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Electrical Background & Sound....?


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Reading a few of the other threads here got me to thinking about the knowledge a good majority of you here have about electrical codes,requirements,service,etc.

So.....what & where has some of your backgrounds come from?Did you start out in the electrical field first,take a college course independantely,learn thru on the job experience in the live sound field ,etc.

I'm interested in what route some of you have taken to get to where you are at in the"Live Sound & Production" field in whatever area of expertice that might be.

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I did woodwork A level at school and am thus qualified to hand craft secret mitred dovetails on all my loudspeaker cabinets. It also means that I am appalled at the suggestion on some discussion boards (not this one) of filling gaps with glue. I can

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My formal training is as an electronics technician, not to be confused with either an electrician or with an engineer. I attended a 2 1/2 year non-degree program at a school that was in the transition between being a vocational or a technical school. So, at that time, they called themselves a vocational-technical school. This was a post-secondary school.

 

I've learned enough about electrical work to be dangerous, having done a lot of electrical work on my house and workshop. I learned a lot of it from a book I got from a hardware store. The book is either

this one or one very similar to it.

 

My interest in music dates back at least to age 4, 1964, and the Beatles, if not all the way back to the womb. My interest in audio dates back to age 12, when I built a home audio stereo amp from a kit and rewired a mono record player to be a stereo turntable. While I was in high-school, I was the "go-to" guy for audio-video assistance. At the same time, I was already "running sound" for a local garage band, running their four channel, 45 watt, AudioVox PA with 2, 4x10 speaker columns (no monitors).

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I have no formal education in electricity or sound.

 

In 1963 I became involved with a community theatre and worked back stage as a lighting tech. This was not your run-of-the-mill community theatre. The Barn Theatre was building its' own building at the time I joined so I was involved with installing the new Colortran Dimmy system (one of the first LV remote control dimmer systems ever built),) along with installing pipes in the ceiling for lighting positions, hanging lights, running cables, etc.

 

After 5 seasons I went to NY and shaped up for Local 1 of the IA and proceeded to work on several Broadway shows and in all of the major TV studios as a stage hand, grip and finally as apprentice electrician.

 

In 1971 I became a salesman and lighting consultant for Times Square Lighting in NY and stayed there for a year and a half until landing the job as LD and TD for a bus & truck tour of Hair. When the Hair tour finished I happened to book a one nighter at a local college for an unknown new act playing in a small gym. After the show I was hired by Harry Chapin and proceeded to light his concerts until his untimely death.

 

My company, Entertainment Systems Corporation was begun in 1973 and has over the last 32 years done major tours, very large (and small) installations and other events too numerous to mention.

 

The largest single power distribution job we ever did was for 'Movin' on 77' at the Pocono International Raceway in PA. This 3 day monster truck and car show proved to be quite a challange.

 

Our contract called for supplying power to each of the 240 concessions in the infield, power to 6 refer trailers, field and grandstand security lighting and sound, lights and PD for a concert stage. Each of the 9 garages on pit row had a 400a 3 phase service and we used every bit of it, to the point where the concert stage had to run off of a genny.

 

Yep, no formal training, but I've learned a bit. :)

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My early education on electrical power came from a set "do-It -Yourself Encyclopedias " my dad brought home from work. When I was about age 12, he started deferring to me on home wiring projects.

Learned some more doing stage and TV studio lighting during high school. Associate degree and EE filled in some holes but I really learned about power during about 20 years working at an electric utility company.

 

One thing I've noticed is there a lot of electric power questions on this and similar boards. I think there are guys like me who started being interested in electricity in general and migrated into music and sound, and those who probably started as musicians and migrated into sound. I think the guys who started as musicians often don't have the basic electrical knowledge that is so useful in the power side of things.

 

(I can't believe I used "encyclopedia" twice in one day here)

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Originally posted by Ear Abuser


One thing I've noticed is there a lot of electric power questions on this and similar boards. I think there are guys like me who started being interested in electricity in general and migrated into music and sound, and those who probably started as musicians and migrated into sound. I think the guys who started as musicians often don't have the basic electrical knowledge that is so useful in the power side of things.

 

 

and some of use completely understand all the concepts but are completely useless when faced with a panel. i understand exactly what a 400 amp 3 phase feeder is but i cant connect cams or i will shock myself to death. to death!

 

btw i got into tech stuff through music but am a college student working on a EE.

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Originally posted by agedhorse


Ha! Me too, Fortran was the poison of the day.

 

 

Hollerith cards...OH NO!!!! Nothing like finishing the stack and dropping it on the way to the lab to run it. And we had COBOL as the flavor of the day.

 

Fortran still rules where I work .....

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My technical training was purely sound related, not electrical, though I helped my dad on quite a few home electrical projects as a kid.

 

A decade ago I began working live production (other than a few previous gigs for my own bands). My day gig was at Opryland Theme Park, mixing 6 days/wk for Opry member, Mike Snider. My night gig was mixing most contract gigs for Opryland Productions. That's where I began working with larger audio systems. It was on local crews that I began to learn something of pigtails, single and three phase power, and jennies.

 

Which is why I keep my hands away from power as much as possible.

 

I learn what I can to protect myself and those around me. Whether I'm mixing or just crew, I don't want anyone getting hurt because of electrical on gigs.

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I learned a lot about electricity from my Grandfather, who was chief engineer of Dominion Sound Equipments Limited, a subsiduary of Northern Electric, for over 30 years.

I also attended a whirlwind of a 2 year electronics course at a local community college in which the teacher was retiring - he was there for 26 years and was still teaching tube theory along with programming PLCs. I am grateful to have that experience.

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Originally posted by agedhorse

Fortran was like a very scientific and powerful form of basic.


I also studied Cobol, Algol and RPG-II but not very in-depth. I did do a lot of work with HP's HPL and HPGL though.


I do very little programming anymore, no interest.

 

 

 

And I'm living proof that you can still earn a very good living if you know COBOL. I work for a medium-sized software company that produces PC-based systems for business....development platforms, migration to and from hosts, analysis software, code generators, off-loading, re-hosting, you name it.

 

I myself migrated to this about 15 years ago. Prior to that I turned wrenches on expensive foreign cars.

 

I'm almost completely self-taught on things electrical. Not much experience with electronics, but I know my way around an NEC Handbook. I can handle most work on cars, houses, small boats, and of course, sound. I don't touch anything commercial/industrial. No licence, no way.

 

I owe my basic knowledge and work ethic to my Dad.

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I went to school for audio but not for electrical,

 

I found myself constantly needing power tie ins and distro panels , I have a freind with his license and asked q?s until he was sick of me, and he gave me his code book, which i've gone thru and took what i need from. I learned about what is exceptable to inspectaional services through experirence at big shows and being the event producer and dealing with everything including the electrical inspector.

 

over and over, i found when there is an electrician on site, they dont have a clue about temporary power and entertainment industry type of work, so i usually need to tell them exactly what to do so the inspector will be happy and the show can go on and of course be safe!

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Dan's statement is dead on...

 

"over and over, i found when there is an electrician on site, they dont have a clue about temporary power and entertainment industry type of work, so i usually need to tell them exactly what to do so the inspector will be happy and the show can go on and of course be safe!"

 

Event power distribution is dramatically different that home or even comercial wiring. Most licensed electricians don't have a clue.

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Originally posted by Audioeast

over and over, i found when there is an electrician on site, they dont have a clue about temporary power and entertainment industry type of work, so i usually need to tell them exactly what to do so the inspector will be happy and the show can go on and of course be safe!

 

 

Unless you have the specific experience, there's precious little inoformation out there for entertainment-related electrical work. Just look at how little is mentioned in the Code books.

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I spent five years as an apprentice electrician and then five more as an electrician with various industral electrical contractors. I have some technical training including some tech classes on maintaining and repairing Plc's, as well as a now somewhat useless A+ certification. Held a state electricians license for a couple of years but residential electrical is not my bag. Been playing music since i was a teenager, so learning about gear just came naturally. Not that im an expert at all, I just always seem to be the guy that ends up in charge of the sound equipment. Besides i just love playin with all the knobs, switches and blinky lights:D

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M. Sc. in EE, Ph.D. in Acoustics, started programming with Fortran and Cobol (punch cards too), but fortunatley these days are over. I'm definetely NOT a fan of vintage programming languages.

 

Of course, solving differential equations or taming digital signal processors doesn't qualify for fuzzing around with a distro tie-in and therefore I won't.

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Originally posted by boseengineer

M. Sc. in EE, Ph.D. in Acoustics, started programming with Fortran and Cobol (punch cards too), but fortunatley these days are over. I'm definetely NOT a fan of vintage programming languages.


Of course, solving differential equations or taming digital signal processors doesn't qualify for fuzzing around with a distro tie-in and therefore I won't.

 

 

got to love the likes of vector calculas, partial defferential equation and .. the one I loved the most signals and systems :) never did figure out how to do a laplace trasform.

 

 

where did you go to school?

 

 

Kev.

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I have found many PROFESSIONAL electricians who are well qualified for installing and maintaining portable power systems. All are commercial/industrial electricians. The code is very clear on the details regarding derived power systems (Genny's) and portable power for entertainment use.

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Originally posted by agedhorse

I have found many PROFESSIONAL electricians who are well qualified for installing and maintaining portable power systems. All are commercial/industrial electricians. The code is very clear on the details regarding derived power systems (Genny's) and portable power for entertainment use.

 

Perhaps it's because I find it such an interesting topic that it seems there's not much about it in the Code, eh?:)

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I guess I've missed out on tapping the house electricians when working gigs at the Nashville Arena, Starwood Amphitheater and other places.

 

Of course, they don't generally tie-in pigtails anymore at these venues. Most of them have multiple boxes already terminated in color coded cam-locks. I really missed out when I worked at Opryland a lot, 5 - 10 years ago. They've refurbished all the large ballrooms, so again, color coded camlocks are available almost everywhere. ;)

 

It's been a while since I've had to deal directly with an electrician setting up a jennie. Usually the soundco's I mix for or the soundco's contracted to provide for artists I mix for handle the setup in such situations.

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