The Rat Pac

I’m Craig Brink. I’m a Rigging Gaffer. This is my story.

So here I am once again, finding myself in the UPM’s office as the guy who has to justify how dimming for the DP and Gaffer’s lighting is being controlled and why. There are seldom many favorable options. The DP and gaffer don’t want lessons on how to light a set, the dimmer room is conceivably 400’ away, the fluorescents need to be switched off & on and oh yeah, that 60 watt practical needs to be on a dimmer too. The UPM is starting to think I’m personally on a mission to kill his budget.

It was then that I thought to myself, someone really ought to make a miracle pack that was designed for these needs; the needs of a rigging gaffer. It wasn’t until a few months later that the RATPAC came to be and the UPM and I started speaking the same language.

Does the art department ever call you at 4 o’clock in the afternoon when you’re on the other side of town because they need to redress the set and turn the fluorescents on? The dimmer operator clocked out two hours ago and no one is going to get close to that dimmer board. This is exactly what happened to me on more than occasion when I was working on the show “Flash Forward.” No worries. Go ahead and do away with all the cheap electronic DJ packs, piles of cheap extension cords, Socapex cables and DMX Deuce boards. One flip of the switch inside the control module of the RATPAC and your dimmer is now a NON-DIM switcher that any PA off the street could figure out.

Do you care about fan noise on your dimmers when Slash is slamming his strings at 100 decibels on stage? I didn’t think so. Fan technology has come a long way since it’s origins in rock and roll. Someone just needed to put it in a dimmer pack. The RATPAC takes care of this problem too. The RATPAC is light enough to be lifted with one hand, by one person and is quiet enough to put in the perms. Yes you heard me right – the RATPAC can operate in the perms and you’d never know it’s there! Good thing Slash was never a gaffer.

I’m sure at some point in the future, I’ll get dragged into the UPM’s office again to have that same old budget talk. But at least now the RATPAC has something to offer that doesn’t involve asking the Gaffer and DP to give up precious control of every light on the set.

Listen to other rigging gaffers tell you their story of how cool the RATPAC is by checking out the videos here:

Testimonials

Marc Marino from movie 21 Jump Street..writes….”the perfect solution for practicals in my dimmer rigs. Every show I do, the first 1-200 channels are always for fixtures and practicals.”

Geno Bernal from “The Event” writes…“eliminating long cable runs and having smaller water falls is good for everyone…with this sleek design we could utilize the perm space more effectively.”

Alan Rowe 728 instructor.. writes…“looks fantastic.”

John Crimmins…“Iron Man 2”…writes…“can’t wait to get some hands-on time.”

Marty Bosworth..“Fight Club”…writes…“good idea.”

Dan Riffel…Iron Man 2..writes…“a useful tool.“

Michael DeChellis…“Hawthorne”…writes…“perfect for location work.”

Dave Kagen… writes…“a long overdue solution.”

Joe Ressa…“Gray’s Anatomy.”…writes…“brilliant, I can’t tell you in how many instances this would be useful on our sets and locations.”

New Product Solves Old Problem

Bad HMI head feeder cables are more than just an irritation. The least expensive part of an HMI system is also the part that routinely causes more than 50% of all failures. In fact anyone owning or using HMI lighting will probably waste a great deal of time and money every year on faulty cables. Bad cables don't just black out the light, they can often cause expensive damage to the ballast and delays for repairs.

Despite this it has been up to now just too difficult and time consuming to test cables using basic test gear.

With the Power to Light Cable Test we finally have an answer to the problem of testing and maintaining head cables. This simple to use battery powered unit will carry out a high voltage insulation test on all the cores of a 9 pin cable in less than 3 seconds. It can detect problems like burned or broken insulation and leaky plugs while being small enough to be used hand held.

The Cable Test is just as much at home on the test bench where it can be run all day from its own external power supply. There is also an effective and quick continuity test for broken cores using a plug in probe.

Can any HMI user afford to be without one?

The Cable Test is automatic, easy to use and small enough to be hand held. It has a two colour LED display which mimics the pin pattern of the plug and gives a simple green for go or flashing red for fail.

There are two special test connectors which are without locks and quick to use. Model A covers all common cables from 575 to 4kW and Model B is for 6kW to 18kW.

Both units are compatible with all major manufacturers including Arri, LTM, Desisti and Quartzcolor.

It comes complete with plug in power supply, test probes and batteries.

A valuable money saving tool.

Features


• Small, portable and easy to use with special non-locking test connectors 


• High voltage (400V) insulation test 


• Each pin tested in turn for leakage to every other pin 


• A total of 64 tests for a 9 pin connector 


• Simple LED mimic display shows green for pass and flashing red for fail 


• Battery powered or from plug in power supply

• Display adapts automatically to 7 or 9 pin plugs 


• Continuity test using the plug in probe 


• Continuity tested at 200mA 


• Switches to low power mode when idle to conserve battery power 


• Insulation test time less than 3 seconds for a 9 pin connector

Redheads & Blondes - The Classic Studio Lighting Workhorses

When you’ve been in the “business” long enough, you’ll probably run into your fair share of Redheads and Blondes. I remember the day I first laid eyes on my first Redhead. She was petite, but broad. Punchy yet lightweight. And as cheap as she might have seemed to others, she was a great tool for me at the time. But years later, she broke my heart and I traveled throughout Europe looking for a replacement.





Engand, January 2008, in a small quaint town located near a suburb of London, I find a British Lighting company that has been around since... well, more than a century – 127 years to be exact. Photon Beard Ltd. has quietly been making a name for themselves in the lighting world since 1882 and has been making Redheads and Blondes for virtually as long as they’ve existed.

We all know what Redheads and Blondes are. They’re made by loads of different companies out there. But they’re all the same, right? WRONG! Over the decades, Photon Beard has constantly refined these little ladies by listening to customer feedback and responding to the very questions all of us have been asking for years!

Why are the focus handles mounted on the rear? After being turned on, their rears are pretty hot! Isn’t there a better place for it?

YES!

Sure, professionals almost always wear gloves. But for those times when you forget, Photon Beard strategically places the focus cup hanging underneath her head. A majority of the heat then bypasses the focusing cup. That means even after hours of use, you can still adjust her focus - gloves or not! It’s also a proper pole operating cup, so if you have her hung up high, you can still tweak the focus with a pole.



I really love my Redheads and Blondes, but is there any way you can keep them from blowing lamps so frequently?

YES!

In the early 1990’s, R.R. Beard received a letter from a large customer questioning the lamp life of Redheads and Blondes. That very night, in a pensive state, Mr. Beard visited his local pub. It is legend that after a "few" pints, he came up with an ingenious idea: An anti-surge resistor! This little lifesaver resists the electrical flow until it is heated up. In a nut shell this effect creates a “soft start” saving hours of lamp life and prevents bulb explosions!

 But he didn’t stop there! He was legend to have drank a little more and blurted out in a semi-drunken scream, “Anti- Locking Focussssing Meachanissssim...” Now mind you this is all local legend collected at questionable hours of the evening, under questionable conditions, with people of questionable character. But legend has it that he wrote down on a bar napkin, what would be come the blueprints for a continuous focusing system that never had a stop! The way it works is like a cam. When the lamp carriage reaches the end, it simply starts to go the other way, which then prevents operators from slamming the focus and breaking filaments! So while we can’t guarantee the lamps, Photon Beard does a couple of things to make their little lives as painless as possible (for them and you!).



My ex-Redhead and ex-Blonde both had weird scrim sizes and made it difficult to mount accessories. Did R.R. Beard figure that one out over his pints of beer too?

YES!

Photon Beard puts a lot of thought and practical experience into all of the fixtures they make, so they figured you should be able to take your new lamphead out of the box, put the lamp in, plug it in, turn it on and go. The accessory holders (or “ears”) are part of the lamphead, not a cost add-on like others that you may have seen before.

Even better news than that, the Photon Beard Blondes and Redheads have always been ready to be used with standard sized scrims and other accessories. The Redheads use your readily available 6 5/8” scrims. The Blondes use the very common 10” scrim. No more searching around and being forced to pay high prices on odd-ball scrims!





Further, the Redhead will accept the ever-readily available Chimera 9670AL circular speed ring or even a standard baby 407 speed ring. Save time and money by using the scrims and speed rings you already own!

Plus, unique to the Redheads and Blondes from Photon Beard are the myriad accessories that just simply do not exist for any others. Create different lighting effects through use of their dichroic daylight filter lens, Fresnel lens, snoots and barndoors that feature gel clips.

I use Chimeras a lot with my Redheads and Blondes, but it’s a pain trying to point them at the right angle because the extra weight on the front makes them droop. I hate getting droop! Can you stop the droop!?

YES!

If you look at the Photon Beard lampheads, you will notice the tilt lock-off is on the opposite side of the head to most other brands. This isn’t because we’re catering for Southpaws, it’s so the weight of your lightbank, actually tightens the lock-off, rather than loosening it. A simple solution, but they’re often the best!

Hey, my Barndoors droop too, and I can’t tighten the hinges. Can you stop the droop here too?

YES!

Once or twice with a hammer perhaps? But then it would be new Barndoor time! You won’t find rivets on our barndoor hinges. Good old fashioned screws, washers and nuts hold the doors in place. So if they do droop, you can just tighten them with your Leatherman. Another logical and simple solution from Photon Beard!





To find out more about the famous Photon Beard Redhead and Blonde Tungsten Light Fixtures, visit the following websites:

http://store.maccam.tv/650Wand1000WRedheadlightfixturesandaccessories.aspx

OR,

http://www.photonbeard.com/

HMI Head Feeders - To mold or not to mold?

Overmolding HMI head feeders provides numerous opportunities within the entertainment industry to reduce the total cost of ownership in cable assemblies and repairs. More importantly, overmolding will reduce costs in HMI ballast repairs as well. The actual process of overmolding is nothing new. Injection molding of thermoplastic materials has been around since the 1950’s and chances are that every single electronic device in your house from computers to appliances to table lamps now have molded connectors versus older technology consisting of multiple pieces and screws that would often come apart over time.

The Problem

The majority of HMI head feeder failures are caused by breakdowns in the insulation where the contact pins meet the wire. This is a typical view of what you might see if you opened up one of your 18k HMI cables.

As we can see the head feeder’s failure was caused by twisting of the cables and the breakdown of the tubing insulation. This usually happens because most field operators use the rear shell to twist lock the connector rather than the front locking rings. This unfortunately is a very common mistake.

However, that alone does not cause the failure. Over time, the heat that is generated near the connector due to dirty or loose pins or by under gauged conductors, causes the shrink tubing to expand and contract. This leads to insulation leaks and eventually, expensive ballast repairs.

The Solution
The two fundamental cores of properly over-molding cables are first, to fully encapsulate the contact and wire termination point; Second, to provide a good mechanical strain relief. These two fundamentals ensure that you will never have insulation leaks in the area that causes over 80% of cable failures.

The most common fear is that if the connector is overmolded, how the user would go about getting inside to fix it. The question then becomes, "What needs to be fixed?"
Broken terminations or pushed pins are the most common problem. Other problems may be fractured or broken wire terminations because of the cable pulling away from the connector and its mounting hardware in the back shell.

We’re so confident that this process works as promised that we offer a LIFETIME warranty on the molding itself!

The Process
The back-end structure of the circular connector dictates the design approach of the premold. The preferred method is to mold fully around the back section of the connector with full encapsulation of the individual conductors and the cable jacket. In situations where there is a screw-on back shell, the ideal configuration is to mold fully over the threads. At this point, there is full attachment between the connector and the premold providing a mechanical bond between the cable and the connector. Each style of connector is different and in certain instances, modification of the connector body is necessary for structural bond between the premold and connector.

Using the appropriate method, a completed premold provides a significantly strong bond between the cable and the circular connector along with environmental sealing of the terminations as an added benefit. In addition to the structural advantages of a premold, it is often possible to eliminate the internal use of heat-shrink tubing and other wire prep devices, as the contact area is fully molded and provides isolation of the contacts and wires. Another advantage of a premold is the elimination of pushed pins in the connector because the premold fills this section of the overmold, capturing the contacts and disallowing them to push out of the connector housing. This premold also provides a surface around which to shield the connector body with copper tape for shielding, if needed.

The Savings
The cost of constantly repairing cables is a large expense of both time and money that can be eliminated with this injection molding process. In addition, overmolding will save thousands of dollars on ballast repairs and not to mention the downtime for your customers. A typical 18k 50ft cable with over-molding is priced roughly the same as a regular 18k head feeder. Additionally, we do offer repairs to existing cables for about the same cost as a traditional repair.

Current Advocates of Molded 18k Head Feeders:

Universal Studios

Cinelease, Inc.

Paskal Lighting

Paramount Pictures

Pacific Grip and Light

DR&A

JR Lighting

Filmtrade

Pacific Grip and Lighting

PS Production Services



MACCAM specializes in this featured product and in assembling custom equipment packages that require components from multiple vendors. Be sure to call or email us with your specific, multiple brand name needs and we’ll be happy to conveniently bring it all together for you.


Call (818) 780-5600 or Email quote@maccam.tv to get a quote today.



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