Focus on Fundamentals

Over the holidays I reread The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. The last chapter is entitled "Sharpening the Saw," which is a reference to a story about a woodsman who is busy sawing down a tree. He's been at it for hours, and he's exhausted. Someone happens upon him and asks why he doesn't stop and sharpen his saw. "I don't have time to sharpen the saw," he says, "I'm too busy sawing!"

I was fortunate enough to look in on the tech rehearsals for a major Broadway show recently. I was blown away by the technology on parade, not so much on stage as in the house. In what looked like a scene from a science fiction movie, almost every seat in the orchestra section was covered with sheets of plywood, each of which served as a table top for a couple of computer work stations.

Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.” —Will Durant

Let’s face it — most of us got into this business to get out of having to get a “real” job. If nothing else, we’re here because we enjoy doing more than we enjoy reading and writing.  

A lighting tech and an audio tech were standing in a venue, looking up in the air and pointing to a section of truss that was flown with two chain hoists. A rigger walks up and says, “What’s going on?” The lighting tech said, “We’re wondering how high that wire rope ladder is that’s attached to that truss.”

When I was a very young child, my mother used to ball up a piece of red thread, moisten it and stick on my forehead to cure my hiccups. Oddly enough, it worked every time. But it had to be red thread; blue, black, yellow, or green just wouldn’t do. Why? Because that’s the way it has always been done.

“True revolutionaries are guided by feelings of love.” — Che Guevara

If everything goes according to plan, the revolution will start at 9 a.m. tomorrow. The plan is for you to realize that you want Remote Device Management (RDM).  

“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” —Benjamin Franklin

When I was in college, I had a crush on a pretty girl from my hometown. One evening, I looked up her number in the phone book and called. A soft, feminine voice picked up. I said hello, told her who I was, and after some small talk, I nervously asked if she would like to go to a concert. She said yes. It was music to my ears.

A few short years ago, LEDs were like the Jessica Simpson of the live event production industry; they were pretty but not too bright. Thanks to Haitz’s law, that’s changing faster than executive salaries on Wall Street. But what does the technology have in store for us in the future? For answers, we asked Chad Stalker of Luminus Devices where all this will lead.

“Know the light, but keep the shadow.”—Tao saying

Three-phase power distribution systems are very common around the world for a couple of reasons; they save money, and…I forget the other reasons.

Three-phase distribution saves money because it takes less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase system than with a single-phase system. In fact, it takes about 25 percent less copper to transmit the same amount of power with a three-phase three-wire delta system as with a single-phase three-wire system because the conductors need only be half the cross sectional area. And with a three-phase four-wire system it takes even less copper — about 66 percent less than with a single-phase three-wire system.

Dear Swami,

I work for a lighting company and we have a slew of power draw sheets that look nice on paper, but never seem to be entirely correct when I do a load test on a show site. I asked someone here if they knew why that is and they mentioned something about multiplying by the square root of three. What are they talking about?

—Confused Electrician