The world's most terrifying job
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I went with my wife to a concert last night. We ended up sitting way up in the cheap seats, but it was still fun. But from that vantage point, when the lighting was just right, you could see this:
Those are human silhouettes there in the middle of the image. They have actual people sitting there, what looks to be about 30 feet up, running the spotlights by hand. In 2018. How is this not done with computers? And how do they keep from getting killed when something invariably goes wrong at some point? (Probably with tethers or something, but still...)
I nominate this for the title of World's Most Terrifying Job.
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Have you never been to a live show of any kind before? That's pretty normal.
Some of it can be computerized, but it's not always possible in larger arenas. Cable runs would be too long or way too tricky to route (especially if done quickly, some bands bring their own equipment and need to be able to set up, test, and tear down all within a single day), and Wireless DMX can be really spotty when you have 10,000 cell phones and public Wi-Fi in the same room.
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@mott555 said in The world's most terrifying job:
Have you never been to a live show of any kind before? That's pretty normal.
I've been to several, and never seen that before. (Admittedly I've never been to one in seats where I'd have that particular vantage point, though...)
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@masonwheeler What venue is that? The amount of technology of course depends on how much the venue has invested in it. (And if it's an arena used 90% for sports, it's probably not worth the cost at all to modernize non-sports usage of it.)
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
And how do they keep from getting killed when something invariably goes wrong at some point? (Probably with tethers or something, but still...)
Wha... what do you think would kill them exactly? They're just sitting there. The biggest risk is probably back pain.
Are you like crazy afraid of heights and projecting?
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@masonwheeler Because every venue is different, you'd have to reprogram your entire concert. The stage setup is all planned out, but they almost always have to make a few adjustments to make it fit. It's just impractical to do that work. Plus, the artists' choreography isn't going to be identical each time. They often ad-lib and improvise to the point they can't really program easily.
And this is hardly the most terrifying job. That label better fits for overnight pizza delivery driver serving W Preston St. in Baltimore.
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@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
And this is hardly the most terrifying job.
I wouldn't take this job
Extreme Jobs - High Voltage Power Line Inspection – 03:19
— World Channel
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I'd nominate "middle-school teacher in Baltimore" for this list. Only sort of joking.
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@blakeyrat said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler What venue is that? The amount of technology of course depends on how much the venue has invested in it.
Vivint Arena in downtown SLC.
(And if it's an arena used 90% for sports, it's probably not worth the cost at all to modernize non-sports usage of it.)
That could be. Its principal purpose is as the home stadium for the Utah Jazz.
Wha... what do you think would kill them exactly?
As the old joke goes, "the sudden stop at the end."
They're just sitting there.
In a very small, restrictive area without much (if any) room to move around. For the entire length of the concert, plus however long before and after. Have you ever tried sitting in exactly the same position for 4+ hours?
Are you like crazy afraid of heights and projecting?
Not crazy so, but I do have a healthy fear of 30-foot drops with no safety rails.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
Vivint Arena in downtown SLC.
Utah? I'm surprised it has electricity.
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@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler Because every venue is different, you'd have to reprogram your entire concert. The stage setup is all planned out, but they almost always have to make a few adjustments to make it fit. It's just impractical to do that work. Plus, the artists' choreography isn't going to be identical each time. They often ad-lib and improvise to the point they can't really program easily.
Who said anything about programming it? I'm sure with a computer you could do that to a certain extent, but you could get a lot of mileage out of simply attaching a camera and a few motors to the spotlight and having someone on the ground with a laptop who can drag around the center-point with a mouse and make the light track it...
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
As the old joke goes, "the sudden stop at the end."
I've never heard of a spotlight operator falling to his death before. I'm sure it has happened before, but it's certainly not common.
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
In a very small, restrictive area without much (if any) room to move around. For the entire length of the concert, plus however long before and after. Have you ever tried sitting in exactly the same position for 4+ hours
Have you ever flown on an airplane before? Besides, sometimes they do shut down individual spotlights and swap operators out in the middle of the show.
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
Not crazy so, but I do have a healthy fear of 30-foot drops with no safety rails.
There are safety features there. You just can't see them from that distance on a cell phone picture taken in the dark.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
Who said anything about programming it? I'm sure with a computer you could do that to a certain extent, but you could get a lot of mileage out of simply attaching a camera and a few motors to the spotlight and having someone on the ground with a laptop who can drag around the center-point with a mouse and make the light track it...
Or, you can spare the expensive remote control hardware and spare the high risk of failure due to extremely long cabling or cluttered 2.4 GHz band and spare the setup/testing/debugging time and just put the operator directly at the machine.
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@mott555 But what if there's some douchey idiot in the cheap seats taking photos which his shitty cellphone camera who's afraid of heights!?
You see your plan falls apart immediately.
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@blakeyrat said in The world's most terrifying job:
Utah? I'm surprised it has electricity.
Why? It's been a well-regarded high-tech area, (for various meanings of the term throughout different times,) for over a century.
Just a few blocks away from the arena is Temple Square, at the center of the city. (Literally. The whole city's street plan is laid out on a Cartesian grid as far as geography permits, and Temple Square is at the Origin point.) The temple was built way back in the mid-to-late 19th century, and they used electric and motorized construction equipment in the process as soon as it became available.
What exactly would cause you to suspect that Utah is a technologically backwards place?
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
What exactly would cause you to suspect that Utah is a technologically backwards place?
Then how come their beer technology hasn't progressed beyond 3.2% alcohol-by-weight.
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@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
And this is hardly the most terrifying job. That label better fits for overnight pizza delivery driver serving W Preston St. in Baltimore.
If by world you mean the USA.
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@sockpuppet7 said in The world's most terrifying job:
If by world you mean the USA.
There's a world outside of USA?
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@timebandit said in The world's most terrifying job:
@sockpuppet7 said in The world's most terrifying job:
If by world you mean the USA.
There's a world outside of USA? Mars is a world. So is Venus.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler Because every venue is different, you'd have to reprogram your entire concert. The stage setup is all planned out, but they almost always have to make a few adjustments to make it fit. It's just impractical to do that work. Plus, the artists' choreography isn't going to be identical each time. They often ad-lib and improvise to the point they can't really program easily.
Who said anything about programming it? I'm sure with a computer you could do that to a certain extent, but you could get a lot of mileage out of simply attaching a camera and a few motors to the spotlight and having someone on the ground with a laptop who can drag around the center-point with a mouse and make the light track it...
Maybe it's a union thing?
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
I went with my wife to a concert last night. We ended up sitting way up in the cheap seats, but it was still fun. But from that vantage point, when the lighting was just right, you could see this:
Those are human silhouettes there in the middle of the image. They have actual people sitting there, what looks to be about 30 feet up, running the spotlights by hand. In 2018. How is this not done with computers? And how do they keep from getting killed when something invariably goes wrong at some point? (Probably with tethers or something, but still...)
I nominate this for the title of World's Most Terrifying Job.
I'd say power lineman has it beat. Or wind turbine repair man.
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@blakeyrat said in The world's most terrifying job:
Then how come their beer technology hasn't progressed beyond 3.2% alcohol-by-weight.
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@mikehurley said in The world's most terrifying job:
I'd say power lineman has it beat. Or wind turbine repair man.
It Pays Big Money – 04:07
— Mark Chesnutt - Topic
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@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler Because every venue is different, you'd have to reprogram your entire concert. The stage setup is all planned out, but they almost always have to make a few adjustments to make it fit. It's just impractical to do that work. Plus, the artists' choreography isn't going to be identical each time. They often ad-lib and improvise to the point they can't really program easily.
Who said anything about programming it? I'm sure with a computer you could do that to a certain extent, but you could get a lot of mileage out of simply attaching a camera and a few motors to the spotlight and having someone on the ground with a laptop who can drag around the center-point with a mouse and make the light track it...
Maybe it's a union thing?
Ugh. A lot of this stuff is heavily unionized in my city. I was volunteering with a group that ran a one-evening show in a union-operated venue, and we almost got kicked out and cancelled because a non-union volunteer ran one single XLR cable during a union-mandated break.
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@mott555 said in The world's most terrifying job:
@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
@the_quiet_one said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler Because every venue is different, you'd have to reprogram your entire concert. The stage setup is all planned out, but they almost always have to make a few adjustments to make it fit. It's just impractical to do that work. Plus, the artists' choreography isn't going to be identical each time. They often ad-lib and improvise to the point they can't really program easily.
Who said anything about programming it? I'm sure with a computer you could do that to a certain extent, but you could get a lot of mileage out of simply attaching a camera and a few motors to the spotlight and having someone on the ground with a laptop who can drag around the center-point with a mouse and make the light track it...
Maybe it's a union thing?
Ugh. A lot of this stuff is heavily unionized in my city. I was volunteering with a group that ran a one-evening show in a union-operated venue, and we almost got kicked out and cancelled because a non-union volunteer ran one single XLR cable during a union-mandated break.
I've been told that the show-business related unions are some of the worst for feather-bedding and being super sticklers for the work regulations.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
I nominate this for the title of World's Most Terrifying Job.
Tower Climbers working – 07:48
— Jens Widell
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@benjamin-hall said in The world's most terrifying job:
I'd nominate "middle-school teacher in Baltimore" for this list. Only sort of joking.
Officer Pryzbylewski, is that you?
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@benjamin-hall said in The world's most terrifying job:
I'd nominate "middle-school teacher in Baltimore" for this list. Only sort of joking.
When I was a correctional officer at the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore, I used to wonder whether it would be scarier to be a public school teacher in Baltimore's inner city. I decided it probably would be. At least we had a semblance of control over the guys where I was.
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@tharpa Yeah but the public school teacher had a better soundtrack:
Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise (feat. L.V.) [Official Music Video] – 04:17
— Tommy Boy
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
I nominate this for the title of World's Most Terrifying Job
I know a dude that does maintenance on the Golden Gate Bridge.
I've seen a YouTube about someone who climbs an antenna pole that's not I significantly high too...Edit: @MZH linked it above.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
Those are human silhouettes there in the middle of the image. They have actual people sitting there, what looks to be about 30 feet up, running the spotlights by hand. In 2018. How is this not done with computers? And how do they keep from getting killed when something invariably goes wrong at some point? (Probably with tethers or something, but still...)
The DMX spotlights we have at my school are a serious pain in the ass when it comes to tracking a moving target - they only have two degrees of freedom (tilt and pan) and as a result, as soon as someone walks diagonally, all bets are off. Hell, even someone going simply from back to front is annoying.
We have a GrandMA2 which is already pretty much overkill but even that thing does not have a "track a moving target" feature, as far as I have seen.
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@rhywden said in The world's most terrifying job:
that thing does not have a "track a moving target" feature
I wonder how hard it would be to program.Shirley there's some not-really-that-complicated maths that could be used to say "This point the light is pointing at the bottom-left corner, this here is bottom-right, etc." and map a translation to have it determine all the points in between on demand. At that point you would mostly just track them on the grid...
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@tsaukpaetra said in The world's most terrifying job:
@rhywden said in The world's most terrifying job:
that thing does not have a "track a moving target" feature
I wonder how hard it would be to program.Shirley there's some not-really-that-complicated maths that could be used to say "This point the light is pointing at the bottom-left corner, this here is bottom-right, etc." and map a translation to have it determine all the points in between on demand. At that point you would mostly just track them on the grid...
Yeah, but you also have to take the height of the person you're illuminating into account - after all, you usually don't want to light up only their feet ;)
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@rhywden said in The world's most terrifying job:
@tsaukpaetra said in The world's most terrifying job:
@rhywden said in The world's most terrifying job:
that thing does not have a "track a moving target" feature
I wonder how hard it would be to program.Shirley there's some not-really-that-complicated maths that could be used to say "This point the light is pointing at the bottom-left corner, this here is bottom-right, etc." and map a translation to have it determine all the points in between on demand. At that point you would mostly just track them on the grid...
Yeah, but you also have to take the height of the person you're illuminating into account - after all, you usually don't want to light up only their feet ;)
Ah, well then, operator dynamic adjustment. Getting to "close enough" would be a fantastic starting point.
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@tsaukpaetra said in The world's most terrifying job:
operator dynamic adjustment
That sounds like a... terrifying job.
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@gribnit said in The world's most terrifying job:
@tsaukpaetra said in The world's most terrifying job:
operator dynamic adjustment
That sounds like a... terrifying job.
It is!!!!
Do you have any idea how anxiety-inducing it is to make choices!!!?!?
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For those interested, this is a common job but fortunately becoming less common. Generally, work at height is best avoided if it can be. It's not very comfortable up there and since you have to spend the whole show there, it's a bit unfortunate if you need the bathroom too...
In theatres, the follow-spots are often in fixed places, like up on the balcony or in a room at the back. But that's because theatres are typically tall and relatively shallow, allowing for the steep angle which you need to achieve to keep the lights out of the artists' eyes. Arenas being much longer and often lower, the angles are far from ideal as they're much 'flatter' and the artist gets more light in their eyes. For touring acts, it can also often be a pain to get your spotlight up to those places.
Those chairs in the sky are known as 'truss spots' (since they're hung from the lighting truss). Truss spots are now being more routinely placed with remotely-controlled spotlights, the common systems being the PRG Ground Control and the Robe Robospot. In these systems, the operator goes on the ground with a controller that resembles a spotlight body, but it emits no light. It's full of sensors, which send data up a cable to the truss, where an 'intelligent' light is hung, so that movement on the controller is mimicked on the intelligent light, so that the operator on the ground controls the intelligent light. They're aided by a camera (in the PRG system the camera is in the light, in the Robe system it's a separate fixture) on the truss, and a screen on top of their controller, so it's easy to follow their 'targets'.
This allows you to put the chairs and controllers somewhere comfortable backstage, remove the work at height element, and possibly even allow a toilet break between cues. There's also even the potential to operate multiple spotlights from the same controller, for different cues and effects.
Here's some more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhCZGOdJLmk
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
It Pays Big Money – 04:07— Mark Chesnutt - Topic
GDPR strikes again...
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@mott555 said in The world's most terrifying job:
A lot of this stuff is heavily unionized in my city
If it was heavily ionized, wouldn't that affect the electrical signals?
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@mzh said in The world's most terrifying job:
@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
I nominate this for the title of World's Most Terrifying Job.
Tower Climbers working – 07:48
— Jens WidellSadly they were fired for that video. Watching that makes me feel physically sick and I've jumped out a plane solo.
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@masonwheeler said in The world's most terrifying job:
Have you ever tried sitting in exactly the same position for 4+ hours?
I work in front of a computer.
My bathroom is a little easier to access, I'll give you that.
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@blakeyrat said in The world's most terrifying job:
Utah? I'm surprised it has electricity.
Come on now, it's not Pennsyltucky…
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@ben_warre said in The world's most terrifying job:
Someone said:
Amazing how public perception has this as a dangerous job, and nobody brought up the important question. Having a pee.
Hah! We did.
Btw, I have big respect for all people who do this sort of backstage work. I don't think most people give them proper credit.
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@david-evans Welcome to the forums!
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@cursorkeys Why were they fired?
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@pie_flavor said in The world's most terrifying job:
@cursorkeys Why were they fired?
Free-climbing is forbidden for tower workers, the narration where he says 'but is permitted by OSHA' is apparently wrong.
I have no idea about that industry personally but when that video went viral years ago it caused a huge storm and that was the info stated by professionals.
Is this really a thing?
