# Stupid Front of House Lights



## Schniapereli (Nov 21, 2006)

In our auditorium, the front of house lights are directly above audience chairs. (about the 6th row from front) There is no catwalk or anything leading to them. They are connected to a fly, and so the only way we have to focus them is to fly it in, guess on where the light will be, then fly them out. There is no way to focus and point the lights while they are hung at the right height. They used to raise a guy with a harness, but now they can't do that. We thought of maybe putting a giant flat board out, and then calculating all the angles out, but the board would have to be HUGE, and the other techs don't want to do that. It is also harder because, they don't always bring it up to the same hieght. (sometimes 17' or 18' or even 20'10")

Is there maybe some other way to fix this that we haven't thought of.
Or, should we just try to measure on the floor of the auditorium, try to ignore the seating, and calculate in the slope? (that would be REALLY retarded.)
Or, we could just continue guessing and correcting...

Any suggestions or thoughts would help...
Thanks


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## ship (Nov 21, 2006)

A long stage brace and perhaps for some knobs, replacing the knob/handle with one that is much easier to adjust from below? At least it's a fly, other places need a ladder to each. 

Should be able to do your focus dia with bringing it in and out. Perhaps that only leaves shutter cuts and focus left to the stage brace. Not the best way, but at least you don't have to climb every time.

If you get really good with the stage brace, you might be able to both insert and remove gel without needing to re-focus each time thus some while not very flexible, only gels changed from show to show in front fill light.

Otherwise if focused as per a rep. plot, just bringing it down to gel the fixtures could be a easy enough thing to do. A few fixtures towards area A, a few more towards area B... etc along the pre-focus. Just a question of lining up spike marks with the lock point for the pipe in having lights that are pre-focused once gelleld.

At very least in while you might add specials this should save time.


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## Sylak (Nov 21, 2006)

It helps to spike where the bar goes with Gaff-tape or an actualy metal spike, or neon paint, since sometiems gaff tape wont stick to a Nylon rope or airplane wire


Also, look into purchasing a Cherry-Picker that uses a 120VAC Edison Outlet to operate indoors and make sure its goes high enough, my school will take one from the Janitorial staff every once in a while, adn it reachers the top of our house no problem.


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## Dcdjdrew (Nov 21, 2006)

what about the posabality of adding a Lighting bridge to the Fly then someone could focouse at height?


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## SHARYNF (Nov 21, 2006)

I am guessing that the house seats are not easily moved, and are bolted to the floor. It is possible to get a painter/plastered rolling scaffolding setup that can be rolled out, and (is the floor under the lights flat or sloped) can be leveled.

I once came up with sort of a wild solution for this type of crazy install, and the RIGHT ARM mentioned on this forum brought back memories..
Here goes, sort of way out there but...

I got a series of Pelco pan and tilt units mounted them to the pipe hanging, and modified the mounting plate where the camera usually went to to mount the yoke of the instrument. I got a security controller to adjust the pan and tilts. While you could not focus or gel the instrument, you could position it quite well. 
Lots of this security gear comes up on the market as airports and businesses upgrade and convert over to dome type units where the position of the camera is hidden and there for harder for the "suspect" to avoid.

Anyway sort of way out there, but ebayed pan and tilts went for about a 75 bucks each, and the controller was a few hundred. There are versions that run the control all over coax or multi pair. 

Don't you just love it when a design was done based on no one ever really using the system. 

Anyway sort of out there, but the people running it thought it was pretty neat since you could use it during performances. Cameras were pretty cheap also so eventually we mod'ed it to add a cheap security camera and now you could actually see where the light was pointing.

Sharyn


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## Schniapereli (Nov 22, 2006)

We have the levels spiked, we have a genie lift. Our entire school is going to be rebuilt soon (entirely torn down) so no expensive or long-lasting solution is needed. I wish we could just change only gels in-between show, but our apron is sometimes removed for the pit, and we have stairs on each side of the stage leading into the audience which our director wants lit sometimes, and not other times. We only have 8 circuits (repeated so it's 1234567812345678 along the batten) so that makes it less versatile. The height also vaires according to show.

So, basically nothing stays the same in-between show except the fact that they are Src4 ERS's on a 8-circuit batten...
If there were some 17 foot ladder that could be placed with the legs between seat rows, that would be ideal, but since nothing exists like that...

We have a college student who graduated from our High School says a nice harness would be cool, but the easiest is just the guessing thing.
Most of the techs there don't really care much though to do anything major to help with the problem. The seniors just barely learned this year what an ellipsoidal was. I'm still stuck as a sophomore running spotlight though, even though our light op/TD/LD just learned how to patch, and the sound op has never even heard of comb filtering, let alone come to any rehearsals...

So, it has to be a simple solution like building something to go over the seats that is tall, durable, easily moved. We have a really good stagecraft teacher who does a lot of set building and has done a lot in his lifetime (he's now 76, and still going...) If we could come up with a design for something like that (basically just a more stabile version of the 17 foot ladder), that would probably work best for our situation if it were incredibly easy. (We could move the "ladder" under each fixture as we focus, so it doesn't have to be big enough for the entire batten)

If it's an incredibly dumb idea, then we'll just keep doing the guessing system...


(or, just read Sharynf's response which she posted while I was writing. I could talk with the teacher about the pan and tilt mounts. if she thinks that would be in our budget. I also don't know if she would want to go through all the trouble. That's a REALLY good idea which could be also very cool for some effects. Also, does that kind of rolling scaffodling come up in that height, and also, I would hate to get one where the legs don't fit down the rows because they are spaced incorrectly.)
(yes, the seats are bolted down hard, can only be taken out as rows of 14, and are extremely heavy.)

...wow...It's a lot harder to descibe this online...for me...

Thanks


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## disc2slick (Nov 22, 2006)

Hey,

You can't find a big hefty a-frame ladder with an extension? We had a similar situation in my high school except the pipe did not lower, so we always focused from this ladder. Probably cheaper than $75 per unit plus a couple hundred for the controller.

-Dan


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## Van (Nov 22, 2006)

Standard construction scaffolding is availible in a wide variety of configurations. I have seen it used it this type of situation. there are a lot of safety considerations to be taken into account. But your problem doesn't reall sound insurmountable. In college we had an A-frame ladder that we used to span the seats they raked and slanted down to the sides of the house. In High School we constructed our own catwalk from the sides of the house over the top of the FOH posistion. I'm sure you'd never get away with that now days, nor would I suggest trying without a structural engineer.

here's a link to Waco they supply a lot of scaffolding all over the country.
http://www.wacoscaf.com/


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## Schniapereli (Nov 22, 2006)

I found a 18 foot ladder online, with the feet 4 feet apart on the floor. I guess we could also get a scaffolding, but that might be harder to get into the audience, and hard to store. I'll run all this by the director, and she will make the final decision based on how much she cares...


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## Footer (Nov 22, 2006)

What model of geni do you have? Geni makes a "straddle" that can lift the lift over seats. They work rather well and are very stable. Go to page 6 on the PDF. It only works with certain lifts, but if you have that model its the way to go. 

http://www.midwestaerials.com/AWP SUPER SERIES.pdf


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## BillESC (Nov 22, 2006)

It simply amazes me what some architech's manage to do to theatre space.

We have a new high school auditorium a few towns over where over 4 million dollars was spent in construction and outfitting. It seats 500.

Things that are screwed up.

1. FOH pipe is on motors without means to access it at trim height (just like the above problem.)

2. Trim height of the onstage electrics is 10'8". Pipes are racked with Source 4 pars. Can you see the spots on the floor?

3. The FOH Torms supply a 5 degree angle to the stage, can anyone say shadows?

4. Upstage has two motorized flys. They operate at a speed of 10' per minute.

5. All microphone recepticals are wired with two conductor non shielded cable back to the booth.

6. No intercom system was spec'd into the job.

The Architech should be shot!


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## NABster07 (Nov 22, 2006)

wow, i dont know how you guys can function in these places. And I thought it was bad that our legs were hung in the wrong places. 
Maybe for the FOH problem you take a day and just bounce focus everything, spike the trim height, and for all your shows you use it as it is, but with gel changes. If you are doing mostly school productions where somebody is designing in house, I think they should be able to work around that. If you have professional groups coming in every month, wanting the FOH pipe rehung, like we do, then your in trouble. Maybe you go with either 2 or three color washes or you go with having areas. Or even better yet go with 3 areas, 2 different colors (I usually use an R33 and an R54) and then go with two full stage color washes. That uses all 8 circuits. 
Thats probably not the answer your looking for, but its an option.
-Nick


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## SHARYNF (Nov 22, 2006)

The ladder would work, but most schools would freak out having a student up on an 18 foot a frame ladder, I can tell you from experience even after doing a lot of rock climbing it can be a bit nerve racking. In general the schools don't want high school students on really high ladders, or lifts, Sometimes you can get away with a scaffold since it looks and is a bit safer. My Pan and tilt was a wild solution, but after it was put in the gang running lights decided it was a blast to use. 

As I said on other earlier posts re new construction, you would be amazed at the totally stupid things architects do, and the construction companies also.
Shayrn


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## Schniapereli (Nov 22, 2006)

Our Genie is a pretty old , and can't do the straddle thing. (but that super straddle looks awesome if only we could find something like that at Savers...)
I know they might disagree with the ladder at our high school, but I'm not sure how we could carry/fit/store a scaffold that High. Unless it's only like 6 by 6 feet at the top, and then maybe tapers our at the bottm (for better support). Do they make any that can be taken apart? If there were a scaffold with at least 6X6 top that could be taken apart, that would be awesome. The WACO site doesn't seem to provide much information. (they have plenty about their 300 footers...)
Mostly, we're concerns with costs though. If anybody knows a good place to find a scaffold like described above that is still safe and cheap, that would be kewl.


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## zac850 (Nov 22, 2006)

I would suggest going to the school board and explaining that because of this, you need money to change over the entire front lighting system to moving heads. I would suggest either the Source4 Revolution or perhaps the VL3500 (with shutters of course).

Short of that, an A-frame ladder would work, though as you said, some schools don't like ladders. Scaffolding would be an affordable and relatively safe option. 

Scaffolding comes in 5 foot tall sections, and you bolt the pieces together. At my high school we had 20 feet of scaffolding, and it was used for everything, from reaching the lights to being incorporated as sets (a set for RENT was designed by me and kingfisher).

Scaffolding has slightly different sizes, but on average a single piece is 5'x5'x1" pieces that you bolt together like an erector set. Goes up quick, get 6 sections and all cross-pieces and floor pieces and your set!

You said in your post: "Do they make any that can be taken apart? If there were a scaffold with at least 6X6 top that could be taken apart, that would be awesome."

Yea, all scaffolding can be taken apart. Search google for scaffolding and lots of sites will pop up where you can buy some.


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## Schniapereli (Nov 23, 2006)

If we got any moving fixtures (which would probably never happen) we would probably get one from Martin, (a MAC TW1 would be sweet, but would never happen). But I don't think so since we still hang onto our old Parellipspheres from the 70's (though we've never used them) Our school is getting ready to die anyways, so no huge advancements will be made, only to be enjoyed for 2-3 years.

I'll suggest the scaffolding to the dudes who decide things.


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## SHARYNF (Nov 23, 2006)

If you look for building supply rental equipment companies it is possible to rent these types of systems, each section typically is about 20 dollars per week, but make sure you get the kind that has rolling wheels.

Sharyn


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## lightbyfire (Nov 24, 2006)

Scaffolding can really make it easier. If your school board has money do that over a ladder, it is significantly safer. If they are ok with a ladder but dont want to invest in scaffolding (which is a horrible ethical decission) than a little giant ladder that extends to 18 or 20 feet would be best as you can adjust each side for the rake in your house seating (just make sure that you keep it level at the top to evenly distribute the weight)

Also just since I didn't really see anyone else chime in, a harness is a bad idea in a high school program, unless you have trained professionals on hand it is way to easy for accidents to occur. Saftey harness for construction and theatre purposes are not the same as recreational harness for rock climbing. However if you are up on a genie lift at twenty feet it would probably be a good idea to invest in a harness and a training session for each operator. 

Just cause saftey is always a good idea.


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## zac850 (Nov 26, 2006)

http://www.professionalequipment.com/xq/ASP/ProductID.2116/id.11/subID.424/qx/default.htm

If you can afford the $665 price tag, this looks perfect for you.


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## Van (Nov 26, 2006)

lightbyfire said:


> Scaffolding can really make it easier. If your school board has money do that over a ladder, it is significantly safer. If they are ok with a ladder but dont want to invest in scaffolding (which is a horrible ethical decission) than a little giant ladder that extends to 18 or 20 feet would be best as you can adjust each side for the rake in your house seating (just make sure that you keep it level at the top to evenly distribute the weight)
> 
> Also just since I didn't really see anyone else chime in, a harness is a bad idea in a high school program, unless you have trained professionals on hand it is way to easy for accidents to occur. Saftey harness for construction and theatre purposes are not the same as recreational harness for rock climbing. However if you are up on a genie lift at twenty feet it would probably be a good idea to invest in a harness and a training session for each operator.
> 
> Just cause saftey is always a good idea.


 
Beg to differ in a highschool format a harness is a safety demand just as it is in construction, proffessional theatre. While there are a few case I can think of where poor safety precautions are worse than none, those are few and far between. If you are going to be using Scaffolding, lifting devices < genie, snorkle,condor, etc.> you should be also trained in proper use of saftey equipment. Most states will offer training classes for teachers in these situation sothat they may in turn, ceertify students in the proper use of safety equipment in thier venue. Worst case scenerio I'd like to see someone atleast attempting to follow safety guidelinesrather than simply blowing them off.


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## lightbyfire (Nov 26, 2006)

Van

I completely agree. I was not very clear, I think that saftey devices should be used, but not relied on. saftey devices are there just in case, not as a better way to accomplish a task. I was under the impression that they were thinking of using a harness as a lift device (bosuns seat style) which would be incredibly dangerous without proper training. Using a harness to lift a person off the ground to access hard to reach places is what I am advising against, that is what a suspension system is designed for. But if they intend to use it as a saftey device on scafolding or lift equipment then yes even without proper knowledge it is always best to use a harnes if you are working at height. 

I completely agree that training should be sought, including proper saftey devices. and most harness come with directions on proper fitting and uses. (such as compliance in a can) http://www.northernsafety.com/cart/...=Compliance+in+a+Can+Fall+Protection&ovtac=PI


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## Van (Nov 26, 2006)

Ah I misunderstood. Using a harness to haul somone up on would be a bad idea, and uncomfortable to boot. Wearing a harness while in a bosuns chair = good idea, only relatively uncomfortable. Buying scaffolding with apropriate leveling hardware and wearing a harness = Very good idea, moderatly uncomfortable.
Sorry 'bout the confusion


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## cue1go (Dec 22, 2006)

In our house, the front of house truss flies in and out on chain hoists. For focusing it and for doing anything on the Row Q trapeze, we have a large A-frame extension ladder. It takes some getting used to, and is not for those afraid of heights. It gets the job done though.

Look at this one:
http://www.wernerladder.com/catalog/details.php?series_id=137

Good Luck


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## blsmn (Dec 22, 2006)

zac850 said:


> http://www.professionalequipment.com/xq/ASP/ProductID.2116/id.11/subID.424/qx/default.htm
> If you can afford the $665 price tag, this looks perfect for you.



I second this suggestion. I have an identical situation except that the FOH instruments are not on a batten - they are on permanent pipes bolted into beams. The Little Giant straddles the seats and with the ability to set each leg at different heights easily overcomes the raked floor to keep the ladder level. Plus that the thing is sturdy as hell. Check see if there is a dealer in your area who might bring one in for you to try out.


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## highschooltech (Dec 22, 2006)

Break out the little giant. Or a lift with a stradle kit or an articulating boom lift.


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## SHARYNF (Dec 22, 2006)

the problem with the ladder is that there is the tendancy to try to reach just that bit further to adjust the next instrument without going down, moving the ladder, and that is where the danger lies. 
Sharyn


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## burgesg (Dec 22, 2006)

Schniapereli said:


> In our auditorium, the front of house lights are directly above audience chairs. (about the 6th row from front) There is no catwalk or anything leading to them. They are connected to a fly, and so the only way we have to focus them is to fly it in, guess on where the light will be, then fly them out. There is no way to focus and point the lights while they are hung at the right height. They used to raise a guy with a harness, but now they can't do that. We thought of maybe putting a giant flat board out, and then calculating all the angles out, but the board would have to be HUGE, and the other techs don't want to do that. It is also harder because, they don't always bring it up to the same hieght. (sometimes 17' or 18' or even 20'10")
> Is there maybe some other way to fix this that we haven't thought of.
> Or, should we just try to measure on the floor of the auditorium, try to ignore the seating, and calculate in the slope? (that would be REALLY retarded.)
> Or, we could just continue guessing and correcting...
> ...



I havent read the other replies to this topic so other people would have probably mentioned these solutions already. At our Junior School (where i also help out) we have exactly the same problemt. However, the seats are removable. We use a genie on weekends and after school to put up and focus the lights, and scafollding. We have also bought three Macs (moving lights) so we have some variable spots whcih we can control from the bord.


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## Chris15 (Dec 23, 2006)

Quick question, slightly off topic. Down here, Workcover mandates that any work at a height whereby one's feet are more than 2 metres from the ground requires fall protection of some description. This means that theoretically if your feet are more than 2 metres up a lader you need a harness or the like. The question I have is what is the situation elsewhere? Does OHSA etc. have anything to say about it?


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## soundlight (Dec 23, 2006)

Unfortunately, OSHA (to the best of my knowledge) does not cover kids who are in tech theater programs at middle and high schools.


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## Chris15 (Dec 23, 2006)

Nor does Workcover... students are not generally employees. If I recall correctly, OHSA does not apply to government organisations over there. Down here, Workcover does. Regardless of the technicalities of whether the rules are actually binding over school students, can they not and should they not be taken as good guidelines regardless?


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## soundlight (Dec 23, 2006)

I agree that they should be taken as guidelines regardless, but some schools don't enforce the guidelines.

I have to go in and re-focus all of my high school's front of house position in early January, and I will be borrowing scaffolding that I can roll between the seats. I will also try to get a hold of a harness for the job. Actually, the general idea is to take all of the lights down, clean them, steel wool the shutters to get some of the rust off of them, replace some bulbs, and all that fun stuff.


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## burgesg (Dec 23, 2006)

Chris15 said:


> Quick question, slightly off topic. Down here, Workcover mandates that any work at a height whereby one's feet are more than 2 metres from the ground requires fall protection of some description. This means that theoretically if your feet are more than 2 metres up a lader you need a harness or the like. The question I have is what is the situation elsewhere? Does OHSA etc. have anything to say about it?


Well, at my school here in England as long as we are supervised we can work at hights - but our parents have to have a permission slip.


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## Chris15 (Dec 24, 2006)

Just to clarify, the 2 metre rule is legally binding on employees, and not on students, but you will find most schools here will apply the same rule to students for the sake of reducing liability, else they will just outright ban students from climbing ladders.


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## PhantomD (Dec 24, 2006)

Chris15 said:


> else they will just outright ban students from climbing ladders.



   


And we are in the same position with our Front of House FOH lighting bar!


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## Pie4Weebl (Dec 25, 2006)

dumb question, but if you are in a genie, 24' in the air and it tips over with you in it, what good is the harness going to do?


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## SHARYNF (Dec 25, 2006)

same as with the ladder, all it does is make it easier for the EMT's to find you ;-)
Sharyn


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## Thranduil (Dec 31, 2006)

A couple of comments.

1) we have a similar situation in our little theater where all three of our FOH pipes are bolted to the cealing, 25-30 feet up. However, we have a aframe, so its not a problem.

2) On the liability factor. In the state of califroina OSHA says its illegal to be more than 7 feet of the ground on a ladder with out a harness unless you are going to a location, such as a catwalk. 

3) On the liability factor, part 2: In the state of california OSHA says its illegal to use an A-Frame on wheels in a theater(i think they also would prefer you didnt use a normal aframe), you have to use a genie and the outriggers must be on. 

4) Theres a grandfather clause or something, but I know UC berkeley recently had an A Frame tip and OSHA came and walked out the stage door with their aframes and told them to get genies. 

5) Alot of school districts dont know about theater laws and regulations. Hence, they may not know any of the above things. THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE OR REASON TO USE AN AFRAME. THEY CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS, ESP IF YOU ARE INEXPIERNCED WITH USING THEM. 

I would say scaffolding is a idea, and stick a spike on the arbors guide so you know what trim should be. In addition, play around for a day with it and you will be able to figuer out what corrosponds to what when your at ground level to trim.


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## Van (Dec 31, 2006)

Pie4Weebl said:


> dumb question, but if you are in a genie, 24' in the air and it tips over with you in it, what good is the harness going to do?


 
I agree with Sharyn it makes it easier to find the body. Interestingly enough, When they were re-modeling the Portland airport a few years ago, a floor of the parking garage collapsed and I beleive it was 3-5 workers that were killed. They were all obeying OSHA regs and were harnessed onto the steel they were working on. 3 guys that were working on the same piece of steel but who were not tied off to the steel were able to jump off the collapsing i-beam and lived with only minor injuries. The case actually prompted a short lived review by OSHA of the harness requirements.


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## Radman (Dec 31, 2006)

Chris15 said:


> Quick question, slightly off topic. Down here, Workcover mandates that any work at a height whereby one's feet are more than 2 metres from the ground requires fall protection of some description. This means that theoretically if your feet are more than 2 metres up a lader you need a harness or the like. The question I have is what is the situation elsewhere? Does OHSA etc. have anything to say about it?




OSHA said:


> "Unprotected sides and edges." Each employee on a walking/working surface (horizontal and vertical surface) with an unprotected side or edge which is 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above a lower level shall be protected from falling by the use of guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems."



More Information


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## dvlasak (Jan 2, 2007)

It is true that OSHA regs do not apply to other government agencies. (It seems that they don't care about us.) However, the school district's insurance company surely does care!! The insurance company should be coming in once or twice a year to do a thorough inspection of the facility and ask questions about how things are done. I get "grilled" by the inspector for the insurance carrier for my school district twice a year.
Again, I am going to make a plug for Dr. Randall Davidson's (known in the industry as Dr. Doom) book, _Practical Health and Safety Guidelines for School Theater Operations_. Practical Health and Safety Guidelines for School Theater Operations is a brand new text book with several eye-opening safeguards and recommendations and when used can help prevent liability and litigation. The material may be startling to some, but the author’s hope is that it will be a major wakeup call to all who work in and administer school performing arts activities. It is a must-have and must-read for all schools, theaters and any facility with an auditorium. It is especially useful to health and safety officers, risk managers, insurance carriers and personal liability lawyers. This book ultimately saves lives by mitigating hazards. This book applies to *ALL LEVELS* of theater, not just secondary schools.
I also want to put in a plug for ISETSA. The mission of the International Secondary Education Theatre Health and Safety Association (ISETSA) is to promote standards of health and safety practices in theatre and theatre education. We do (I am a member of this group) this primarily by connecting students, educators, technical experts and practioners with each other. Dr. Doom is also associated with this organization.
Those of us in technical theater need to constantly be thinking about safety to not only keep us safe as we work, but also all those that persons who use the space safe!!

Dennis

Oops - I forgot to post the links. www.isetsa.org or the book website: www.theaterhealthandsafetybook.com


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## jason0 (Jan 4, 2007)

hey, I find myself in similar situations needing a crazy solution to something. The thing that pisses me off though, is that I will spend 2 days coming up with a great idea that would work and only require stuff laying around the tech shop or my basement, and the teacher will be like, dont bother. Our TD spent a year as a stagehand (running cable, thats all he ever did) at a college theater, and now thinks he knows everything, while I have done a lto to advance my knowledge in the area. Students are not allowed on the lift, in our not designed by a theatrer consultant black box. Our old theater (called the lecture center because thats what it actualyl is) has a 14 foot ladder for ceiling work, but the FOH pipes are only like 10 feet off of our excessively stadium seating so they are easy enough to reach.

for a really cheap solution, can i recommend an extension ladder? IF you have an I-beam or other hard point you can safely brace off of, try it. But, tie off when you get up there, in case you fall. I find myself often leaning as much as 4 or 5 feet off the ladders not wanting to climb down 15 feet and move them. I work in industry to make money, so I have a good idea of OSHA req's, but my school doesnt, so i do what i can and deal without.

ALso, I totally know what you mean about being the sophomore who actually knows stuff and being stuck with a crap job just because of seniority.


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## JChenault (Jul 7, 2009)

OK - I know this is an old post - but there was one approach to the original question which I did not see addressed.

As I understand the original post, there is a venue with a motorized - unaccessable FOH batten. The issue is how to focus the lights. Reading further, it sounds like there are a small number of configurations that need to be handled.

In the old days of touring, you would see the electricians hang a pipe, and lay out a groundcloth with the shutter cuts marked on the groundcloth. It seems to me that this approach could be used in this situation.

1 - figure out some way to accurately position a ground cloth on the seats. ( This might be the hardest part of the problem)
2 - bounce focus one of the looks. Mark the position of each fixture on the pipe.
3 - Lower the pipe to a known height. Lay out your ground cloth. Mark the beams for each fixture.

Next time you need that look - drop the pipe, hang the fixtures in the appropriate place. Lay out the ground cloth. Focus to the cloth. Raise the pipe up - and you are done ( or at least very very close)


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## derekleffew (Jul 7, 2009)

Good idea, JChenault. Somewhere we've discussed the fact that it's surprising Focus cloths aren't used more regularly. For another possible solution to the original problem, see Lighting Angle Focus Solution | Mt. Vernon High School Performing Arts.http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/members/jchenault.html


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## DBFJohn (Jul 7, 2009)

Have a look at these, I used one in a house that had steped seating, rolled through the chairs perfectly.
UpRight Aluminum Scaffold - UpRight Scaffold


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