# "That doesn't belong there"



## MNicolai (Apr 18, 2011)

An open letter to the riggers of CB, however discontinuous and disconnected some of the thoughts it it may be:

Every so often I share stories of our rigging system and the pains it gives us. Here are some photos from my latest inspection of it.

The trim chains probably became misaligned after repeated occasions of snagging the line sets on the drop box cables, which are always in our way. There's really no place we can put our drop boxes where they aren't in the way.

When they're suspended with their corresponding electrics, the cables are in the way of scenery moving on and off stage and usually interfere with the immediately adjacent border curtains.

When they're setup on side booms, whether the booms are in line with the electrics or not, the cables are a major problem -- on one occasion a moving line set caught them and almost lift the side boom and the several fixtures on it clean off of the floor.

When we use them with our concert shell clouds to provide power for the ceiling lights (which were an add after the building had already been open a year), the cables get in the way of several line sets, leg curtains, and borders. This past week we've played dueling electrics several times, and I spent a lot of time in a scissor lift untangling drop box cable and feeder cable from each other and from battens and lift lines.

One way or another, those drop box cables will be torn out of the grid in the next decade, either intentionally or on accident.

I also enjoy the batten that was installed directly above the hanging hardware for our 2nd concert shell cloud. When the system was installed, a border curtain was installed there and we could occasionally feel the set get caught and always heard the pipe batten and the bottom pipe hit the against the shell's hardware. We've since removed the curtain from that batten and have permanently locked off that line set entirely. Luckily in the several months it took us to figure out the problem, the line set only ever half-unlocked our concert shell; had it unhinged both locks, the shell would've dropped into it's presentation orientation up at the grid and would've been a nightmare to fix.

Several things that irk me about the install:

+ All equipment in the install was downsized from the as-builts we were provided. Functionally, it means we are equipped to handle 1200lbs per counterweight set instead of 1350lbs, which will probably still satisfy any of the shows we'll ever do in here, but it means our drawings are a liability -- if anyone on our end should ever accidentally base a design decision on them or use them for reference, we're in big trouble (especially the ones that explicitly state our sets are rated for 1350lbs).
+ Battens were not installed with colored end caps.
+ Arbors were not installed with spreader plate stickers
+ Open holes at the grid were not marked (I've started spray painting them Safety Yellow, so no one falls through)
+ Our fire curtain has in one instance tripped without explanation, to which the rigger came in that afternoon stating, "There's always a reason!" and then left saying, "I could not determine what tripped it."
+ CAD drawings showing where line sets are located are not at all accurate. The rigger, at his discretion, installed sets differently than the drawings showed. The result was several months of arguing with the installer, who insisted their as-builts were accurate, despite me pointing out that there were huge discrepancies in the order in which line sets were installed and where they were located on stage and what they had attached to them. Instead of someone just stepping forward and saying, "Our documents that we have available do not accurately reflect the system as it was installed," we got, "I have no idea what you're talking about; the drawings are accurate." The installer actually emailed to me several time their record documents, and each time I had to respond back, "That's the drawing I already have, and I'm telling you it's wrong."

I see how an installer could argue that some of our problems are user-error, but things like our drop box cables are more a user-inconvenience. The fact that the cables have no sensible cable management to them is something that gives us headaches each and every time we use the system, and is one of those things that really should _just work_.

We haven't had any modifications to our system, we haven't added line sets, hung chain motors, or done anything wildly out of the norm. We've used the system as a system like this in at an educational/professional facility would be used, and in routine use of a well-designed system, the problems we're running into shouldn't be problems.

This week we'll be doing our first semi-complex rigging install in the last two and a half years we've been open, where I'll be dead hanging leg curtains off-stage for a special event we're having (where the entire audience is on stage with the cast for the show), but aside from that we've had school band concerts, a few dance shows, and occasionally a show will call for a few pieces of scenery to be hung, but as a testament to how little we've actually done with our rigging, there's maybe three bricks sitting on our loading bridge because almost all of our setups and strikes have not warranted a loader on the bridge, so we've never take the time to shuttle our counterweight inventory up to the loading bridge.

Most of these notes I've already given to the installer after 18 months or so of letting things cool down between them and I, and hopefully it'll be constructive for them, but money is money and they don't earn any more by preventing "user-inconvenience," but I've made it clear to them that over the next decade, it'll really surprise me if someone _doesn't_ get hurt from the routine use of this system. With as many things clunking around and hitting each other as do in our system, I'll be genuinely amazed if something doesn't get knocked out of the air one of these days. Maybe it'll be a light fixture, maybe it'll be an entire curtain track, or maybe it'll be a shell cloud or a boom getting thrown over.

If I had to summarize my thoughts on this rigging system, I'd say that due to the way it's installed, it's impossibly difficult to manage and maintain all of the different moving parts. We should not have to dispatch a scissor lift to untangle feeder cable drops and drop box cables every time we want to setup the concert shell, nor should we have to run around on the grid re-centering trim chains all of the time because they're getting bopped around when a batten snags a drop box cable or hits against the adjacent line set's curtain track. (yes, adjacent, empty line sets are close enough to main and mid draws to knock the curtain tracks around).

So to all you riggers out there, please keep this in mind when you're performing an install. It may be only your job to get the system installed and ensure it's working until the moment you leave the room, but if you're not going to put forth a little effort to prevent user-inconvenience (or as you may sometimes call it, "user-error"), please don't bid on a project for me. I want a system that just works. I don't want a system that works only if for every 10-minute task, I have to spend another 30 minutes in a lift untangling your poorly "designed" rat's nest of cable drops.

Might it have initially cost a little more to add some better cable management? Probably, but we could've afforded it. As for the line sets ending up in the wrong places and too-tightly spaced together, battens not having bright-colored end caps, and that idler being installed and then never being used -- it would've cost almost exactly the same price to do the work correctly, but instead the work we got was just plain sloppy.


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## derekleffew (Apr 18, 2011)

This thread doesn't seem to be much different from the "Leaving Strand" thread.

This was a public bid contract, was it not?
Did the system pass the ATP on the date it was signed off on? What's that? No ATP's were written or enforced?
Please cite instances where either the manufacturer or installer violated the terms of the contract, and cite them within the standard one-year warranty period.
Please produce all change order s and "value-engineering" submittal s that occurred during the course of design and construction. 
Stop fooling around with whomever you've been using. Get a real, respected, third-party inspection of the facility. One that can recommend practical, cost-effective solutions to your issues. Does the venue qualify for http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...condary-school-rigging-safety-initiative.html ?
Do you want to actually address and fix the problems, or just whine about them? And stop pestering the original installer; that ship has sailed. You have no recourse with them.

I doubt there's ever been a rigging (or lighting, or audio, or ...) system installed that some undergrad didn't say "They shouldn't have done that. _*I*_ would have done it this way..." 
Sorry for the bluntness. Some of your issues can be easily fixed by the end-user, others easily by a contractor, and still others not without a big bucket of money.


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## MNicolai (Apr 18, 2011)

It was a public bid, but the severity of the problems were unknown until well after owner-turnover. While we expressed our discontent that the as-builts provided by the general contractor were not great, they had no intention of updating all of their CAD drawings nor was it in their contract. While there was a contract in place between the GC and the rigging installer to provide accurate as-builts, the GC never enforced this, and we took our own sweet time making our own drawings, so it was well past the 1-year mark before we had gotten around to compiling our entire list of things that didn't match up. I am not even certain if the GC was ever fully informed about our feelings on that matter, but the rigging installer certainly was.

We did receive a full inspection by _the other_ ETCP certified rigger in our state (although since then a few others have become certified). It's a dozen page document telling us how much money we need to throw at the situation to fix it, ranging from replacing some bolts here and there to "Completely reinstall fire curtain". It's on record with the district, and upon receiving it, was then sent over to the GC.

I hassle the installer because we _do_ still do business with them. For any competitive bid process on projects it's them or we've got to pay for someone to come up from Chicago -- an option we've already priced out for our next project. There just aren't many riggers in the area, so we've got maybe two people in the state we can call before we've saturated the local crowd and we're calling people up from a distance. The compromise we've come to thus far is that my go-to-guy is local, who then relays all of our project information to their rigging sub-contractor out of Chicago, but like I said -- second and third opinions/bids are coming from all over the region before we can pull the trigger on anything.

In this particular case, I went to the installer's offices a few weeks ago for a different project to get them up to speed so they could assemble their competitive bid on it, and while I had our section of out of our rigging systems, I asked if they had been made aware of problems we were having and they said they hadn't, so after they said they were going to setup a time this month to come take a look at the system, I sent them an email better detailing our problems. I don't expect them to fix any of it or necessarily do anything about it, but they should at least know that we're unhappy customers and what exactly our problems with their systems are so they don't cookie-cutter it to another facility that will end up having the exact same problems we're having.

If you had a poor experience with a company and were meeting with that company's president, would you not say something?

We have no intention for applying for the USITT program; there are a lot of schools that need it more and we're fortunate to have a proper budget that we can tap into (that is, once our current fiscal cycle closes and our next budget is opened July 1), and the ETCP guy in our area that would come to inspect would either be the guy who did the initial install or the guy who did the third-party inspection whose opinions on the install are already on-record.

Believe me -- I am doing what I can to fix the problems, but I'm doing a lot of it out-of-pocket and on my own time. Adding batten end caps, marking the open holes on the grid, painting pipe weight bricks, re-centering trim chains, re-leveling trim chains, marking center lines, marking distances from center on each batten, figuring out what the squeaking noise from our 4th line shaft winch is, crafting several documents and CAD drawings of the systems -- the list is pretty long of fixing things that shouldn't have ever been problems as well as getting our systems better set up for roadhouse and school functions. There's a lot to get done and the facility is understaffed. Our full-time administrator is unfortunately on salary so he pulls 70-hour weeks for 40-hours of pay. Similar stories with our part-time staff -- everyone's going the extra mile or two, but things take time we don't have, costs we cannot afford, and our problems are a PITA now.

Luckily, last week the head cheese for our facility convinced the school board to come through for a walk-through -- something he's been trying to get them to do for the last two years. They finally have a glimpse into how we operate, how much time we invest, and what we need if we want to become profitable and to improve our functionality.

Some people reading this thread can probably connect the dots to figure out who's who from the small community of professional riggers; if you think you know who the installer is, please do not state their name. It's not exactly a mystery, but I don't want this thread to move in the direction of everyone sharing stories on how they did or did not like their interaction with said installer.


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## derekleffew (Apr 18, 2011)

MNicolai said:


> ...Adding batten end caps, marking the open holes on the grid, painting pipe weight bricks, re-centering trim chains, re-leveling trim chains, marking center lines, marking distances from center on each batten, figuring out what the squeaking noise from our 4th line shaft winch is, crafting several documents and CAD drawings of the systems -- the list is pretty long of fixing things that shouldn't have ever been problems as well as getting our systems better set up for roadhouse and school functions. ...


(Trying hard not to be argumentative...) I consider all of those tasks the owner's responsibility, unless contractually-stated otherwise. I've certainly done most, if not all, of those tasks as an end-user (often with a ten or more year-old facility).
You forgot "Attach spreader plate location stickers on arbors" which I believe are provided at no cost by the manufacturer, along with batten end caps.


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## MNicolai (Apr 18, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> (Trying hard not to be argumentative...) I consider all of those tasks the owner's responsibility, unless contractually-stated otherwise. I've certainly done most, if not all, of those tasks as an end-user (often with a ten or more year-old facility).
> You forgot "Attach spreader plate location stickers on arbors" which I believe are provided at no cost by the manufacturer, along with batten end caps.



I agree that most of them are, but many of the tasks that I listed were listed _because_ that's what I'm capable of doing -- to show I'm not just someone whining who's making no personal effort to improve the situation.

I'm not capable of relocating that entire line set that should have never been installed above the hanging hardware for the concert shell, nor am I cable of installing a pipe batten above the 950sq. ft of unlit apron we have that protrudes downstage of the plaster line -- an area that's unlit because the installer cookie-cuttered our design from another facility and did not notice the architectural reason that rendered their design useless and inaccessible(the company president admitted that to me at my last meeting with him). I'm also not capable of shifting loft blocks to improve spacing between battens. 

In summary -- I'm doing what I can to walk the walk without overextending my expertise. My point listing those end-user tasks was that I'm putting my skin in the game and that I'm not just some guy on the sideline yelling at kids to get off my lawn.


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## jglodeklights (Apr 18, 2011)

HEMP HOUSES ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Derek. Yes, somethings may have been installed not necessarily to your liking. Chances are, though, there is a way for YOU to correct them or alter them to fit your needs. You may have to take it upon yourself to learn how to do it properly, as I myself have had to do. Or your theater may now have to shell out the appropriate funds. We all feel for you, but instead of whining to us about the problems and the poor work done already, why don't you instead use the resources here, both in the people on the boards and the information already posted, to learn how you can go about fixing things?


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## MNicolai (Apr 18, 2011)

I was just informed that the contractor is finding a day near the end of June to bring a couple of their guys in for a 10-hour day to perform a complete inspection, look at our cabling problems, investigate our squeaky winches, and so on and such forth; they're covering the costs for it all.

You call it whining, but I call it constructive criticism and open communication, and it looks like it's going to really pay off.

I don't expect them to tear the system apart down to the bare components and reinstall it, but just to hear them say they'll come listen, look, and make a good faith effort goes a long ways.

I also just lost the concerns I had with them for this upcoming project. We've made peace and I have gained a new found respect for their professionalism.


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## venuetech (Apr 18, 2011)

can you establish breast lines to pull the drop boxes out of the way? when not needed.
It should be a simple matter to take a few minuets and realign the trim chains on the affected battens/line sets
I would secure stout plywood covers over the small grid holes, paint those yellow.

much of your to-do list is often known as "Job Security"


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## kicknargel (Apr 18, 2011)

I say it on every thread about new installs: do not have the same company spec and install any system! Hire a consultant to design the system who is working in your interests and does not profit by cutting corners. Then you can get bids on installing it to spec, make concessions for budget where needed, and hold the installer accountable to meet the specs.


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## Footer (Apr 18, 2011)

You will never get a turnkey space out of a contractor. It can take a month or two to get a venue into operating condition after it has been turned over. "Working in" a venue takes time... and in reality is never over. From what it sounds like, you have a system that does not have dedicated electrics. Instead, you have drop boxes or something of that type. All you need to install is a short pin rail and 5-6 multi-line 2 pick points to grab the cable. Its going to be a constant clearance issue for the life of the system. However, I have worked in 100 lineset venues with this type of system and it works great... you just have to be on top of it. Its just how it works. 

Added to that... the stickers and the yellow end caps are not going to make the facility any safer. No one should be in the grid anyway without knowing what they are doing... covering the holes is not going to change that. Most grids out there are so full that you can't walk them anyway. 

If a rigging system was installed, someone should be on staff who knows how to operate it and maintain it. They should know how to safely kick sheaves. They should know how to rig cable picks. If you don't have that person on staff, you probably should find that person or lock off the system all together. 

Go buy a 1000' of multi-line II, a few blocks and go to it. They can send you the caps and stickers if you want them. The biggest thing with any rigging system is operator training. Unless you have failure of hardware, only the operators can be blamed for damage.


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## MPowers (Apr 19, 2011)

> .......the contractor is finding a day near the end of June to bring a couple of their guys in for a 10-hour day to perform a complete inspection,........ they're covering the costs for it all........I also just lost the concerns I had .......I have gained a new found respect for their professionalism.



I am very glad to hear this end result. It speaks well of all concerned. Some of the specific system concerns mentioned here were very real and it looks like those are being looked into. some of them were, as others have pointed out, a touch on the whinny, end user should just deal with it type of thing. 

Two things I would like to comment on. 

The first is the "holes" in the grid. Why are they there? What purpose did they have when created? Either cover them or put a railing around them if there is a functional reason why they have to be there. 

The second is the fire curtain false trigger. I can't really diagnose from 500 miles out but it has been my experience that a large number of false triggers are from someone "testing" just how close they could come or a dare or accident, and then being scarred to 'fess up". That said, there are also real incidents, but they are difficult to diagnose unless they repeat. The real danger is not an unwanted false trigger, but rather a hang fire, or not operating when one of the release mechanisms has been triggered. Between now and July when they come in to work, make sure you keep close track of your curtain's operation and run a couple of test drops to make sure it does work when you want it to. If your system is connected to a Sure Guard or similar interface with the alarm system, work with the local AHJ to run at least one test by tripping the fire alarm. When the crew comes in, they should check for any evidence of voltage spikes or other electrical issues. If you have a Sure Guard, check to make sure the release arm didn't get bumped by scenery or hooked by multicable or traveler op lines while flying the main in and out. Do you have the manual "red handle" Clancy releases? If so and they don't have covers, maybe you should add them. All just thoughts. Good luck.


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## MNicolai (Apr 19, 2011)

The holes are the loft wells that the lift lines are strung through. Due to the building design, anyone who has to get to the loading bridge has to go up several flights of steps, the traverse across the walkable grid and several loft wells to get to the bridge.

As for the fire curtain, I test it regularly and it has never not tripped. The false trip happened on a day some 18 months ago; I was moving one of our mid-stage sets of legs up to the grid and presumably something in the system vibrated enough to cause the curtain to release without the pull rings being off their hooks or the fusible links being broken.

The rigger removed the round weight from the system, said it wasn't doing anything for us, and the mystery seems to remain unsolved to this day.

To out dissatisfaction, that was also the day we learned that to hand crank the H&H Braille winch back up, the crank handle could not make a full revolution unless we first removed the rope lock from the first line set and got it out of the way.


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## MPowers (Apr 19, 2011)

I was wondering if the loft wells were the "Holes" your were referring to. In that case, if there are large gaps between line sets, a ply or open grate section, fastened down in some manner, not loose, might be in order. Otherwise, the most common way to treat these is with high visibility paint. One thing I have seen was at each loft well, a line was strung just above head height and 1' strips of construction tape, fluorescent green, were hung from the string. 

The hand crank handle issue may not have been a choice for the installer if the curtain was added after the building was built and original rigging already installed. In addition the architect/consultant/owner may have dictated the location. One recent installation, the only place to install the braille Winch was in an 18"x 18" gap between the existing fly rail and a brick wall. It is motorized, so the probability of needing the hand crank is small, and it "can" be reached, we cranked it back up during install checks, but it is in a cramped space between the winch and the wall, no choice. You don't have to un bolt anything, just climb over the rail behind the #1 line set.


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## MNicolai (Apr 19, 2011)

MPowers said:


> The hand crank handle issue may not have been a choice for the installer if the curtain was added after the building was built and original rigging already installed.



It was a brand new install performed at the time of the construction of the building, and the lack of a round weight on either side of the stage to keep tension in the lines is the part of the design that our third-party rigger gave the most criticism to. His preference was that due to space limitations, we find a way to put the braille winch housing on the other side of the stage, although we'd have to move some things around to make way for it.


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## MPowers (Apr 19, 2011)

Have to admit, I'm having a bit of trouble envisioning a system without a round-weight or similar to provide an easily interrupted tension in the release line. 

Back to the stupid crank handle. If the installation is all new then there was a problem. Could be the architect or the theatre consultant spec'ing it to be in the location, could be interference with HVAC or plumbing etc. that would not allow shifting it a bit, head block location might be dictated by the building structure. Could be the rigging installer could have installed it 90 or 180 to the location but didn't, could be...... Point is there are a lot of possible reasons. If the rigging installer did not inform the General and in turn the architect about the potential problem of operation, before he finalized the installation, then he is partially at fault. If he DID inform the general and was not allowed to make the change, then that is another story. 

FWIW, I would not mind seeing some photos of the FC winch installation, the smoke pocket and the routing of the safety line. And grid anchor points for the chains as well.


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## MNicolai (Apr 20, 2011)

We have no smoke pockets; the fire curtain is just immediately upstage of the plaster line by an inch or so with wire-guides on each side of the arch.

I'll grab some photos tomorrow of the different parts of the system and where the round weight was initially installed before it was removed from the system.


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## derekleffew (Apr 20, 2011)

If there's no smoke pocket, what seals the fire curtain against the proscenium wall? If no seal, what's the point?


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## MNicolai (Apr 20, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> If there's no smoke pocket, what seals the fire curtain against the proscenium wall? If no seal, what's the point?



If I had to guess, it serves the purpose of being code compliant while being only marginally effective at its purpose.

This is why I fight the small battles, because there are so many larger battles that aren't going to go anywhere, like having a fire curtain without smoke pockets.


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## MPowers (Apr 20, 2011)

MNicolai said:


> If I had to guess, it serves the purpose of being code compliant while being only marginally effective at its purpose.........



Marginally effective would be an understatement. Code complient would be incorrect unless Milwaukee has local code variations that are vastly different than the rest of the country.

NFPA 80 
20.6.5 Vertical Guide Pocket
20.6.5.1 Vertical guide pockets shall be used on all fire safety curtain assembly installations.
20.6.5.2 Vertical guide pockets shall contain the vertical edges of the fire safety curtain assembly and the guide mechanisms used both to guide the fire safety curtain assembly and the prevent binding during operation.
20.6.5.3 Vertical guide pockets shall extend vertically from the stage floor to a point above the top of the open fire safety curtain assembly and shall be fastened or welded to the proscenium wall.
20.6.5.4 Vertical guide pockets shall be fabricated using a minimum of structural steel channel and 1/4" (6.4mm) steel plates or 1/4" (6.4mm) thick steel framed shapes and plates.

The section goes on for a while, but that is the gist of it. i.e., no smoke pocket, not code complaint.


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## MNicolai (Apr 28, 2011)

Took me a couple of days to get the photos for the system up. I've added them to this gallery.

On stage left at a pull ring, a wire rope cable goes to the grid -- halfway up is a fusible link. At the grid, this cable crosses to stage right -- halfway across, there is a fusible link. On stage right, this cable drops to stage right -- halfway down is a fusible link, a little further down a sheave connects it to both the tension line on the braille winch AND the stage right pull ring.

There is no round weight in the system anywhere, although I have a photo showing where it used to be.

This last weekend, I tripped this system deliberately via a pull ring. It took myself and another guy both pulling down on the ring with all of our might to get it back onto the pin. Inherently, there is a large amount of tension in that design without the round weight.


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## MPowers (May 8, 2011)

Your photos are great! The "loop" where is the round wight "used to be" is interesting. I'm still trying to picture how it worked, doesn't make a lot of sense. 

As for the pull ring release, it is not designed to reset with ease but if it takes more effort than a 100 pound stagehand/stage manager/scared performer or choir member or.... to pull it, it is wrong. 

You say there is a lot of tension in the system without the round weight, I'm trying to picture that. Without the round weight, there should be no tension in the release line. If there is tension from another source, what is it? 

The H&H braille winch should have a clutch bar/lever that is held up by the tension in the release line. This clutch bar should be set at about 30-40 pounds. The line then travels to a release lever or pull ring and then up to the grid, across and back down to the opposite side pull ring and then to the round weight to provide the tension to hold the clutch bar in the engaged position. The system can be rigged to place the winch, round weights and pull rings in various positions in the relationship, but all the elements still should be there. If the round weights are removed, what is producing the tension??

The wire guides look fine but the lack of an enclosed smoke pocket is a major issue. I really don't understand how that has passed muster so far.


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## MNicolai (May 8, 2011)

If I had to guess, I'd say the tension in the line is from the pull rings being installed a couple inches too low. It would've been manageable for one person to put the pull ring back on the pin had the pin been two inches higher.

I'm willing to bet the lines to the pull rings being pulled so tight compensates for the lack of a round weight.

Traditionally, the round weight would be on the other side of the stage, but due to an enclosed fence area on that side of the stage for our concert grand, they could not put a round weight there (at least not near ground level), and thus they settled for rigging it on the same side of the stage as the braille winch.

As for how we get away without smoke pockets, the local fire inspectors don't know much about theatres. They know a _lot_ about assemblies, but not particularly theatres. They understand the low level stuff like sprinkler systems and aisle widths and such, but a deluge soak curtain is the sort of thing they didn't know about until our facility was built. Then there are weeks like this last week where the guy performing the inspection is new and has not the slightest clue about how fire protection in theatres is setup. 

Both of our usual inspectors were recently moved to active duty in Afghanistan so the local fire department had to outsource our annual inspection to a fire marshal to a neighboring jurisdiction. The neighboring AHJ's visit to our facility was far more of a tour than an inspection; he wrote us up on a stack of chairs someone had inadvertently rolled in front of a fire exit during our off-week and one other easily corrected thing. When he spotted the costume shop the high school had setup in the orchestra pit, he said, "I'm not too sure about this, but I'm not going to write you up for it, primarily because I don't know what it is I would be writing you up for. I'll have to do a little research and get back to you about this."

On top of the all of the combustible costumes being located in the pit, the costume ladies had also plugged in a coffee pot, several irons, task lights, and sewing machines all into the same cord. He was less than thrilled and had good reason to be. As I pointed out to our costume ladies later on, it's a room they've put a lot of combustibles into that's without sprinklers.

I really like our local AHJ because they've worked with us on a lot of different unusual events throughout the city, but I've had two experiences in the last six months where the fire marshals from neighboring jurisdictions (rural areas without many assemblies) came to inspect an assembly and knew far less about how to inspect those situations than I did.

The one who showed up to a bar on New Year's Eve didn't even walk through the room; he glanced around and without thinking twice said everything looked fine and that he was happy; the AHJ I usually work with commented on that facility when I brought it to his attention and said he was not pleased with it but it wasn't until after he decided to dispatch someone to inspect that he discovered it's just barely beyond his jurisdiction. Had the city dispatched the inspector to that bar instead of the neighboring village, I know it would've been a very different outcome.

Then there was this guy last week filling in for our guys that are doing a tour in Afghanistan; he was more interested in our operations and in the tour than he was concerned about performing an inspection. It was a learning experience for him on how a facility like ours operates, which didn't stop him from noticing a couple low level violations, but I would never expect him to recognize a fire curtain, smoke pocket, or fusible link, much less understand how the entire system works and what triggers it versus what will not trigger it.


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