Hamilton, Ontario Sunday, Aug 8 - The Big Rig is unveiled!

[WB]

I apologize for the ensuing scaffolding discussion.

No need to apologize, it's a valid concern. My thoughts were along the same lines when I first saw them. I think the scaffolding itself appeared very solid and not a concern, in fact preferable to flying them. I could see tip-ability being a concern for long term usage. Even though I didn't think there was any danger of it toppling on that particular day, I personally would take some heroic measures and come up with some kind of long term solution for the base. I'm not knocking fvodo's efforts because it's a great starting point, but needs finishing. Even indoors without any wind at all I would be uncomfortable relying on the planks for stability on a regular basis. I don't think it would be difficult to build a proper metal base, including height adjusters.

[Gregory East]

Hats off to Fvodo for putting together such a huge rig that didn't fall down or blow down and sounded the dogs bollox.

The rigging that supports such a "Big Rig" doesn't get much BFM airtime and his comment that it was windproof set off my "that ain't right" meter. Then someone else seeking to copy it....worst case someone could get killed or sued. Worthy of a discussion methinks. Being a review it won't get thread culled so all the better......

[fvodo]

I have a few larger gigs coming up as a result of this one. I will do some more testing on the scaffolding and report results as I get them.

[jeffsco]

The whole discussion of rigging for the BFM speakers is a point of extreme frustration for me. On one hand....we're told that the BFM systems will sound better and louder the more boxes we stack up. On the other hand , we are warned not to trust stacking them up as they may fall over and injure folks. Talk about dangling a meal in front of a starving man (lol)
Could not the more savy Engineering types among us put their heads together and come up with a rigging system that is both safe and economical? Make it a Forum project, get it certified by an engineer, and Bill can sell us the plans so that we can safely enjoy the Joys of the Big BFM stack!

[BrentEvans]

The whole discussion of rigging for the BFM speakers is a point of extreme frustration for me. On one hand....we're told that the BFM systems will sound better and louder the more boxes we stack up. On the other hand , we are warned not to trust stacking them up as they may fall over and injure folks. Talk about dangling a meal in front of a starving man (lol)
Could not the more savy Engineering types among us put their heads together and come up with a rigging system that is both safe and economical? Make it a Forum project, get it certified by an engineer, and Bill can sell us the plans so that we can safely enjoy the Joys of the Big BFM stack!

Fourth sticky in the DR forum..
http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=2709

[James R]

Nice looking rig, where did you find the scaffolding?

[jeffbabcock]

Could not the more savy Engineering types among us put their heads together and come up with a rigging system that is both safe and economical? Make it a Forum project, get it certified by an engineer, and Bill can sell us the plans so that we can safely enjoy the Joys of the Big BFM stack!

A few issues here assuming you need more than the simple stacking solution in the forum links.

1) Rigging systems for vertical arrays typically need to be designed such that the box itself does not carry the load of the additional speakers placed beneath it. Have a look on Meyer's website for some good photos of their approach. This means considerable metalwork involved.

2) Certifications are not cheap. I highly doubt there are enough forum members available and willing to finance such an undertaking. And once you build it yourself, what is there to guarantee that you did it right? Therefore how can it be certifiable anymore? They'd have to be pre-made and sold by a certified manufacturer.

3) Lifts - even the cheap Peavey/Vermette lifts are going to cost as much as many BFM rigs altogether.

4) Manufacturing costs - fly hardware is not going to be inexpensive, especially for something which will sell in extremely low volume compared to a commercial product.

5) Complexity of deployment - the reality is that 99% of the forum members do not have sufficient experience to fly an array correctly and safely take considerations such as wind load into account. Regardless of the quality of the rigging system it is always more dangerous to put boxes in the air, and I expect that very few members on this site are insured should something bad happen with their rig.

Take a look at the rigging certification document for the Nexo Geo S8 in the thread I am linking to below (see Doug Fowler's post). It may open a lot of people's eyes regarding how much there is to be considered. http://srforums.prosoundweb.com/index.p ... 2&th=50775