Storage for lighting equipment

[JLNorthGA]

The catwalk in our building is up high . So is the mechanical room. I was figuring on storing all of our spare instruments, safety cables, electrical cables, etc. in the mechanical room.

I was figuring on storing gels, gel frames, gobos, gobo holders, etc. in the light booth.

The mechanical room is large (20' x 15' with a 10' ceiling). There is adequate space to store just about anything up there. The light booth on the other hand is maybe 6' x 10' x 7'. I was thinking of getting a file cabinet for gels, gel frames and using the existing cabinet drawers for gobos and gobo holders. File cabinet to go under the counter for the light board.

I was going to secure a piece of plywood to the mechanical room wall and put pegs (metal or wood) in the plywood to store cables and such. What would be a method of storage for spare lighting instruments?

 

[JD]

Depends on how far the Mech room is from the catwalk. No point in using meat racks if they are right next to each other. If this is the case, I would just hang pipe in the mech room. Keep the safeties right on the fixtures.

 

[josh88]

What exactly exists in your mechanical room? I know you're not allowed to store items near or in the same room as some stuff. I'm sure someone else can come along and be more clear than that, you just want to make sure you aren't creating code violations by using that room for storage.

 

[JLNorthGA]

What exactly exists in your mechanical room? I know you're not allowed to store items near or in the same room as some stuff. I'm sure someone else can come along and be more clear than that, you just want to make sure you aren't creating code violations by using that room for storage.

We have four air handling units - the heat pumps are up on the roof of the building. There is also the electrical panel for the HVAC systems and of course the ducting. Other than that, the rooms is mostly empty. There is a ladder up to the roof hatch. Basically the room is empty. I could easily store things 5-10' away from the HVAC systems, panel and ducting. The door to the mechanical room is about 4-5' from the door to the catwalk.

 

[Morte615]

I was going to secure a piece of plywood to the mechanical room wall and put pegs (metal or wood) in the plywood to store cables and such. What would be a method of storage for spare lighting instruments?

Instead of plywood use pegboard (or slat wall) These are available from Lowe's pretty inexpensive. These will offer you MUCH more configurations to hang items. Hangers and pegs (and shelves and baskets) are available all over also, and specialty items are available on EBay from retail stores.

 

[ship]

Like castered drums for storing extra cable on or off stage for each size. Also gel and frame storage in the same box - boxes made to file each size of gel cut that latch and stack. Nothing worse than duping a file folder or something else in bulk on the way to the stage. In the booth becomes the problem of at times, what’s available over what can be pre-assembled becomes moving the gel. Also lots of file cabinets sized to gel size to store the various sizes of gel and at times lack of want to put them back away or pull from them given frequently too large a size. Match your storage of gel to the size of it and they will stay lined up with only book marks needed to easily find and pull.

Lighting grids good, so are carts and keeping that I think 36" room around electrical panels in might be more. As said, depends on where that room is located in needing carts verses bone yard storage. That and how much else for use this room might be for other uses. Long throw fixtures stored in the catwalks or grid where they would be used would also be a good place to store even if not in use.

Not much a reason to store lights not in use in the grid for having to store elsewhere. You have inventory and other than dust... just store them out of need but where they would be needed thus saving space. Ibid also on safety cables for storage. I would preserve as best possible a storage room and perhaps do grid in it, but want it for any number of storage or work area reasons.

 

[tech_man]

one thing to be aware of is if the building has (i think its called) a life safety plan, this is a document created by the architect and the fire marshal and others important contributors which list what each room is used for and what is aloud to be in that room. this may not mater in your circumstances but we just lost one of our best storage rooms because of this and almost ended up in some hot water. may not apply to your situation but i thought it might help.