Speakers have rotated to wrong angle

[stumpylampshades]

In my space our main speaker array has 6 units (Sub & Main, with smaller main ~ 1.5 stories above, mirrored for stereo). Some time between being installed in 2015 and now 3/4 mains have come to be angled obviously incorrectly. Presumably the bolts they’re hanging from have loosened just enough to let them slowly come to equilibrium. Given the height they are in the air, and partially above staircases, how would I get up there (or what qualified person do I need to get to do it for me?) and how do I know what the correct angle is? I only came into this space about a year ago and I’ve been trying to get everything as ship-shape as possible before I graduate, as I’m the only person at this school with any sort of technical theatre knowledge at all.

 

[techieman33]

It's really hard to guess without pictures of the space. But you would most likely get up there with some kind of man lift or scaffolding. Since your part of a school I wouldn't be surprised if the district already owned something that would be able to let you get to them. The angle to point them is also something that's going to be nearly impossible for us to advise you on. You would need to either experiment on your own, or find someone local to you that could come in and help.

 

[Malabaristo]

Pictures of everything would help a lot in being able to provide suggestions. My immediate response is that if you think their position change has to do with fasteners working loose, then what makes you think they're not in imminent danger of falling? That sounds a bit disturbing... but if it is a safety hazard, then you might have better luck convincing the school to spend whatever they need to in order to fix it.

Is there any possible access from above? (Catwalks, crawlspaces, etc...) If not, then your three basic options are ladder, lift, or scaffolding depending on all the variables.

 

[stumpylampshades]

It's really hard to guess without pictures of the space. But you would most likely get up there with some kind of man lift or scaffolding. Since your part of a school I wouldn't be surprised if the district already owned something that would be able to let you get to them. The angle to point them is also something that's going to be nearly impossible for us to advise you on. You would need to either experiment on your own, or find someone local to you that could come in and help.

I forgot to attach the pictures I took! Here’s what it looks like, I’ll try to convince the school to get someone in on a lift or something, though with budgets the way they are (hundred+ million deficit wooo) it might be hard. I’ve previously gotten the people who initially designed/installed the AV system in 2015 for a different service issue, I might be able to get them to tell me the intended positions. @Malabaristo I’ll try to pose it as a safety issue. It’s possible it never was tight enough to begin with but I’d also believe 9 years of heating/cooling could have caused it.

HL array, note the unit at the top being in the correct orientation or close to

HR array (the grates on the wall don’t provide access and I have no clue why it’s like that, probably related to a previous iteration of an A/V system.)

 

[NickVon]

that's not that high at all. a 12' or 16' A frame should be able to span the stair wall and get you plenty close enough. Or ones of those littler giant ladders that you could seton a stair case. And/or use a smaller ladder and just build a little platform legged at height to set on the stair way.

 

[TimMc]

that's not that high at all. a 12' or 16' A frame should be able to span the stair wall and get you plenty close enough. Or ones of those littler giant ladders that you could seton a stair case. And/or use a smaller ladder and just build a little platform legged at height to set on the stair way.

I think the OP is looking at the upper column loudspeakers, particularly House Right. Looking at the House Left main PA, it appears to be inclined too far (it's pointing up, as an array). The House Right main picture angle does not show enough detail to make a guess.

The uppers will require a lift of some kind, particularly if any wrangling of the loudspeaker is needed. I'm also of the mind that these should not have moved without an external, superior force. These should be inspected Real Soon Now.

 

[NickVon]

Ahhhhh. YES! apologies I now see what you are seeing @TimMc. None of my ideas will work for those upper level fills. Beyond a man lift.... which might still put you to far away from the wall. Extension ladder from house floor to wall. (largely safe, but I'm not sure you could get me to go up? or rent Arial boom lift a little aerial boom lift, or scissor lift with one of the deck extenders. Looks like you have som in your "orchestra pit to move some aerial/scissor lift equipment around.

There's got to be someone/department from the district, that's got something they use in like the gyms to get to stuff in the air. Or if an outside contractor does it in quire with your physical plant people and get this put on the list while that company is onsite for other work.

 

[MNicolai]

Speakers look like Innovox but could be something else. Probably weren't torqued down adequately the first time and vibrated loose.

Lower speakers are probably easier to access with a Little Giant ladder straddling the stair steps onto the stage.

Upper speakers you can probably get to from a ~30ft extension ladder parked on the auditorium floor. Easy thing to do is ask the custodians/maintenance what they have.

Many school districts have some form of scissor lift -- often getting ping-ponged around between different campuses. Worth investigating. If the stage doesn't have an orchestra pit, there's a good chance you can drive a lift on the apron and access both speakers relatively easily from a lift on-stage. Preferably one with the push-out extension platform.

As for aiming the speakers, I would start with the bottom speakers. Isolate those, then play them and walk the space -- start with it tilted up and then tilt down until you have good coverage of the first row. Then for the upper speaker, start with it tilted down and then tilt up until you have good coverage of the last row. Walk the space with everything on listening to music and confirm there are no unusual gaps in coverage anywhere before you take the ladder down. I would probably retorque all the bolts on all speakers while you're at it. If these two speakers rattled loose, the other ones might too in the near future.

I’ve previously gotten the people who initially designed/installed the AV system in 2015 for a different service issue, I might be able to get them to tell me the intended positions.

Really -- this is the first phone call I would make. Most of the AV installers I work with would fix this for free. When I was an integrator, if someone sent us a photo of one of our installs that looked like this, we would get it fixed ASAP at no charge. As a consultant, most of the integrators I work with would do the same. This isn't a "things deteriorate as they get older" issue nor is it something the end user damaged. This is purely on the original installer for not tightening those bolts adequately and it gravely affects the ability to use that space.