We use roadcases for all of the touring gear. 8-way truck pack cases for the ERS fixtures and the fresnels, two way cases for the movers.
Will you be pre-rigging anything? If you are going to be going the unistrut pre-rig route, meat racks made for that are your best bet. I personally don't like conventionals in cases, I prefer meat racks (or swing truss if you have some cash....). Few things of info would be helpful... how many fixtures... are they hung in clumps or all over the place...
Meet BK Broiler (Big Kittie, Bunnie Killer amongst other names for him) - a roadie of one tour experience (accident but adopted by that local crew also) and who loved to walk the truss. And his sister Carlie Simon. BK was the best shop cat ever and my cat about the shop. Here they are one night at my desk while I stayed late in inspecting lamps. Could type away all night on the keyboard, he wouldn't care thus she wouldn't. BK would let you know if you offended him such as with a camera flash. Beyond that telling you about it nothing mean - no biting or other stuff. Not a mean bone in his body for humans - his best friends and all were no matter who - he loved people and especially liked nothing better than me carrying him about the shop in one hand.
Poor BK was also a hunter of local renoun in catching from snakes to baby bunnies and one morning after spending the night locked in the shop got out. The car that slowed down to let me cross never saw him running out. Poor thing died in my arms = one of those situations one still cannot believe actally happened but did. Best cat I ever met. all including his sister still miss him. His ashes now live above my desk - his home in the shop, and many still visit him in missing the big orange hunter.
Don't think there is any photos of him or either of them walking the truss but he especially loved walking out on stage while a designer was designing or across a truss being prepped for a show. This cat was a great roadie.
By Gator clamp, do you mean what I call a "Clancy Clamp"? Can't find a picture at the moment. But it was first sold by JR Clancy and then I think sold to Rosco. Or did you mean Gator Clamp?...4 S4's on a pipe (bolted to it) with a Gator Clamp at each end of the pipe...
NO, NO, NO! "Shop-Built" trusses are NEVER acceptable, unless that shop is JTE, Tomcat, Global, or select other professional companies having the engineering and manufacturing certifications behind them.They we had a S4 pars in shop-built box trusses and a few other fixtures upstage, but I'm not sure how.
Commonly called "Loadbars."...In the past, transportation went like this: They had two or three 4x4 beams with angle brackets on each end spanning the width of the truck...
Good ideas always when on tour....I'm going to make sure every light is either double nutted or use lock nuts, make sure everything is saftied, and use blankets between the sets of lights and probably strap them to each other, if not also to the wall...
A "meatrack" is almost always a custom built item. Originally designed by R&R lighting companies to hold (8) 90" long, six-lamp PAR64 can, PARbars, in a cage with exterior dimensions approx. 4'w x 8'l x 5'h. Building such a "meatrack" for your, probably, 5' long (4) Source4 bars, would speed your load-ins, but take up more truck space--I guessing last year the S4bars were up high and allowed room underneath. Here's the second item Google returned for me, which led me to this PDF. However, they will be cost prohibitive for you. So have the same people who built the truss, build you a meatrack. Just don't let them build anything over my head....BTW: My curiosity got the best of me and I Google Imaged "meat racks". Didn't really get anything that shocking....maybe if I turned the Safe Search function off... But I don't think I will.... Thanks for all the advice.
What's an 8-way case? Maybe a link...
NO, NO, NO! "Shop-Built" trusses are NEVER acceptable, unless that shop is JTE, Tomcat, Global, or select other professional companies having the engineering and manufacturing certifications behind them.
What's an 8-way case? Maybe a link...
There are many ways to pack lighting, it all depends on your budget and how they are hung. We've had many big productions come through our theater. Cats just did their load-in today for the week. The 1st electric truss was all prehung. The truss sections came apart and stacked on top of each other for travel. Other shows have racks of lights. For movers, unless prehung, the only way I've seen is in road cases. I wouldn't suggest any other way for those. Road cases are probably your best bet.
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