Karaoke Forums

UGH, seriously thought I was going to murder a maintenance man this weekend. Was DJ'ing a friend's wedding and just before everyone was getting ready to sit down for dinner (so rig is up and running, dinner music playing, etc), I see a guy from the hall open up a closet door behind the head table and go inside. Five seconds later, poof, music stops, no power to the rig. I immediately dive for the amplifier (running with my Mackie S210 passive tops and a pair of Mackie SRS-1500 powered subs) but before I can hit the switch to turn it off, whap, on comes the power again.

Had a few choice words mubled under my breath, shut everything down, and strolled over to Mr. maintenance moron to find out just what the f**k he's trying to accomplish. He says to me "Oh we're testing something, should be just another minute". Good thing I was working a friend's wedding cuz just about any other situation and I'd have eaten the moron's head for dessert. Instead I simply told him to let me know when he was done so I could safely power my rig back up.

Now seriously, I just can't understand the lack of forethought many people seem to experience. You're going to screw around in the service panel, but can't warn me ahead of time? You're going futz with circuits while live loads are plugged in an operating? You're going to mess with this stuff in the middle of someone's reception but not tell a soul what is going on? And of course like an idiot, you realize you cut the wrong circuit and panic and quickly turn it back on? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that brief power losses like that are extremely risky for all types of electrical equipment and that you're better off leaving the power off for a minute or two and then turning it back on.

Well I did find out later the whole issue was in the hall next to ours they had a band. They were trying to determine what outlets were on what circuits by shutting them off one at a time. The end goal bieng of course that the band not blow breakers during their show. I'm seriously amazed someone didn't have to restrain me.

OK venting over, please return to your regularly scheduled banter.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Hey, it’s good to vent, especially amongst those who understand.

And surely better than smacking an a’hole upside his head.

Kudos to you; you were wise to restrain yourself.

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Hate is like taking poison, hoping the other guy gets sick

Honestly, I don't blame the band for doing that; I do not trust receptacle labels on the rare occasions that I encounter them.

I am sure you already know this trick, but for the benefit of other forum readers, here is how you can usually find three different 20A circuits in most commercial buildings with 120/208V three-phase power and any remotely sane wiring:
* get common volt/ohm meter with AC RMS setting
* measure hot-to-hot voltage of receptacles near you
* when I find three circuits that all measure 208V between their respective hots, I know I have circuits from all three phases
If you get 240V instead of 208V, well, you can only find two separate circuits this way, because the facility only has single-phase power (uncommon in commercial buildings.)

It is entirely possible the electrician who wired your hall was a freaking moron, too; in which case you may find that all the receptacles near you are on the same phase, and they all measure 0V hot-to-hot. If this is the case, you have no option except to do what the guy in letitrip's story did, and toss some par cans or whatever on the receptacles around you, and start flipping breakers.

Of course, if the circuit breaker panel had the legally required labels inside it, the maintenance man would have at least known which ROOM he was flipping circuits in.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Says who?
I say smack him. Would feel better, anyway.

I agree. Kick the s**t out of him. I have no tolerence for stupidity.

Good info Jeff. Just for the record, I don't blame them for wanting to get proper power, I'm just ticked that the doofus couldn't let me know before he started popping breakers. Additionally, if you do pop the wrong one, don't just turn it right back on. That's not good for any equipment (refrigerators, a/c units, computers, etc).

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Similar to the issue in the post I made a couple weeks ago where the owner went to the basement and shut me down HIS way. Still waiting for a call back out of that so I can let him know my terms.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

You didn't mention it but where was this?????

A circuit breaker box without a map (what circuit breaker goes with what plugs)?

I sure hope there isn't an emergency there sometime when something catches fire and the first thing the do is shut off all the breakers leaving everyone in the dark to fight the fire or save someone's life.

Sounds to me like the maintenance man needs some education. Yea maybe smacking him would help.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Sir please step away from that pyro.
Used to love it. Cant get them any more.
Never used for karaoke.
Carole knew where to be.

What have they done with pyroes.
Le Maitre used to be a constant source.

Ok guys.
Where can I get Pyroes.
U
The Uk has closed down.
They are nothing compared to some fireworks.

Of course nobody needs more heavy stuff to carry in, but you could always use a UPS. I kyped a 3000VA unit from work...they were going to throw it away because the batteries were bad! I put two external garden tractor batteries on it instead, giving it almost an hour of capacity to run my entire home theatre and studio equipment, and I disabled the alarm beeper.

On the subject of stupid people who turn off power, when I was working in Systems support, we had a hospital client whose entire lab system would crash every night, once a week, about the same time. We finally persuaded a manager to spend the night in the machine room, and it turned out that a janitor was reaching through the door, unplugging the servers, and plugging in a floor polisher. Unfortunately, there are people running around messing with electricity who shouldn't be using anything as high-tech as a wheelbarrow.

-denise

The hall is a place in Waukesha, WI. It's an older building, obviously has been somewhat renovated in the past 25 years. However, I don't know how uncommon it is for commercial buildings to have service panels that aren't sufficiently labeled, but I know every house I've ever lived in (a total of 5 in my lifetime) have never had sufficient labeling (well until now). Every service panel I can ever remember seeing always has a one or two word description of what each breaker carries if that. They never are clear on exactly which outlets nor do they tell you that this circuit for the kitchen also has the lights in the bathroom on it, etc. When we bought our house in March, one of the things I did before we moved anything in was go to the panel and one by one shut off each breaker and map out exactly what was on each circuit. I've now got the computer generated list posted right next to the panel, but I don't think that's common.

Anyway, I will admit, I can never figure out how venues like this that consistently have bands and DJ's never seem to know how much power they have where or what's on what circuit. I'm always made to feel like I'm the first one to ever ask when I go into a club and ask if they have 2 separate circuits for me (PA on one, lights on the other). Some are shocked (no pun intended) when I tell them I expect a circuit that is free of any other loads. Yeah that's righ Mr club owner, I can't use the same circuit the two pizza ovens are plugged into even if it is on a 20A breaker. Do most KJ/DJ/bands just not care and plug into whatever? I mean seriously, I'm religious about testing for proper wiring and ground before I'll even plug my rig in. It's saved me more than once. The most notable was the bar that had a brand new 50A 220V plug that they said an electrician put in for them. Well before plugging in my 220-110 distro, I tested it. Good thing I did. The neutral and one of the hot legs were reversed. Had I plugged in the distro and then plugged in any equipment, it'd have seen 240V. Can you say POOF.

AC power is the critical foundation to anything we do in this industry so I find it almost unbelievable that many don't even think to check it first.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Venue power sucks at every venue I work in, which is just about every place near me up to 500 capacity. I'm sure it's a combination of lazy/cheap club owners not caring that bands trip breakers and interrupt their shows, inspectors letting too many unlicensed hacks do work in my area, and most small sound providers here not really having the gear to do much in terms of lighting or sub-bass anyway.

I just spent $1000 on LED lights because I can't run my PA and even a few regular light fixtures in ANY venue I work at regularly. I will have to spend another $1000 soon to fill up another bar. But I've already got a lot of comments from venue staff and crowd that no one else does lighting like that in those venues. The reason is obvious to me, no freaking electricity for regular cans and LEDs cost a whole lot; but ironically, the crappy power at these venues is working to my advantage now that I have money to spend on things my competitors don't.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ