Snake that leads to nowhere?

dude2144

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So I was looking around the auditorium at the high school i go to and there is a snake with around 20 inputs that leads from the stage left wing where our amps are. The snake goes into the wall, I think under the stage, but never comes out. It doesn't lead to our booth and isn't being used for anything as far as I can tell. Unfortunately under the stage is being used as storage by the athletic department so I can't get under there to follow the snake, but does anyone have any ideas where this might go or what it may have been used for?

I realize its strange asking this when no one has been in this particular auditorium, I'm just amazed that this snake does not go anywhere that I can find.
 
Finding a cable tracer (I bet someone in your school will have one) may be useful.

In your booth, is the end of the snake that you use (if there is one) just the fan out or is it a big wall plate? Your system may be designed to have a snake stage box, that terminates with the wall plate. If you can't just go into the athletic storage, make friends with a custodian or a PE teacher and ask them to let you look around.

And of course, a teacher will probably know.


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Just curious, but if you can't trace where the wiring goes then how do you know that it does not go to the booth? And is it an actual snake or is it terminations on a wall plate or rack panel? How are the cables or terminations labeled?

While a long shot in too many cases, you might want to ask around and see if there is any documentation such as drawings for the system. If there isn't such information, or it is incomplete or out of date, then it might be a good idea to create such documentation so that you and those that follow you can avoid similar situations. Along similar lines, have you looked to see if the related cables have any labeling or identifiers? That may assist in tracking down the purpose of the cables and/or where they go, either by the labeling itself or by matching the labeling to cable or termination labeling somewhere else.
 
It could possibly be the result of the relocation of an old snake. For example, my church still has a snake fanout in an abandoned sound booth, but the snake was clipped under the stage and the box reused for the snake to the new booth.
 
Why can't you walk under there? Walk through the stored items.
the stage is only about 5 ft high and the stuff they have under there is taking all of the space, not rly enough space to walk in. Getting under there would be moving a row of risers and pulling out a ton of equipment.

In your booth, is the end of the snake that you use (if there is one) just the fan out or is it a big wall plate? Your system may be designed to have a snake stage box, that terminates with the wall plate.

And of course, a teacher will probably know.
The snake that we do use has a box end on stage, goes up into our catwalk, and fans out on the booth end where it is connected to the board. We have one teacher that runs the theater department and she knows nothing about the sound system so I'm not expecting any teachers to have any ideas.

MarshallPope, That was my first though, I just didnt want to try pulling it up if there is another use for it that I don't know about
 
the key here is still getting under the stage, don't move anything just turn on a flashlight and look from the door or offer to take stuff out and put it back in one afternoon after school
 
I'd say that more likely than asking a teacher where it goes, you should ask around and figure out who did the install. You could learn a lot more with an hour call to them than the headache of trying to explain to your custodian that you didn't actually see a live snake, and that we don't need to get a shovel.

Another possibility is that it's simply old. While climbing around in the walls of my theatre (another story) I constantly find old outlets or other stuff from its days as a gymnasium.
 
Another idea, when (if) the sound systems rack was installed, the company that did the install probably has their name on a blank plate. They will more then likely have records of everything and you make get an answer from them.


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the key here is still getting under the stage, don't move anything just turn on a flashlight and look from the door or offer to take stuff out and put it back in one afternoon after school
One challenge may be that in a permanent install the cable will likely be in conduit. If so then determining where the cables go and where they may terminate or end may not be as easy as simply following the cable. I also have to wonder if the space under the stage was intended to be accessible storage and was designed and approved for that purpose, if not it being used as such could have code compliance implications.

The teachers may not know anything about the system or have any related documentation but someone in Facilities there at the school or at a district office may.
 
If this school is public ( which almost everybody has been assuming) then the district may have all of the building drawings on file (or somebody in the county at least should). In my district we have a construction records person that keeps track of all of the paper work and has helped me in the past pull documents that I needed. In my district they are all scanned so I just emailed him and he put together a disk of all of the PDFs that he thought I might need.

I would recommend trying to get ahold of the drawing index/table of contents file. This is just a list of all files that they have on record and can be useful when trying to find stuff.

If that doesn't work try get under the deck and looking for your self as previously mentioned or just spend as much time in the venue looking behind stuff, on top of stuff, ect ect and you may find the output...

Goodluck in you quest!
 
If this school is public ( which almost everybody has been assuming) then the district may have all of the building drawings on file (or somebody in the county at least should). In my district we have a construction records person that keeps track of all of the paper work and has helped me in the past pull documents that I needed. In my district they are all scanned so I just emailed him and he put together a disk of all of the PDFs that he thought I might need.

I would recommend trying to get ahold of the drawing index/table of contents file. This is just a list of all files that they have on record and can be useful when trying to find stuff.

If that doesn't work try get under the deck and looking for your self as previously mentioned or just spend as much time in the venue looking behind stuff, on top of stuff, ect ect and you may find the output...

Goodluck in you quest!


Hopefully this is the case, I've run into (right now even) where the documentation was never around, and the company that did the instal has changed hands quite some time and lost most if not all of their paperwork and digital files on it. I know get to do my own research and figure out things for myself.

It was explained that the snake you use has fan outs and a box, but you never explained whats on the end of this that you can see. Is it a box or is it a fan or something else?
 
RE: Outlet for a snake. We used to, back in the 1980's, have a sound bay in the balcony connected to post-processing in the booth. There was (may still be) a large cable running between these areas. The only sign this system ever existed? A large (3x4) 30+ GREEN connector in the floor and on the wall of the booth. I recall it being called concert something-or-other. Maybe one of those exists somewhere in your building.
As for its use, it was likely for orchestra hookups "back in the day."
 
Are you sure that it is not connected in parallel to the snake you are using? Such is the case at a school where I did a few shows - there were three places one could locate FOH. Trouble is, the inputs were spread all over the stage, and for some channels there was no input to be found. The school had no records, and the contractor had purged theirs after 10 years.
 

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