Truss setup time

[Hlbly1969]

For those of you that setup truss each night at different shows, do you have an electrical wire snake pre made to help the setup go faster?

 

We just got a truss system and the setup time for the initial set was way too long. I was thinking if we had a wire snake pre made, with outlets pre set to about the correct areas that the setup time would be minimized.

 

Also do you hang the control boxes on the horizontal truss going across or do you hang them on the vertical truss supporting the truss? I was thinking of hanging them on the Vertical to minimize the weight going across the horizontal.

 

I am looking at minimizing the setup time as much as possible, any suggestions of how you all do the setup quickly would be helpful

 

Thanks

Bill

[burdizzos]

All of my truss sections are pre-wired with labeled plugs on each end for power, DMX and the switched power feeds from the dimmer pack. We just assemble the truss and then plug the pig tails together. I even leave the fixtures mounted to the truss, pre-wired. I use cable to suspend the truss sections in the band trailer for transport. It takes 15 mintues to have my light rig up and running.

 

That rig looks really good, by the way.

[caseyjf]

yea...damn thats a fancy truss! We keep all of our cables (dmx and power) attached to the actual prism of the truss, then just clamp the lights to it as needed. how long have you had that truss? Have you not had trouble fitting it at every venue?

[Zeromus-X]

How the hell do you even transport it?

[BillESC]

In the pro touring world a custom snake is built for the lighting truss. It will drop AC power and DMX in and out at each position. For a rig like yours it might look something like this.

 

 

Once the truss it built, you lay the snake over the top, hang your fixtures and plug them in. It nicely eliminates the 6' IEC cables most intelligent fixtures come with since the snake can have the AC supply cables terminated with IEC connectors.

[Hlbly1969]

The picture shows our first gig with it. So the setup was failry easy at that venue. However I do have different section lengths for the horizontal sections. This allows me (or so I hope) to adjust it to the venue we play at.

 

As for transporting it I keep it in the back of my SUV until I can get a box built for it. Then it is going into the trailer.

[Bryan316]

Well depending on your truss' setup width, are you planning to always have the same number of fixtures on the truss? For example, if you had room to widen the truss, would you just shuffle each fixture a bit further apart from each other, or would you leave them centered and just add to the outsides?

 

If you needed to shrink your width, would you just jam the fixtures closer together, or remove a few fixtures?

 

I'm asking, because to build your snake, you need to plan ahead to make sure it'll have enough wire wrapped up there to reach as wide as you'd need to spread it, yet be easy enough to maybe use some velcro ties to take up the slack when jamming them all tight together.

 

Like Bill shows, everything's wrapped together cleanly and organized. It's the best way to go. But before we get there, we need to know how you plan your width flexibility. Bill's photo shows a LOT of extra wire dropping down from the main snake, which allows for lots of positioning adjustments.

[burdizzos]

I just made mine modular. At most gigs we use three 2 meter sections. This friday we are playing a place where I can only fit two sections, so we just leave the center section in the trailer. The only thing I'll really miss is the ADJ Sunray that is mounted on the center section, but the convenience of only having to connect two receptacles and a DMX plug is well worth it. If I had to set up every fixture to the truss at every show, it would take me hours to set up the stage. Screw that.

[Bryan316]

Right. Modular. And having the 'necessary' lights on the sides is a good idea. If you have room in the middle, adding just effect lights will help, but won't hurt if you can't use them.

 

 

Oh and about labeling. Get a Brother P-Touch labeler, and print labels with the name, a big space, and the name again. Then wrap em around the cables just behind the plugs to make a two-sided flag that's easy to read.

[burdizzos]

I just color coded all of my stuff to make it so easy a guitarist could do it.

[Bryan316]

Aaah, cannot underestimate color-coding. Did the same for my keyboardist's rig. With three boards and lots of MIDI cables and power cables and signal cables and sustainer pedal cables... WHOO!

[mddittman]

We have four colorstrips that we put across our rear truss. It took forever to get all four lined up properly, and if more than one person was putting them up, without fail someone would put one on upside down/backwards, screwing up the chase. Which we would notice after cranking up the truss, of course.

 

I bought two 6' sections of square aluminum tubing, drilled them and mounted two colorstrips on each. The master/slave DMX cables and power cables are neatly run along it and strapped to the tubing. Each double colorstrip section only requires two clamps rather than four, so it really doesn't even cost anything since the saved cost of the two clamps is more than what the tubing costs.

 

When we set it up, we just plug in the power/DMX for the first one, and connect the DMX/power between strips 2 and 3 and we're done. A big time-saver.

[Hlbly1969]

Most of the stages we play at are between 10 to 20 feet in length. I am planning on setting up something like Bill shows in his Pic. This should allow enough variability to allow me to setup however many lights I need per stage.

 

I only have 1 DMX controlled light that I put out front right now so I will just keep running a cable to and from that if I set it up.

 

I do plan on Color Coding and Labeling everything in order for quick setups. This will enable other band members to plug the lights in if I am busy doing other things.

 

The only thing I really need to do now is find a quick disconnect type of mount that I can use to hang the lights with. I tear the lights down between each show and store them in a box.

 

Anyone know of a quick disconnect mounting bracket?

 

Thanks all for all the suggestions.

[Bryan316]

Steal some ideas from drum racks. Use these kinds of clamps:

 

 

 

Couple of reasons. First, they don't scar up your truss and chew up the threaded ends of those thumbscrews. Second, you can go to a hardware store and order up a bulk box of split shaft collars like these:

 

 

To use as locators. You leave these shaft collars in the locations the clamps need to attach, and just pop on/off your lights. You can attach your lights exactly where you like them, run a strip of red electrical tape across the clamp and shaft collar, cut the tape between them, and use that as the rotational locator to know your light is rotated in the correct angle.

 

Yes, these clamps are expensive. Yes, this is a bit of labor to set up. But once it's done, it's FAST.

[BillESC]

O clamps are the way to go and don't have to be expensive. It depends on the size of your truss rails and the weight of your fixtures.

 

Plastic O clamps will fit 1, 1.5, and 2" diameter tubing and can be had for around $ 6.00. They will support up to 35 pounds on a dead hang. Aluminum O clamps are available for 1 3/8" and 2" and should be around $ 16.00. They will support hundred of pounds in any orientation.