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Volume 5, Issue 8 — August 22, 2011
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A Tragedy Strikes
By Joel Rollins, CTS We interrupt our regularly scheduled coverage for this special bulletin.
This month I was going to continue our discussion of the arrogance that can be present among manufacturer personnel, and how to avoid it. We'll continue next issue, and for all those of you who have emailed me about it with their comments, thank you.
But right now, I'm swamped with email over the disaster in Indianapolis. Accidents in our industry DO happen, and, unfortunately, occasionally claim a life. It is rare though that they happen in such an extremely public and unusual fashion, and that they claim the lives of audience members. Usually, when a disaster occurs, it’s during setup or strike, thankfully when the house is empty. Besides getting all the cues right, it is one of the reasons we have rehearsals – to make sure that all the systems are stable and installed properly.
By now, most of you have seen the video of the stage collapsing, and, like me, have studied it like the Zapruder film and felt that cold chill of realizing that we could one day be involved in some way in such a tragedy. Some of us will be remembering how close we have come at times, and thank our lucky stars and the people we have worked with who prevented it. I know I am.
Most of the email has revolved around who could be at fault, and my only real answer is… both everyone and no one.
First, let’s talk for a moment about the nature of such large outdoor events, and I speak only generically here, not about the specific incident in Indiana. Normally, in such a large festival event, there are many, many cooks handling the "soup." In many, stage construction, lighting, audio and AV, and the portions of the rigging that come with them, can come from entirely separate companies. I sometimes marvel at such events, where people who have never worked together before can show up with only what fits in trucks and construct such a large rig in the time constraints involved. We get around many, many rules that would be involved in construction safety due to the temporary nature of the construction, no matter how large.
But all of us, hopefully, have the same attitude toward rigging and rigging safety. It CAN (and HAS) kill people, no matter who does it. It's the reason that the best people I know in the industry maintain some rigging safety paranoia, no matter how long they have been doing it.
Now let's talk about the nature of stage rigging. Truss is tough stuff, treated right, and many of you have emailed wondering if because of that, it had to be rigging mistakes that brought down that stage.
Not at all.
Truss IS very strong, but nowhere near what would be done for a permanent building. It is designed to be lightweight and portable, and we give up certain aspects of strength so that we don't have to weld steel i-beams instead. Truss is scientifically designed to bear high loads, but only in certain directions. That is the magic of rigging, carefully calculating weights and balance to bear weight along the strong directions in the truss, and not to bear too much weight on the weak points — the unions of the truss, where it is bolted together. A surprisingly small amount of unbalanced weight, applied in an unexpected direction, can tear a rig apart.
Which, from only the viewing of the videotapes, is what happened. If you watch the collapse of the stage, painful though it is, it collapsed from its basically cubic form diagonally as it buckled. The sudden incredible gust of wind seemed to come from backstage right, with the closed back, sides and roof covering providing the giant sails for a huge gust of wind that came from a really, really bad direction, allowing it to push on the corners of the cube and break the unions of the truss.
Lots of things could be done to prevent such an accident. For instance, a lot less canvas, or canvas with more apertures, would have allowed the wind to pass through rather than taking the stage down. Maybe. It's all second-guessing now. But that kind of freak accident with wind is something that could happen anywhere, and, ultimately, there's only one real safety measure. The event should have been called off the moment that such severe weather was anticipated. Much better to err on the side of safety than to ever have to watch that stage fall, over and over again, in your dreams.
My heart, and I'm sure those of all of us who are involved in the business, go out to all those involved in Indiana. Not only to the victims, but to all those involved in the event and the crew.
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS-R, is General Manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com Leave a Comment
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Tragedy on Stage
By Bob Snyder
Editor, rAVe Europe Tragedy struck on both continents this past week. Those of us with rental and staging business can appreciate how difficult it is to provide outdoor entertainment that is popular by demand. Add that to the pernicious weather that we are seeing more and more of these days… and disaster can strike.
The fact remains: you don’t often equate ProAV with life and death but that’s exactly what can be at stake.
Nathan Byrd was a spotlight operator and stage builder. He was perched in the rigging above the stage when violent wind hit the stage at the Indiana State Fair last Saturday and toppled the structure. He and three others died that night, and 45 others were injured as the Grandstand collapsed in winds. Victims are suing. "The parties responsible for this operation should have known that and should have realized that this storm was going to have damaging winds, potentially large hail and posed a serious threat to the fairgoers and they ignored it," says the victim’s lawyers.
Here in Europe, tragedy also struck a stage this month at Belgium’s annual Pukkelpop outdoor rock festival. Five died as a storm took down the stage, blew away heavy canvas tents, uprooted trees and tossed metal scaffolding and concert lights across the grounds.
140 injured, 10 of them seriously, as a hot sunny day in Belgium turned into a mini-hurricane with hailstones so hard they caused bruises.
Victims and their families try to make sense of what happened and why, and often blame a human element because nature is not a good listener and can’t be held accountable. For all our years on this planet, all our science… we hardly are able to get a good weather prediction. Even scientists freely admit they don’t yet really understand how the simple-looking clouds we view in the sky work.
Rental and staging companies will find insurance more expensive now. And we can expect the weather to be more unpredictable, not less, as the climate change debates range. We need to build with extreme expectations in mind and always document our concern about weather conditions… despite event organizers who might like to save money and cut corners.
Watch Indiana State Fair stage collapse
Go Pukkelpop Disaster (in Dutch)
Go Pukkelpop Disaster (in English) Leave a Comment
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Epson Introduces Two Bright, Portable Projectors Epson just launches the VGA (1024×768) resolution PowerLite 1221 ($549) and the WXGA (1280×800) resolution PowerLite 1261W ($649). Both LCD projectors are spec'd at 2800 lumens, have horizontal and vertical keystone correction, quick power on/off, have 5000-hour lamps and VGA as well as HDMI inputs.
The Epson PowerLite 1221 and 1261W will be available September 2011. They aren't on Epson's website yet, but when they are, they will be here: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/ProductCategory.do?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-15942 Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Stand-Alone Network Firmware for Sennheiser Wireless Systems Sennheiser's new firmware allows its Evolution Wireless ew 300 G3, ew 500 G3, and 2000 Series wireless systems to be networked and fully programmed without a computer. With ‘Stand-alone Network’ firmware, one receiver is defined as the master, which distributes the recommended results of an Easy Setup frequency scan into all networked receivers, connected via standard Ethernet cables and a switch. With this new functionality, complete frequency coordinations can be programmed on the fly, without the need for a computer running Wireless Systems Manager (WSM) software.
The new Stand-alone Network firmware will be available as a free download, starting this month at http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/sw-downloads.nsf/root/home-en Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Lighthouse Launches Rollable Indoor and Outdoor LED LED screen manufacturer Lighthouse Technologies has announced the launch of VideoBlades 12, a large-scale LED display technology that straddles the worlds of video and lighting in the entertainment, events and architectural markets in a pretty cool way.
VideoBlades 12 are the result of an alliance between Lighthouse and Pix2o, providing a 12.5mm pixel pitch, modular LED screen that is both for indoor and outdoor applications, with a literal twist.
VideoBlades 12 comes in two formats, SkyRoll and GroundRoll that can be deployed by rolling up or down from its patented rotating structure, just like a window shade. The modular format allows for the seamless formation of large-scale screens limited in size only by a customer’s needs. SkyRoll deploys down from overhead and is available in 4-meter, 6-meter and 8-meter widths and up to 10-meter screen heights, while GroundRoll, as the name suggests, deploys up from the floor resulting in the lowest possible rigged weight and is available in infinitely seam able sections 2 meters to 3 meters wide, up to 10 meters high.
Go here to read all the specs: http://www.lighthouse-tech.com/ProductDetail.aspx?id=8ed567ad-b667-4817-8a26-5dc21ef7a3d5&c=c6b9c603-1425-4123-94ef-ec962aa4a282 Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top MC² Claims 7400-Watt Capability with New Amp British manufacturer MC² Audio has started shipping its E100 amplifier — a four-channel amplifier (class D) that it has spec'd to deliver 2800-watt into 4 ohms with all channels driven from a 2U, 26-pound, rack-mountable amplifier.
MC2 claims the E100 was designed to run 2-ohm loads, thus delivering power in excess of 3500 watts from each of the four channels. This gives the amplifier further flexibility for running bass applications and allows bridging of a pair of channels down to 4 ohms. Bridging a pair of channels (via the rear panel switches) turns the E100 into a bass amplifier offering 7400 watts at 4 ohms and more than 5300 watts into 8 ohms. Features include gain settings of 26, 32 and 36dB on each channel — user selectable by an internal jumper setting — rear panel Channel Link switches, Neutrik XLR female connector inputs and Neutrik Speakon four-pole outputs.
Here are all the specs: http://www.mc2-audio.co.uk/e100.html Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top RGB Spectrum Adds HDMI & DVI to Linx RGB Spectrum's new Linx Prime switchers include built-in scaling with HDCP compliance of analog and digital inputs (DVI, HDMI, HD/3G-SDI, RGB, YUV and DVI/HDMI over fiber), which are converted and scaled as required to DVI/HDMI outputs — which RGB says resolves EDID compatibility issues between multi-resolution display devices.
Though scaling is common in single output presentation switchers, RGB Spectrum is among the first (including Extron and Crestron) to offer HDCP-compliant scaling in a matrix switcher. With the Linx Prime's mix-and-match architecture, each unit can be custom-configured with just the required number of each I/O card type (field-upgradable). Output resolutions include 2048×1156, 1900×1200, and 1080p for single link and up to 3840×2400 for dual link. Embedded audio in HDMI signals up to 7.1 is also supported.
Linx Prime comprises three frame sizes: 8×8, 16×16 and 32×32. Cards and power supplies are user swappable and require no special tools for installation. Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Extron Adds HDMI (HDCP) to Quantum Videowall Processors At InfoComm, Extron introduced the all-new Quantum HDMI Input and Output Cards that add HDMI connectivity and HDCP compliance to the Extron Quantum Elite and Quantum Connect Videowall Processing Systems. They enable presentation of Blu-ray Disc, digital satellite or cable, and other HDCP-encrypted sources on HDCP-compliant displays. The Quantum HDMI Input Cards accept two HDMI inputs at resolutions up to 1920×1200 and HDTV 1080p/60. The Quantum HDMI Output Cards include two HDMI outputs for driving two videowall displays at resolutions up to 1920×1200 and HDTV 1080p/60 and display up to 128 windows per output card. The input and output cards feature high performance scaling technology to optimize real-time image processing and ensure high quality image presentation on videowall displays.
Want to see all the specs? Go here: http://www.extron.com/product/product.aspx?id=quantumconnect&s=5 Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe Rental [and Staging] out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the rental and staging industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions — in this case, it’s industry-veteran Joel Rollins' opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
Don’t like us, then go away — unsubscribe! Just use the link below.
To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter — instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007. rAVe Ed [Education] launched in May 2008. rAVe DS [Digital Signage] was launched in January of 2009.
To read more about my background, our team, and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com Back to Top Copyright 2011 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln., Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |
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