Having started really early at work this morning, I have been given the afternoon off before I go back in again this evening. These are a few pictures I snapped with my Digital Compact Canon camera. The man in the pictures face has been painted out as I don

Plenty collywobbles there :eek:

oooh, I hate mesh grids :(

we've got one at the studio in work, it's horrible!

This one has had the odd cable snap before. In fact Mark the chap on the grid has had one snap under him

yeah, they do that :-/

do they not have a 'fall arrest system' in place there? cant see him wearing any form of one ?

:(

Believe it or not, none required. Although you have to ensure a safe working zone below you and keep loose stuff out of your pockets.

i struggle to walk up stairs that dont have a back to them, dont think I could ever go up somewhere like that. Your mad

Funnily enough when we started the de-rig, the height issue seemed less of a trouble, as we wanted to go home:D

Believe it or not, none required. Although you have to ensure a safe working zone below you and keep loose stuff out of your pockets.

crazy, we cant go any higher than six rungs up a ladder without fall arrest systems coming into place now..

crazy, we cant go any higher than six rungs up a ladder without fall arrest systems coming into place now..

Give it time:( .

Actually as long as someone is watching the space below it is very safe to work as we were.

Not good when it takes 15 mins to gimp-suit up to d o two min job just cos its at roof level or beyond.. :(

That's kind freaky - I'd want a harness of some kind just to feel safer!

Where's the photos of you Amanda?

:eek: I'd want danger money for working at that height on a mesh floor!!

That's kind freaky - I'd want a harness of some kind just to feel safer!

Where's the photos of you Amanda?

I was holding the camera silly. There are a couple of photos of me somewhere on here, but I don

people alway ask me if im afraid of heights or even falling from heights.. I ALWAYS answer NO

its the bloody hard floor im always wary of

you'd be suprised how strong those meshes are...

the theatre i work in has catwalks above the auditorium, and the treads(the bit you stand on) are made of a strange honeycomb fibreglass and they bend when you walk on them:O

what are the acoustics like in that venue amanda?? i bet it's a bit odd with that wooden floor

what are the acoustics like in that venue amanda?? i bet it's a bit odd with that wooden floor

They

I prefer good old-fashioned steel girder grids

what are the acoustics like in that venue ?

As someone who sings in a choir, the Bridgwater Hall seems pretty good (from the stage at least). Being a modern hall means it was designed in an era when folk had a better understanding of accoustics compared to some of the older concert halls.

Symphony Hall in Birmingham is slightly older, I think (1992 maybe?), but arguably even better - it has lots of doors which open into big void echo chambers to give long reverberation times if that's what you need for that concert, and also the bit with all the lights etc. above the stage goes up and down to change the accoustic.

Amanda, I'm really surprised you / Mark can get away without a harness. I'd be careful if I were you, seriously. Where I work, we recently had a clamp down by the Health & Safety Executive, and they nearly closed us down because one chap had fallen off a scaffolding a mere one metre above the ground and slightly hurt his back.

Despite going on a 1 hour training course on working at heights, we're not even allowed on the top of a hard truck roof (i.e. about 3 metres above ground), despite it being "solid" and no chance of breaking. It's a mad policy and a real pain in the **** for us as we can't even adjust an aerial on the roof of these things, despite it being infinately safer than what you appear to be able to get away with.

A harness can in certain circumstances cause more of a problem that you might think Xavier. Restricting moment can occasionally be a problem in my job, but in this case, the area below is secured and there are rails all around the mesh. You could squeeze through them or jump over the top, but you could always do that if you unclipped a harness I suppose.

I know it looks quite dangerous, but most of the accidents at work (TV and Radio) relate to people falling out of the Scanners/trucks and tripping over cables hidden in grass etc. I think this is because, at a large height where you can really appreciate how potentially life threatening the situation could become, you are much more safety conscious. I know I am, and have felt so for the 20+ years I have been doing this job. I will certainly be holding off wearing a harness as long as I can for this type of rig.

Now walking across the vaulted ceiling at Durham Cathedral, as a Supervisor I knew did……………………..well that really was stupid. And I have worked with a couple of guys who would walk along ledges above the tops of Proscenium arches (sometimes 80ft+ up, without holding on to anything, stand at the front edge, look down at the stage and auditorium, then spin on the balls of their feet and walk the other way. I nearly poo’d myself watching…….horrible.

a mesh grid is - for HSE purposes - it's own safety device. it is a floor, essentially.

it is highly improbable that enough cables will snap at one time in order to make the user fall.

theatre is a HSE nightmare anyway...

The one thing I am truly terrified of when we work in theatres, is climbing free standing ladders out from a public box towards a lighting truss which is scaffolded back to above the box itself (if that makes sense). As you get to the top of the ladder, you realise that you are in free space and if you slip sideways you will fall quite a long way. Even worse, if the ladder slips backwards at its base, the top of the ladder will drop from the truss and again send you plummeting. It

that came up last week as a potential issue, they're looking at making the trusses movable!