel here in Adelaide and two guys presumably from hotel maintenance were changing lamps in the decorative lighting using an old fashioned Tallescope (ladder on wheels) that didn't even have outriggers fitted. The coffee bar was full of pro touring technicians waiting for a tour bus who noticeably all moved well away from the scene of operations. The hotel has a couple of convention rooms with lighting rigs and I bet the Tallescope came from there.
Lack of safety harness and of course hard hat usage on stage are also issues that seem to be everywhere.
 
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We still don't use safety cables. I got $3000 from our student government association, and that's the first thing the money is going towards. Then, sandbags. Then, I'm still figuring out.
 
In the youth thing at our church, nobody knows anything about lighting, so they draped the curtains over the lights. BAHHH!!! Not to mention the flaming swords, the kids operating the barely-working followspot, and the flying balls that just about ruined three LCD displays last sunday... :evil:
 
How about people using 16 or 18 gauge extension cords from wal mart, or the like, with stage pins put on the end? I have seen many catwalks full of orange and yellow cable. And I will say that there are many theatres that don't use safety cables at all.
 
Ok. Please explain the flaming swords. What are they and why does a church need them.
 
And what are "flying balls"?
 
We have flaming swords because at our church, we have a wednesday night program called "Club Knights". As you can tell, the theme is medieval, so we have this whole kingdom deal where the youth complete challenges and go up in the ranks. In one of the stages, a flaming sword is involved. :twisted::twisted::twisted: All of the other ceremonies include swords and daggers and whatnot, but no flaming ones.



Flying balls are rubber balls that the youth hit around with a baseball bat that I really don't like because they always hit the balls into the tech booth :evil:
 
Oh, and is no service disconnect breaker for two CD80SV 96 slot dimmer racks a bad thing?

Are you sure there is no service disconnect, or do you just not know where it is? Sometimes the service disconnect is in a totally different part of the building from the dimmers. The service disconnect for my dimmers is 3 floors down buried in the costume shop where no one would think to look, but it is where all the power comes into the building.
 
It should be in the main switchgear room, usually in a room where the main power to the building comes in. There are transformers, motor control center(pumps, etc...), UPS systems, and the main disconnects that turn off the power to the circuit breaker panels in the building. The entire panels have a disconnect somewhere. Something as large as a 400amp disconnect is usually as large as a regular circuit breaker panel.
 

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