Possibly My Most Confusing, Discombobulated Post. Ever.

Back in November, the guys started an install at The Egyptian and I've taken a few pictures here and there of the process and have put them in a draft in Blogger but haven't really known quite what to do with them since I've had very little to do with the project. But, since many of the pictures are somewhat self-explanatory and pretty interesting, I think it's time to post them even if I can't really do it justice.


Rob and Kurt have set up a soldering station in the newer building that gives them each room to work on cables with everything they need right at their fingertips. This install required plenty of soldering and this is how they spent a lot of their time:




This is the type of thing they soldered. All I know is that each of these tiny wires has a corresponding place in each of these panel mounted XLR ends and they have to be precisely and meticulously taped and soldered in order for the sound system to work:

On the right side of this picture there is a multi pin that all of these wires (which were soldered by either Kurt or Rob) come out of that will go to the XLR ends on the panel. Eventually, an audio snake will be connected to the corresponding multi-pin so they can connect together and tie the mixer into the amps, monitors and speakers. I think. But I could be wrong.

This is one of the audio snakes they built. I think it goes to the monitor board but I could be wrong:

After all of these things were soldered at the shop, they were installed next to the stage at the theater:

And were somehow run under the floor to the front-of-house mix position:

Rob took us on a tour of the tunnels under the floor so we could see how the cables were routed:

I have no idea what Kurt is doing in these picture but I'm sure it's crucial to the install:




Part of our tour included the fan room (pretty sure that's not the technical name) which was very windy:

I thought about making this my Christmas Card picture. Seemed appropriate to our weirdness.

Another aspect of this project was to run the DMX (lighting) cable from somewhere out front up to the projection room. In order to keep the cables as out of sight as possible, Rob had to find a way to drop the cable down into the room through the ceiling. Zach was a perfect candidate for this job since the passageway into the space above the projection room was narrow (and possibly hadn't been entered in 50 years. . . ) Rob had to give him a hand as he pushed him into the unknown. . .

They successfully found a way to route the DMX cable and Zach came out filthy but no worse-for-wear:

I think this is the ladder that goes up into the space that goes up into the space above the projection room. I think.

Sometime towards the beginning of this project, Kurt and Rob worked in the space above the theater running cables. Or something. Gloria and I met them at the top of the parking garage one afternoon and followed Rob down a couple of ladders in order to get up into the attic of the theater:

The first ladder:

The second ladder:

Gloria's pretty brave and adventurous but she wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea:

It was pretty interesting up/down there:

This picture is looking down at the theater seats from the attic. The chain has a motor on one end (in the attic) and the truss on the other end (suspended over the stage):

A few months ago, they lowered the truss with the speakers so they could be re-configured, or something, and this is the apparatus that makes it all possible:

In a corner of the attic, there is another ladder that leads down to the stage.

Rob failed to mention that once we reached the bottom of that ladder, there was one more ladder that took quite a bit of bravery and balance to reach so Gloria and I ended up going back up the ladder into the attic and then up the other two ladders to the top of the parking garage and then down the elevator (nice and safe) and through the front doors of the theater and down the aisle to the stage. It took much longer, but we knew we'd make it in one piece! Same result, less courage.

So, I can finally publish this post even though it probably makes absolutely no sense. I just like to check things off my list!