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Rigging
Books, Cards, and Programs
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REVIEWS
and ARTICLES
Rig
it Right or Not At All
by Richard Cadena
Have you
ever wandered into a show and marveled at
the complexity or the sheer quantity of
rigging? Or perhaps you are a rigger who
could use some help calculating and
managing show points. Whether you�re a
novice or an experience professional
rigger, Harry Donovan just might have
something for you. Entertainment Rigging: A
Practical Guide for Riggers, Designers &
Managers by Harry Donovan is an
ambitiously comprehensive text covering
everything a rigger should know about
walking into an empty arena and safely
rigging a show of any size. The software
companion to the book, RigRight 1.0, is
also available to help in the design and
calculation of show points. The book
starts with the basics so that anyone,
experienced or not, can jump in learn
about rigging. It introduces rigging
hardware, terminology and techniques with
reinforced learning through problem
solving using real world situations with
an emphasis on safety. It provides plenty
of practical information about issues that
riggers face every day; how to hang a
point, how to rig a bridle, how to coil a
rope on a beam, even how to walk a beam
and lots more.
A lot of rigging
has to do with understanding forces and
calculating a variety of loads. Donovan includes
all of the pertinent information about vectors
and forces using algebra and engineering
principles. He states at the beginning of the
book that his experience teaching rigging
classes has taught him that �working riggers and
managers prefer to avoid trigonometry,� so he
uses no trig in the book. Instead, he uses only
algebra and he does it very effectively. In
plainspoken language, he lays out the four
engineering principles that �will solve most
arena-rigging problems.� All that�s required is
an understanding of vectors (to which he devotes
an entire chapter), algebra, and the application
of these engineering principles and you can
solve for the forces of almost any arena rigging
load.
The 700-page book
is well illustrated and easy to read with its
8.5� x 11� pages. It�s written from the point of
view of a 22 year industry rigging veteran who,
according to the foreword, has rigged more than
200,000 points in over 4,000 shows without a
misstep. It�s a must have for anyone who is
interested in rigging.
Two great
companions for the book are the rigging courses
taught by Donovan and Jay Glerum (www.riggingseminars.com),
and RigRight Software. RigRight is a software
tool that calculates and manages rigging points
for a show. It calculates the forces on a point
and gives you information to help choose the
right equipment for each point. When you give it
information about beam locations, showpoint
location and weight, and chain hook height, it
calculates cable lengths and the forces on the
point. If the resulting cable length returned by
the program is a non-standard length it allows
you to change it to a standard length and it
recalculates the showpoint position and forces.
For absolute accuracy it even considers hitch
length and the size and number of shackles.
The software performs calculations for two leg
bridles, three leg bridles, deadhangs and
breastlines. You can do calculations in either
two or three dimensions. You can either enter
the beam and showpoint locations and weights
manually, or you can import the data from a
table.. Beam or showpoint locations and
showpoint weights can be recorded in tables.
Then selecting a beam or showpoint�s name in the
table quickly imports the dimensions and
weights. When you record a venue�s beam
locations in a table,you can reuse the table for
every succeeding show in that venue. Similarly,
when you record showpoint locations and weights
in a table, you can use the table to calculate
that show in any venue. You can generate tables
by entering data into RigRight manually, or by
importing the data from a spreadsheet or graphic
program.
The program
allows you to perform calculations based on
dimensions measured in whatever way is most
convenient. For instance, you can dimension
bridles from the bridle junction, or use
dimensions based on venue measurements, or
dimensions based on show measurements, as you
prefer. There is enough versatility built into
this program so that it can work the way you are
used to working instead of having to conform to
someone else�s notion of how to manage
showpoints.
If you have a
showpoint table based on stage dimensions, and a
beam table based on venue dimensions, you can
merge the show coordinates with the venue
coordinates in a �merged showpoint table,� which
has all beam and showpoint locations based on
the same reference system. This table makes it
easy to convert your show data into something
useful in a specific venue.
The program can
also be used with an AutoCAD drawing to convert
locations in the CAD drawing to X,Y,Z
coordinates in a beam, anchor, or master
showpoint table. By using the Attribute
Extraction function in AutoCAD, the beam
locations, anchor locations and showpoint
locations can be converted to three-dimensional
points described by X, Y, Z coordinates. Those
coordinates can then be imported as a table in
RigRight. Conversely, you could export the
tables and convert the showpoints to locations
in an AutoCAD drawing.
One of the first
things you notice about RigRight is that it is
not a graphical program. The windows are
text-based and all of the data and information
is in numeric format. It�s a little bit of an
adjustment compared to most other software
programs this very visual industry. Programs
like WYSIWYG and 3ds max have trained us to
think and work visually. But as the author
points out, �riggers don�t need drawings of
bridles, they need numbers.� He says that
riggers seldom draw pictures of rigging.
Experienced riggers already know what a bridle
looks like and they can easily visualize the
forces involved. For the less experienced, the
software is accompanied by an 84-page manual
that does an excellent job of describing all of
the references in the program. The glossary
alone is enough to get you started.
Calculations can
be recorded in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet
contains all data for each point, including beam
and showpoint locations as well as cable lengths
and forces. It also shows the total load on each
venue beam, and the total horizontal and
vertical components of forces, which is
extremely useful to engineers and venue
managers.
The common thread
throughout Donovan�s work is always the emphasis
of safety. Each of these elements � the book,
the classes and the software � is a tool to help
you learn and understand the principles of
rigging. It�s up to the rigger to practice them
safely, but in order to do so it�s imperative to
know the theory and practice behind it. If you
can read the book, go to the seminar, and buy
the software, in that order, then you�ll have a
wonderful head start on being able to safely rig
in almost any situation.
From Pro Lights and Staging News
Entertainment Rigging
A Practical Guide for Riggers, Designers, and Managers
By Harry Donovan
Harry Donovan is a pioneer in the entertainment rigging industry. For 22 years he
toured with some of the biggest rock �n� roll bands in the
business, from Aerosmith to the Who. By his own estimation, he has rigged almost a quarter of a million points. In
addition to his work experience, he has spent the last 10 years teaching what he has
learned over the years to the students in his rigging seminars.
Entertainment Rigging starts with the basics�hardware, terms, concepts, and
basic techniques�and covers the practical applications of rigging in 28 chapters. The
fundamental principles behind the theory of rigging are presented in chapters dealing
with vectors, forces, and resultants. Each concept is introduced, and then reinforced with
problem solving. The computations are aided with the use of tables for the sake of the
math-challenged, or they can be calculated using real trigonometry. Though this body of
knowledge is called arena-style rigging, the principles apply to almost every show
situation today with the exception of proscenium
counter-weight rigging.
This book is very clearly written, and just as importantly, very well illustrated by
Don Ferguson. Almost every page has several easy to understand graphics illustrating the
concepts written about in the book. The language is clear and uncomplicated and the
organization of the book is logical, with each chapter building on the last.
Entertainment Rigging is invaluable to everyone in the entertainment industry
both as a text and as a reference book. It�s filled with
information that is of practical use to anyone who comes into
contact with equipment that has to be rigged.
Review by Richard Cadena
From Pro
Lights and Staging News
He
Wrote the Book on Rigging
One
evening in 1964 on the pristine grounds of
Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio,
engineering major Harry Donovan took a
shortcut through the theatre and
impulsively decided to help the crew hang
some lights. It changed his life.
In
retrospect, it�s particularly symbolic:
not only does it mark the beginning of a
long, illustrious career as one of the
most sought after riggers in our business,
but it marks the last time he took a
shortcut in this business. In all these
years, not a single accident has marred
his reputation.
His
passion for lighting led to getting a gig
as electrician with one of KISS�s first
tours. Two weeks into the tour, the guy
responsible for rigging sound, lighting,
and special effects was fired, and Donovan
was handed the reins.
�I
found I enjoyed it,� he says. �Also, I
kept getting hired at it.� Today he�s
president of Donovan Rigging Inc., and a
consultant, lecturer, and most recently,
author of the authoritative 700-page tome
Entertainment Rigging.
�When
I got into the business, rock touring was
just starting,� he says, reflecting one
day from his home office in Seattle.
�Now it�s this huge business and
everyone knows how to do the job.
Procedures are established. But when I
started people were just starting to
figure all that out.�
Figuring
It All Out
�I was an engineering major, but theatre
was more fun,� Donovan says of his
college days. He ended up with degrees in
both fields in 1972. His early experience
includes serving time at two of the
biggest stage lighting companies in the
business: Kliegl Bros. And Century-Strand.
He worked in their shops designing some
lighting instruments, but mostly he worked
in the emerging technology of computer
control systems. �There were eight or 10
systems around back then, and they were
all wildly different,� he says.
�People didn�t know what was going to
work yet.� From there he started doing
lights for a traveling dance company in
1973, and he didn�t stop touring until
1992 when his consulting-on-the-side gig
blossomed into his day job.
In
the beginning, he did rock tours mostly as
an LD, production manager, or head
electrician. By 1974, he began handling
the rigging, starting with that Kiss tour.
�It was an enormously big show for the
time,� he says. �They went out with
six trucks-one for lights, one for sound,
one for scenery, and three filled with
special effects.� He says these early
days provided him �a lot of good stories
about bad tours�disorganized
disasters.�
But
more than crazy road stories, Donovan had
to figure out how to do the tasks on his
own. He, however, had a distinct advantage
over most. �There was no book, and no
one to learn from,� he says. �People
were just trying things, and a lot of
accidents were happening in the beginning
because no one knew anything about
engineering.� Plus, he says, �I had
been sailing since I was a kid and knew
about wires and cables. Then later, I had
done a lot of rock climbing. It all came
together including an obsessive
perfectionism inherited from my father, a
professional engineer. The skills I had
fit the work perfectly.�
David
Bowie, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Barry
Manilow, and the Eagles are just a few of
the acts over the years it has all fit
perfectly for. Of course, it was an
evolutionary time. Donovan laughs that
they didn�t even have the tour buses
figured out. �They didn�t think we�d
need things like blankets and sheets on
the bus bunks,� he says. �We had to
steal them from the hotels. The
accountants go mad at us because they had
to reimburse the hotels for it.�
It was his experience with hundreds of
plays and productions for legit theatres
that gave him the edge over the other
guys, most of whom were roadies for bar
bands.
�When
we started, we were using steel cable and
we were just figuring out what kind of
chain hoist was needed. Most didn�t
work. They broke down leaked oil, and the
control systems fizzled. I built a bunch
of control systems for hoists and we
gradually figured out how to do that. I
studied the ones that didn�t work. Some
of the early ones�� he sighs, and
laughs. �Control systems where you push
a button for one hoist and some other
hoist would take off by itself. People
didn�t understand electricity. But
that�s changed now. Now there are three
or four companies that make good hoist
control systems. In the beginning, though,
you had to make them all yourself.�
Too
Much of a Good Thing
As the years and miles rolled on, Donovan
kept perfecting his craft and evolved to a
point where he was consulting and
contracting a little between tours.
Finally, in 1992, that work had blossomed
to a point where he had nearly 20
contracts--and he was supposed to go out
with the Eagles that spring.
�But
the consulting jobs weren�t finished,
and when the tour came around, I had so
many projects going on that I just
couldn�t drop them. It would have left
people in a lurch. Also, I realized that I
was going to make more money doing that
than touring, which I never thought would
happen.�
Something
else evolved during this time, too. In the
1990s he started sharing his knowledge
with others through seminars. A few years
later, he started organizing those sheets
of papers with scribblings on them. His
notes grew from seven pages to 70 to
finally the 700-page Entertainment Rigging
(www.Riggingbooksandprograms.com),
which includes many illustrations showing
the right and wrong way for just about
every situation.
If
he couldn�t publish a book on the
subject, who could? �I just kept
expanding the notes,� Donovan says of
the book. �There would be things that
would occur to me after a class, or
someone would ask something I hadn�t
thought of, and it just kept getting
bigger.� A lot of effort, sure, but he
felt strongly the book was needed.
�Because
I had an engineering background, I knew
the geometry of rigging,� Donovan
explains. �Rigging is always geometry
and engineering. For most it�s just
guessing and using rules of thumb.� He
stresses that unless you can calculate
accurately, you don�t really know if the
equipment is safe. You could overload
beams, or inadvertently overstress hanging
objects. By mathematically calculating,
though, they can be rigged right-and
safely- the first time.
�I
haven�t had an accident, and I estimate
I�ve rigged 200,000 points when I was
touring full time and God know how many
since,� he says. �Nothing ever hit the
floor. But I�d hear about accidents
through the grapevine, and I�d try to
investigate them and figure out why.�
Currently
working with the ESTA committee to
establish certification standards for
riggers, Donovan is concerned with the
state of the industry. He worries that a
major rigging accident is long overdue,
and fears a scenario where falling
equipment could kill scores of people.
�It�s blind luck it hasn�t happened
yet,� he sighs. �A lot of rigging is
being done by people who don�t
understand the engineering aspect of it,
and the management is not insisting on
people who do.�
Otherwise,
when he�s not teaching, publishing,
developing a new computer program to
calculate rigging, and contracting even
rigging projects, including hanging some
airplanes at the Museum of Flight in
Seattle, Donovan is found sailing on his
52-foot sloop. �I�m out on it every
summer,� he says. No doubt watching the
wires and cable� and thinking.
From
Lighting and Sound International Magazine
With
over 700 pages containing hundreds of
drawings, pictures, and tables, this is a
sizeable publication. It contains dozens
of formulas which enable working riggers
to simply calculate dimensions, forces,
loads, and the required strength of
rigging equipment, as well as giving many
rules of thumb which enable safe rigging
without calculations. As this is a US
publication, the terminology won�t be
entirely familiar to European readers, but
it is nonetheless understandable. The only
slight drawback is that the weights and
measures are unfortunately imperial.
Donovan
commences the book by exploring the basic
equipment and their uses, before
investigating various means of attaching
cables and slings to objects and supports
while demonstrating the load that will be
experienced. There are many questions on
each subject to encourage understanding of
the topics covered, and at the end of each
section illustrated answers are given.
With
the equipment and methods covered, there
follows an extensive chapter devoted to
actual working techniques showing how to
approach problems and rig equipment in
practice; working in pairs is considered,
as is group working when in a confined
space at height, as well as the simpler
things such as safe knot tying! The book
is broad in its aim and even looks at safe
beam walking, crane signals and outlines
some typical accidents to remind readers
of the requirements for safety, before
going on to further explore accident
prevention and safe usage.
The
rest of the book goes on to look at the
actual mathematics of rigging, covering
static loading, shock and dynamic loads,
inertial forces and so on. Being a rigger
himself, Donovan not only looks at the
theoretical practice, but also explains
and correlates the �real-world�
methods (rule-of-thumb) to enable the
reader to really grasp the principles
explained.
The
final chapters of the book are devoted to
data, and are exceptionally useful in
their own right. Tables for cable sag,
rated capacities of equipment, common
rigging formulae and bridle leg tables are
all given, as well as weights and measures
for everything from motors to gravel
ballast. The relevant content of the
(American) Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) is included which
would be most useful for those touring
shows into the US.
In
all, Entertainment Rigging is a good read and
would not only be a suitable textbook for
students, but also an excellent reference
tool for practicing professionals. The
only word of advice would be to source an
imperial-metric conversion table to
accompany it!
From
Stage Directions Magazine
The
art of the theatre is often as much about
the work audiences don�t see as about
what they do. Thus, this month�s look at
recently released books focuses on three
important technical topics�rigging,
lighting, and costuming.
While
we usually think of arena staging in terms
of rock concerts, circuses and ice shows,
arena-rigging techniques suit any
performance space that has no installed
rigging system, but in which lights,
sound, scenery, curtains, screens or
special effects equipment must be hung.
These techniques are used in conventional
proscenium theatres as well, in situations
where they are more effective than
conventional pipe-and-counterweight
systems. Since, in many productions, most
of the weight of a show hangs in the air,
considerable expertise is needed in order
to rig equipment efficiently and safely.
While it won�t take the place of
hands-on training, Entertainment Rigging by Harry
Donovan provides an exhaustive explanation
of every aspect of entertainment rigging, from the
basics to specifics of balance, loads and
all aspects of safety and OSHA compliance.
Its 700-plus pages include hundreds of
drawings, diagrams, and tables, plus
formulas for simple calculations of
dimensions, forces, loads, and the
required strength of rigging equipment.
While targeted at working riggers (both
novice and experienced) Entertainment Rigging
should prove invaluable to venue managers
and designers as well.
From
ESTA�s Protocol Magazine, Review by Karl G.
Ruling
We'll
have to add this observation to the old
joke, "Riggers do it upside
down": Riggers write big books. Harry
Donovan's Entertainment Rigging: A Guide for
Riggers, Designers, and Managers, is the
biggest, heaviest book I have reviewed in
a long time - 1-5/8" thick and 710
pages. I suppose large size is appropriate
for a book about hanging big, heavy things
in the air, over the heads of people.
Donovan makes the point that hanging big,
heavy things is a safer than stacking them
in towers on the stage, but, still,
gravity is powerful and unforgiving. The
conversion of potential energy into
kinetic energy can be awesome and
destructive, so anyone engaged in
entertainment rigging needs to know a lot and be very
careful to avoid unexpected energy
conversions. Entertainment Rigging goes a long way
toward providing that essential
information and a proper respect for
safety management.
Donovan's
book is the product of his engineering
degree, more than twenty years of
experience in entertainment rigging, and ten years
of teaching rigging seminars with Jay O.
Glerum. The book started out as a detailed
syllabus for the course and was less than
two hundred pages, but it grew as
questions from students and continued
rigging experience showed that more
information needed to appear in print. The
rigging methods described in the book are
based on current practices and common
problems, and are written with the
interests and abilities of riggers in
mind.
As
an ex-college professor, I found how
Donovan handled the interests and
abilities of his students very
interesting. He starts with the basics of
the hardware - everybody loves playing
with tools - and then goes on through best
work practices, describing what's easy,
what's not easy, what's safe, and what's
dangerous. This pretty well sucks the
reader interested in getting up into
rafters and not getting hurt into the
book, and indeed is enough information to
allow him to work at heights fairly
efficiently and safely, but Donovan
doesn't stop there. His next sections are
on accident prevention and safety, which
then lead into determining the load
carrying capacities of components and
calculating the loads on them, and then
figuring out some fairly complicated
rigging problems. This leads into a
chapter on liability for venue managers,
lists of information sources, and lots of
text extracted from the OSHA regulations.
This is not a strictly logical order but
it is an order that captures the interest
of the reader before tackling topics he
might not find so attractive and that
leads from simple, practical problems to
more complex, abstract ones.
Donovan
found a way to deal with the vector forces
with few references to trigonometry -
which I found interesting, because trig
was essential to the way I learned about
vectors in my physics classes. Donovan
correctly notes that most people are
averse to trig, and measuring angles on
the job still pretty difficult anyway, so
Donovan has managed to deal with vector
forces by using scaled sketches of force
vectors and the Pythagorean Theorem. When
angles are known and are used, Donovan
usually hides the trig functions in
something like an "angle factor"
table.
I
like the way Donovan has handled safety
and liability. Safety is a major theme
that runs through all the text. This is to
be expected, but he makes the excellent
point that safety is the key to
controlling liability. This seems to be a
fact that is often forgotten. I often hear
people argue about what regulations a
person has to follow, or who's responsible
for what - all focused on determining if
there is an injury who is liable. This is
an unproductive approach to managing
liability. As Donovan points out, if no
one is hurt, there is no liability. Making
sure no one is hurt is the beginning and
the end of the job, not figuring out what
regulations or contract clauses might make
injuries someone else's fault.
Entertainment
Rigging: A Guide for Riggers, Designers,
and Managers is a self-published book, but
that should be taken as an indication of
the small size of the rigging book market
and of the entrepreneurial spirit of the
author, not of the book's worth. It's
interesting and informative; I can thumb
through it for hours, and the bridle
problems would keep me busy for days. It's
definitely recommended reading for any
rigger. The price might be more than what
most people like to spend for books, but
it's just about the same price as one
6-foot chain set with cover, and
ultimately more useful.
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