What is Zetek?

Either Shelley or his editor made a typo. It's Zetex, with an "x".
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(Click on the dotted yellow underlined term to see its definition in our wiki.)
 
In additional to the technical answer, I'll add a practical one--it's fire resistant fabric made of woven fiberglass shards. As a result, it's miserable to work with--long sleeves and gloves are storngly suggested, and if you're focusing from a lift with zetex preventing your head from encountering it is also a very good idea.
 
I've been reading Steve Shelley's book "A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting" - In his book (on pages 282-283) there is a sample light plot. In the notes block it says "ADD ZETEK TO ALL INSTRUMENTS CLOSE TO SOFT GOODS." I have been doing research to find what zetek is, but cannot find it anywhere. Can anyone help with this? Thank you!
@Heather K In an older era we had woven asbestos borders we tied on our border pipes behind our borders to stave off smoldering and fires. When asbestos was deemed carcinogenic a new product materialzed; in my mind the trade name was Zetex but I could have its spelling incorrect.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Thank you all for your replies! It sounds like this is a heat resistant fabric that gets tied right behind boarders on the same batten?
@Heather K Yes and no. If you had the luxury of space and unused fly pipes you could hang your fire resistant border on an unused pipe giving you the option of flying it out higher while focusing. Sometimes fiber glass borders were full width and sometimes they were smaller pieces tied on to protect legs. Occasionally you'd have a lamp or two yoked up and out to make an angle or to add an extra fixture or two to a busy LX pipe and you'd only need a small piece of fiberglass or zetex to protect a char-able or flamable item in a specific area.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
In any theatre I've worked in, you weren't "allowed" to yoke any instrument US or DS of the pipe at all, just out of concern for the light running into the next LS.
Not being snotty but is this not usually the case?
@macsound You're being "snotty" and possibly you haven't worked in enough theatres. Fixtures get yoked above as well as up stage and down stage as necessary to add additional units as and when required, sometimes to make an angle, sometimes to effectively add more lamps at the same location sometimes rather than adding one more LX pipe, sometimes, sometimes, yada, yada, etcetera. You have my permission to return to being "snotty". Perhaps yoking and adding is a Canadian thing. @derekleffew (Curmudgeon to the stars ) Care to comment?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
In any theatre I've worked in, you weren't "allowed" to yoke any instrument US or DS of the pipe at all, just out of concern for the light running into the next LS.
Not being snotty but is this not usually the case?
@macsound In your theatres were you not allowed to spray paint the frames of loft blocks and their supporting beams to maintain an accurate record of their designed / originally installed locations prior to occasionally kicking one, two or an entire line sets worth to alter pipe clearances to accommodate varying requirements?
Possibly we only do this up here north of Donald's walls??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
In any theatre I've worked in, you weren't "allowed" to yoke any instrument US or DS of the pipe at all, just out of concern for the light running into the next LS.
Not being snotty but is this not usually the case?
We have pretty tight clearances and often have issues with things hitting and we still need to yoke fixtures out fairly often. Just need to be careful and aware of whats hanging around that and either leave it above the electric and not use it or leave a way to breast something up or down around the problem areas.
 
It has definitely always been the clearances.
In most shows I've worked on, every single lineset is in use. The one or two monsterous dimensional flats always had precedence over lighting wanting to yoke out some sidelight or audio wanting to hang a monitor horizontal instead of vertically.
 

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