Mobile Truss/Crank-Ups & Deploying Heavy Lights

[Chickentown]

Now I have four 45 lb. lights - Martin MX-10s. The seller included the aluminum O-clamps and safety cables. They are joining 8 LED Par 64s, some traditional Par 38s I use for front lighting or punch-type lights, and a couple Colorstrips. My applications are kinda all over the place. In the colder months, we play bars and clubs with stages ranging from "over there behind the pool table" to medium sized stages with some honest to goodness thought to the needs of live bands. I scale back my lights when the places are small or time is at a premium. Often, the MX-10s will stay home. When it warms up, my lights and my time get rented by guys who do small/medium festivals. They will often have the whole box truss and lift system handled and would not need my gear to hang lights...but sometimes when the job is smaller I will need to provide a small truss/crank rig.

 

My current means of getting lights in the air is not going to cut it. Couple of T-Bars and an American DJ Crank2, I-truss with steel crank stands. I've always hated using this truss anyway - good riddance.

 

So I have a number of questions:

1) These steel ADJ crank stands say they are rated for 70lbs - makes me wonder if there is a clever and safe way of mounting a single MX-10 to each ADJ stand for small shows.

 

2) Am I correct in assuming the some ST-132s and a few sections of box or triangle truss will be the recommendation?

 

3) Do people ever use a vertical stand, totem pole-looking solution for these? I see the moving yoke lights perched on top of these often, but not scanners.

 

4) This solution looks really elegant. Any ideas what they are using in this video for the six MX-10s?

 

[video=youtube;Kiot239RuMI]

[BillESC]

If you intend to grow your lighting rig, the ST 132's will limit you quite quickly. With a maximum load of 220# a pair offers you 440# total. You're almost there with four 45# fixtures, truss weight, the other fixtures and cabling.

 

The ST 180 will give you 440# or 880# in a truss set up.

 

Ground lift system (what they are called) on the pro level usually use Genie Lifts which have ratings starting at 800# per lift and reach 24 feet.

[soundlight]

The solution employed in that video is Sch. 40 black iron pipe in 50# bases with sandbags on the bases. It's quite elegant but the bases are fifty pounds a piece and thus can be a bit hard to load in some places. Depends on how you want to do your setup. The important thing about Sch. 40 pipe is that you have to keep things on the verticals - you can't exactly hang truss off of it. You will also need at least (2) 25# sandbags per base in order to keep them secure on the floor. So that's 100# of stuff for each vertical pipe. It does fit in a quite compact space, though.

 

Most professional setups use crank-up lifts and truss. Applied L16s are the standard for smaller setups. These are excellent, industry-proven crank-up lifts. 500# each rating gives you 1000# between 2 of them. If you need more, your local rental shop would probably be able to provide as they are a fairly standard item.

[KF650SB1000]

I would say that Soundlight hit it on the head with their set-up.

 

We do the same thing, with are 50lb bases what allow Sch. 40 to be screwed right in. Also if you look at Theater houses, they uses set-up often. I will say, it is a pain in the ass for everyday moving, but it is very very stable (especially after adding 150 lbs of sand bags).

[Johnny Lightboy]

 

I would say that Soundlight hit it on the head with their set-up. We do the same thing, with are 50lb bases what allow Sch. 40 to be screwed right in. Also if you look at Theater houses, they uses set-up often. I will say, it is a pain in the ass for everyday moving, but it is very very stable (especially after adding 150 lbs of sand bags).

 

 

Could you post some pix of these?

[Miko Man]

I'll see what I can do. The base plate is 3/8" or 1/2" steel plate, with a standard threaded 1.5" pipe coupler welded to it. Inch and a half black pipe is 1.9" o.d. Base size can run from ~ 2'x2' with the theaded coupler in the center to ~ 20" x 36" with the coupler offset on one end for stability when used as a boom and instruments are hung at 90 degrees off the pipe in a vertical plane. Dance performances are often lit that way with lights at shin, waist and head height. You can use a lighter plate if you are willing to add more ballast. Mark C.

[Chickentown]

Until I get an appropriate truss or pipe/base thing going for my lights I'm thinking of using just a pair of the MX-10s, one on each of my Crank2 stands. They are steel, very wide-based, and rated for 70lbs. I can use different stands for my cans and t-bars.

 

The diameter of the extending crank-up vertical pole tubing is far too small for these beefy clamps. So I'm thinking of a couple short threaded lengths of schedule 40 black pipe with a steel cap thread-locked on one end and a reducer on the open end to give some snugness.

 

Clamp the lights to the sched. 40 and slide over the top of the Crank2.

 

Lunacy? Black pipe in smaller diameters at 2' threaded lengths is at the local big-box, but finding 1.5" might involve a custom cut.

[Miko Man]

2" steel pipe is nominally 2" i.d.; the o.d. of 2" pipe is 2.375". Most of the o-clamps I've seen listed are 48mm to 51mm, which fits both 1.5" pipe with an o.d. of 1.90" and true 2" alum tubing. (Pipe is generally measured in the US by i.d, but tubing is measured by o.d.)

 

My guess is that you will have no trouble finding 1.5" pipe anywhere. YMMV. Mark C.

[Chickentown]

Still working on a plan for truss or pipe/base in the future. In the mean time, I got these lights cleaned up and replaced the bulbs. Sat down with Freestyler and figured out how to build cues, fill the submasters, and makes scenes saved to cuelist buttons. I run the sound too, so this makes things manageable.

 

Audiopile sent me some nice new pull-over road cases built for speakers. These work pretty well for getting the lights up for now. Some of my scenes blazed my retinas, so they'll have to be modified for having the fixtures so close to eye-level and facing straight out.

 

Thanks for all of the helpful advice. Here are some crappy phone pix:

 

 

 

[jfetter]

 

Now I have four 45 lb. lights - Martin MX-10s. The seller included the aluminum O-clamps and safety cables...

 

 

I don't have a suggestion for your stands but I really dig that song by Hotspur in your edited video! I even went and looked it up and downloaded the CD from Amazon, surprised that 2006 song ("Young And Reckless") didn't get more traction, I can see that in a movie soundtrack easily...

 

Jack