# Rose Brand DMX drop roller



## jtweigandt (Aug 7, 2018)

I work in a 100+ year old Chataqua barn and we produce 5 musicals a year Facility seats 500+

We have never had fly space and have used a variety of systems over the years to deploy drops... Roller track, drum roller manual operation (home made one off) Roman shade style etc. All are unsatisfactory in their own way.. Our proscenium height is only 14 feet and really only a few feet working room above that. 

I ran across the dmx roller drop on the rose brand site.. It looks like it could be Manna from heaven.
Anyone here with real world experience with one of these? Hangs from just 2 rigging points, so looks pretty versatile.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 7, 2018)

I understand the appeal and no reason to think it won't work wonderfully. I assume its's from Wahlberg. Have you gotten a quote yet? Please share if you have.

At least Thern also catalogs one. I see a company called Smartstage is also marketing one - but know nothing of them.


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## jtweigandt (Aug 7, 2018)

36 foot width Takes custom built crate and custom freight delivery.. 1k for welding the longer length
about 3500 for freight and custom crating... brought it to about 15k all up. before tax. Just an email, not a formal quote yet.
I looked and the wahlberg unit looks very similar to the pictures from Rose Though Wahlberg talks about a sleeve extension and Rose
about welding for long lengths. Smartstage looks interesting, but looks set up for more permanant mount points multiple bolts through a plate. The rose will hang from
chain or pipe from just 2 points which is very appealing (edit) just looked at the pdf and rose is the Wahlberg unit


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## MNicolai (Aug 7, 2018)

Quick caution: My understanding from various people who have used the other Walhberg DMX hoists is that they suffer from a difficulty of translating ft/inches/velocity into DMX. You may be happier in the long-term looking at the equivalent Thern product that does not require DMX to cycle it up and down. Makes it easier to park the switch on-stage where someone has line-of-sight to the drop and wings at all times for safe operation. Heavier duty product though so cost may or may not be competitive with Walhberg/Rose Brand.


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## RickR (Aug 10, 2018)

I had not heard of the SmartStage system so I went looking. Apparently it is not a current product and has been removed from their website. They do say they have plans to bring it out, so keep watching!


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 10, 2018)

It did come up in Google searching for roll drop: https://smartstage.com/truss/rolldrop-systems/


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## RickR (Aug 10, 2018)

This is what I got.

_"Hi Rick,

Thanks for your inquiry Rick,

The roll drop system we created for a show in Texas, but have not set up for production, therefore is not a formal product in our line at this time. It will be though, and hope we might work with you then. We have removed it from our site for now.

Sorry, and thanks.

Paula Drake"_​


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## BillConnerFASTC (Aug 10, 2018)

RickR said:


> This is what I got.
> 
> _"Hi Rick,
> 
> ...


Understood. Just looks like they went quite a ways and I'd guess just removed the link to it that was nearer their home page.


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## RickR (Aug 10, 2018)

All the images are CGI. Reality has a way of surprising you!


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## MNicolai (Aug 10, 2018)

I have no first-hand knowledge what issues they may have encountered that they pulled the plug on that product, but I will say that it is quite the engineering that goes into doing a tubular span of 20' to 30' wide, only supported on the ends with minimal deflection in the center. Da-Lite's motorized scenic roller is a similar version of this but to make the engineering work their version is a roller that travels down to unfurl the screen, rather than a stationary pipe that unrolls the fabric from above. The roller pipe is pretty sizable to do these wide spans without being supported in the middle, and built to a quality that'll last 20 years of regular cycling.

It's probably not a mystery why we don't see a lot of products in this niche. It's simply much easier mechanically to lift a 30' wide piece fabric up than it is to roll it up.


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