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Mounted above and around your stage is an assortment of grids, bars, pulleys and winches-all the rigging tools to making your productions come alive. Is your crew pulling and pushing by hand, or is your rigging system computer-controlled with electronic gear? Many theatres have chosen to automate, while some prefer to stick with traditional methods. If you’re considering a switch, there’s a lot more at stake than simple convenience.
The traditional approach, known as manual counterweight rigging, utilizes an arbor (rack) loaded with counterweights to balance whatever curtains, lights or scenery hang from a pipe batten (bar). (Some theatres use sandbags instead of weights.) Loading and moving the system requires old-fashioned elbow grease on the part of the crew. By contrast, automated rigging setups feature electric motors and range from simple push-button, up-and-down winches to custom-designed creations that mechanize everything from fire curtains to fly spaces.
To Convert or Not to Convert
Although snazzy automated rigging might provide smoother, safer command of moving objects in your theatre, not every theatre has rushed to modernize its systems. As always, cost is a determining factor.
Some theatres choose to automate in a limited fashion and wait until later to add more equipment. Rigging specialist J.R. Clancy, Inc., helped outfit the new Arts Center in Mesa, Ariz., which features four theatres seating 1,600, 550, 200, and 99 patrons, respectively. For now, only the fire curtains and the acoustic reflector at the front of the proscenium in the largest theatre are automated. “The decision was primarily driven by cost and the need for flexibility in the fly towers,” says Mike McMackin, principal with Auerbach Pollock Friedlander in San Francisco, who served as consultant on the project. If the Center decides to automate more of its features, “there’s plenty of power available for future expansion,” he adds.
Installing a motorized rigging setup can also result in significant savings to a theatre’s bottom line, says Karl Ruling, technical standards manager for the Entertainment Services and Technology Association, a nonprofit trade organization in New York City. Ruling notes that automation can help alleviate high-budget items like labor, insurance premiums and liability payments to employees injured on the job. “Automated systems are almost always aimed at getting rid of the job of loading and unloading arbors, so that physically taxing job is eliminated,” he explains. “And the risk of runaway arbors is eliminated as well.”
In addition, automated systems can significantly reduce load-in time and allow productions to run complicated scene shifts with smaller crews.
What Can Be Automated?
Depending on your budget, anything in your theatre can be automated. “Any and all of the theatrical rigging battens, including electrics and orchestra shell ceiling battens, can be motorized and controlled by an automated system,” says Ted Paget, regional sales manager for Vortek in Victor, New York. “This includes hoisting equipment-as well as orchestra pit lifts-furnished by other manufacturers.”
Dan Culhane of equipment vendor SECOA, Inc., in Champlin, Minn., recommends that electrics/lighting line sets be automated. “They’re also the most economical to convert from manual operation to a counterweight assist winch,” he explains. Culhane notes that a simple computer control for preset elevations would be useful, as the electrics are frequently lowered to the deck for gel and gobo changes during the run of a show. Rather than having to raise the electrics by hand, an automated system can whisk the equipment back to its previous position at the touch of a button.
Thinking about Converting
If you’re looking at converting, it’s time to create a checklist of items to consider. First of all, will your building support the type of automation you’d like to install? If your stage has modern counterweight rigging, automating it should be a relatively painless process, says Paget. “But if your stage still has hemp-and-sandbag rigging-or, worse yet, dead-hung (fixed) rigging-it will need a thorough structural analysis.”
According to Culhane, adding new hoists-especially high-speed ones-can increase loads as much as 180 percent over the weight of the item being lifted. To run a large automated system, “it’s not unusual to need 100 amps or more of dedicated power,” he says. Because older buildings generally aren’t capable of supporting this type of power requirement, Culhane notes, theatre owners might be forced to green-light major electrical upgrades.
Next, where will you mount the rigging motors, and how will technicians access them when they need servicing? “Usually if the stage has counterweight or hemp-and-sandbag rigging there will be at least one service platform and a set of head beams,” says Paget. If this is the case, the contractor can determine whether to install the mechanism vertically on one or more walls or horizontally from the ceiling or existing rigging grid.
To sort all this out, your best bet is to hire a consultant to guide you. “In the long run,” says Culhane, “a theatre consultant will save you money.” Ruling recommends that, if possible, you first contact the vendor that installed your existing rigging system.
Paget adds that talking to a vendor’s sales manager can also help. “Some of us can develop initial layout drawings to assist with identifying building-related concerns-pipes, conduits and other items that might conflict with the new rigging-and prepare a good preliminary estimate of rigging weight loads, electrical requirements and costs,” he says.
Budget Considerations
Costs can vary widely depending on the type of system being installed. Are you automating an existing system, or do you want to create a customized setup? How sophisticated is the new system? Does it coordinate multiple hoists at various speeds? If so, what are the speeds and capacities of the hoists?
Paget recommends that theatre managers mull over possible budget-busters like the complexity of any required demolition, structural or electrical modifications or upgrades, and access to the stage from load-in points, to name a few. “Each project should have a preliminary budget in order to determine how much funding to seek,” he adds. As with any renovation project, the budget should allow for a reasonable contingency.
Culhane offers the following price comparison to theatres looking at a new system: “Installing a manual counterweight line set costs between $6,000 and $7,000 each,” he says. “A counterweight assist with simple up, down and emergency-stop controls will cost $15,000. Add a single computer control with programmable elevation settings and that will cost an additional $5,000.” A complete packaged hoist system can cost between $25,000 and $30,000 per winch to install.
Down Time
Keep in mind that your theatre will undergo some down time as you convert your rigging system. “A good installation crew can convert one to two manual counterweight sets a day to a counterweight assist hoisting system,” says Culhane. “A packaged hoist system may take an installation crew approximately two days per set to remove the existing equipment and install the new system.”
Last year Wheaton Warrenville South High School in Wheaton, Ill., selected Vortek to automate the rigging system in its theatre. The contractor took about eight weeks to complete the project. “We planned our schedule around it,” recalls Phil Britton, assistant principal for fine and performing arts and activities, “during a time when very little was occurring in our auditorium.”
There are, of course, other considerations that have nothing to do with installation of the rigging. Make sure you include blocks of time in your schedule for the electrical contractor, says Paget: “The electrician must furnish power to the rigging system, as well as low-voltage conduit and control wire.”
Safety Considerations
As with any new system, safety is a key consideration. Paget notes that improvements in the mechanical “drive through” load brake on packaged hoists-which regulates downward movement-reduce the likelihood of an emergency stop. “Sudden stops can shake the pipe batten and could cause all or part of the load to fall,” he explains. This type of accident can affect the support structure of the theatre itself. This is a major concern on the stages of existing theatres, adds Paget, because they weren’t designed to withstand quick decelerations of moving loads.
Automation doesn’t need to be complex. Paget points to Vortek’s packaged hoist rigging as an example of a product that can be used easily by novice operators. Rather than repeatedly loading and unloading counterweight arbors to balance each batten, the crew uses show loads instead. A computer program then controls the batten by adjusting operating weights for the hoist when it’s raising or lowering a load.
At Wheaton Warrenville South High School, “we wanted to convert our system for safety reasons and for ease of use,” says Assistant Principal Britton. The software controlling the rigging is protected with passwords to lock out anyone who isn’t authorized to use the system.
Training
Because an automated rigging system can be more complicated to operate than a traditional manual counterweight system, training requirements vary. “Some controls are little more than a couple of buttons,” says Ruling. “Some have buttons and also levers for proportional speed control. Some are as complicated as lighting control desks-perhaps more so.”
“It is always important for users to become familiar with the users manual,” says Paget, “but nothing can substitute for thorough training provided by a knowledgeable technician.” Vortek, for example, dispatches field service technicians to train clients in their new systems.
Whatever level of automated rigging you decide to implement, remember that you have a variety of choices from simple to incredibly intricate. “The ultimate in automated rigging today is what we’re doing with Cirque du Soleil’s permanent venues,” says Mike McMackin. Cirque shows feature multiple performers suspended in midair, along with colorful, fast-moving drops and props. The computer controls feature bright, colorful 3-D touch screens. “We push the envelope in terms of what can be done in terms of rigging, automation, and invention of new systems,” says McMackin.
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©2005 Dramabiz Magazine. All Rights Reserved.