what are you going to say, "opps". Listen to your instructors when they mention
safety procedures, they are not only to protect you but to protect everone around you. I dont think ship or wolf or any of the other pros on
controlbooth.com would say im wrong on this. This industry can be alot of fun but when it comes to special f/x and rigging, you DONT JOKE AROUND, the equipment can be replaced, not lives.
_________________
Chris Ubinger
I would say your advice is pro, or at least as pro as any of us you cite would advise except it’s also an experience, training and math type thing in addition to the no kidding with what can kill. I know theater rigging. Not as well as many in the industry, but enough I’m at least qualified as a journeyman at doing so I would assume. On the other
hand, I have a 1.1/2" thick photo copy from the Rigging Seminars
Manual. Most of it is fairly understandable, but a lot of it gets into higher math and calculations on stuff I don’t know about. Until I understand all about it, I would never consider myself more than a fly
system rigger. I could not go into a convention center and put my name upon a hung
point. There is some serious stuff to master above what a fly person event rigger has to consider. I know some really smart real riggers out there. They know what they are doing and I would trust my life under them. But what about with something new like this
ground support system that’s only about two years in the industry?
“
Safety is NEVER a compromise on ANY show in ANY area no matter the client or what the client want$$”
I’m fortunate in that I don’t do shows anymore. If it comes to my attention such as shackles installed upside down, it’s still in the shop and I not only have the trust to have my concerns taken seriously, but those concerns will be checked out and verified by others. In the shop it’s easy to correct, anyone with open eyes can see something if they have the guts to ask about it. Problem is there is too frequently no
safety net between a designer and Master Rigger when the show is still on paper to consult with much less others seeing and questioning what’s seen. Master Riggers for this type of gear should be shop staff positions much less like TD’s are for theater places but such positions like riggers certificates are not the norm yet. TD’s for theater outside the college
level also don’t really require any official training. Technology and ideas for cool things have well surpassed the abilities of those designing with the tech it would seem to be a rising concern.
It concerned me today that a show designer in designing a
floor flange for some
truss did not know what grade of alloy steel
bolt we use for
truss bolts, much less that
flat head screws were measured from end to end but
socket head cap screws were measured under the head, but I made sure he knew by the time I was done with him. Question is did my telling him somewhere between a grade 8 and grade 10 in 5/8" mean anything to him? I physically know what it takes to break a 5/16"
lag bolt, but can I identify with what more it would take to
snap a ½" grade 8 hex
bolt verses a alloy grade 8 to 10
bolt in 5/8"? It would take me much of the night to do the math so what hope would someone without access to the math much less that did not know the differences between bolts have for comprehending the difference?
This is common to very many designers and frightening. Most designers know what they are doing on the whole I would say, but what’s separating those that do and do not from doing the same job? Well beyond how many nine light mole lights you can cantilever off a
truss by way of 9' 1.1/2 Schedule 40 pipe - a problem I was brought into at one
point after it bent, such similar designers in either not knowing what they were doing, or not verifying what they should have designed the
system that crashed. Designers often are more art and less tech which is fine, but when you get to this “Entertainment”/convention scale, you no longer have a Theater T.D. to check the designers math and verify it can be done safely. This is possibly part of the problem. Sure most designers have been doing this stuff for years, but who knows the engineering ability of X designer that’s doing engineering on this or any specific
truss? Do computer programs do the math for you sufficiently enough in how many banners you can hang off a
truss - given there is such a program? Normally it’s more a question of OK, I can hang X pounds off this many sections of this size as the general rule of thumb from what I understand.
Specific to the
truss ground support system that crashed, we have a master rigger/TD as it were that is the only person allowed to use the
ground support systems we also own. His training is very good from 20+ years in the industry and Tomcat School but it’s still a question at some
point between what he and the designers understand about it can do verses what’s attempted. In addition to that, the entire staff had a full day seminar on working with this specific
ground support gear to assist in it’s install. Did the company with the crash invest such time with the entire crew on this show much less
send out a Master Rigger specifically trained with it? How many on site/
on call riggers get such training in this type of gear?
IATSE is good for keeping it’s members trained but had the local not had specific training in this
system would that prevent any of them from installing it? Much less while installing it without training specific to it, could any one person really hope to speak up about their concerns about it without knowing what they were doing? That would seem to be a question of who is more qualified to use the
system - local labor or the staff that owns the gear. Lots of questions, lots of tech and lots of danger out there to this and other gear. Anyone that assumes they can do something that’s difficult in rigging or platforming should review these pictures and ask yourself about the variables. Being a TD used to scare the heck out of me, there is stuff I would not approve doing because it was beyond my ability to ensure
safety on. Other stuff I checked with other TD’s to verify on. That said, even having checked the math on the rigging part, once I split a ceiling joist supporting a snow loaded roof by being stupid and young but still a TD. Simple lever action. 1/4" plate 1'x4' long torqued against a 2x12 it was bolted to. Have reverence for calling yourself a TD because there is a lot of stuff to know.
But back to problems with new gear:
Just sent out a tour with
meat rack size
truss carts housing five to six lamp bars per
truss section. This means something like 36
PAR cans in a 8'x8'x30"
truss section. Anyone around here ever rig such a large
truss section before? It’s a
bit more involved than pre-rig much less
swing wing truss at this
point. We are talking about combining lamp bar carts with
truss, bolting them together and flying them. I saw them flown from the less strong ceiling at the shop and was concerned. This is a tour that’s going all over the country in different venus. Lots of differing abilities of on site riggers much less places it will be installed. That’s a huge responsibility on the part of the designer/in this case engineer or TD to ensure such
truss carts won’t be tomorrow’s photos. Not something I would feel safe in saying I can do.
If on site, everyone has the right and responsibility to speak up to the crew chief if something is questionable. It’s not just your job and honor on the
line, it’s people’s lives. It would seem none of the crew at this convention thought about what they were doing or spoke up. “Some designer engineered this
truss, it must be safe” it would appear are final words to this rig. Those riggers and designers involved in the
system should never be allowed to work in this field again until they go back to school and can be certified they know what they are doing. Will it happen, probably not. Most will continue on with their jobs. Others fired will seek positions with other companies doing the same thing. In my opinion, there should not be a lot of openings for gas station attendants in Vegas after this. Everyone’s responsibility, rough thing to say but is it not a valid view
point?
In
safety things there is the easy to stand up to and correct - blocked exits, turned off
smoke alarms
etc. Than there is the hard - stuff like a 16' tall x 40' wide
platform section, much less
truss. Stuff that we just are not trained enough for but frequently have to figure out and often chance as best we can to make it happen if we are ignorant of what’s required to do it properly. No, I did not do the math on the
stage platform discussion, but experience in doing similar engineering and math told me that what I figured for it was given proper application safe to assume in recommending starting figures for the designer/TD. It would take a lot for this type of
truss system to collapse, a lot of people were out there picking their nose when it’s components were not questioned. Wolf, did you mention lack of sway braces? Stagecraft was just having a debate about
point loads on walkways that’s of interest to all would be tech people that want to do more than just hack stuff together. Lots of the nitty gritty debates about such things there.
My assistant is baby sitting our own lighting rig at that show right now if I understand the schedule properly - nope it was not us but is was a sister company using the same gear that had the problem. Didn’t even hear about it before I was mailed pictures today with a warning from the big boss of first to watch what the heck we were doing, and second not to be forwarding around the photos due to bad Karma so I won’t. There are other photos like the fork lift that either caused it or had a very near miss. I would like to hear a news report about it. That gear is the exact same stuff to the detail as we have and use, and as opposed to seeing far away pictures from past incidents, this hit home for me in seeing all it’s bits. These photos and those seemingly not published yet are very scary for me - someone that was just this weekend modifying some
truss for another display booth. In modifying the
truss I had already calculated what I was doing to it verses it’s strength and applied load. I was more worried about training it’s crew chief as to the electrical load and maximum amount of fixtures that could electrically be installed into it’s
track lighting. It would be a given I would not accept dinged
truss, much less drill ½" NPT holes into structural
truss carrying a real load, but even with future and similar projects, my own eyes will give a second check to
safety.
Brian Shipinski