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Massive rack units?


TRBboy

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It feels as though a smaller rack standard for amplification kit is long overdue, because the advantages in robustness and transport convenience must still apply in these days of more compact Class D power amps and narrower speaker cabs. The 19 inch rack is somewhere between 90 and 102 years old!

 

I guess there is absolutely no chance of this happening though, as most of the other domains where racks are used are probably still happy with their 19 inches. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

We're currently going down the rack route - our last couple of gigs have had way too many cables cluttering up the stage. Our first finished cabinet gathers together two phantom power units, a mic pre-amp and a chorus unit. 4U is probably out limit, keeping things down to 5 or 6kg max.

 

IMG_0439.thumb.jpeg.b808f7ce3776c7ac024a94f7b57ff9bd.jpeg

Edited by Rosie C
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I should've clarified, I was talking about massive rack units for bass amps! I think it's pretty common for PA gear, think ours is in 6U and 4U cases, maybe bigger actually 🤔

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1 hour ago, TRBboy said:

I should've clarified, I was talking about massive rack units for bass amps! I think it's pretty common for PA gear, think ours is in 6U and 4U cases, maybe bigger actually 🤔

 

Ah, my back hurts just thinking about anything bigger than 6U !

 

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13 minutes ago, agedhorse said:

Not getting any sympathy here!  Preparing some racks for another season on the road:

IMG_0481.jpeg

 

No, no, no... until our band can afford a 7.5 tonne truck with tail lift and staff I'm not even considering anything like that!

 

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On 14/03/2024 at 22:40, Jack said:

Some rack rigs through the years. Like many I loved them for the ease of setup and hated them for the bulky carry. I still have and use the mixer rack right at the end but everything else is gone.

 

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836111152_HelixRack(front).thumb.jpg.0aea4a82bde7f7d31aa17304eaf2b695.jpg

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IMG_20180601_182901.thumb.jpg.2fca9d57643f2bf5c978a2e038d72843.jpg


The overhang of the racks on those cabs is making me twitch 😆

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12 hours ago, agedhorse said:

Not getting any sympathy here!  Preparing some racks for another season on the road:

IMG_0481.jpeg

Takes me back to my time at Panasonic. When we did a big trade show everyone from the department manager to the order clerks were roped in, wearing casual clothes to load and unload the trucks and then place and connect all the equipment on the displays. Out biggest rival (usually) were another Japanese company, a four letter word beginning with S. They had a Rig crew and all the sales and technical staff just appeared from nowhere on the day of the show. Our sales guys learnt more about the product on those pre-show days than they ever did on formal training and it really did encourage both team spirit and bad backs.😃

 

I suspect @obbmwill tell a different story!

Edited by Chienmortbb
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1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

I suspect @obbmwill tell a different story!

Yes Slightly different John.  In my latter days at Sony Broadcast I was Technical Manager for Exhibitions, a kind of super Roadie.  For some months prior to the big trade shows I would meet with the Product Managers and we would decide what we show and how it would be demonstrated.  From these discussions a list of equipment and a set of schematics was produced.  For the very large show (IBC in Amsterdam) I used to take on two broadcast engineering students from Ravensbourne College in Bromley for the summer months to help.  It helped me enormously and gave them an insight into a large manufacturer, the industry, got them to the show and they got paid.  Our Logistics people did a great job in allocating all the products required  and packing it by area.  I should point out that the largest stand we built was 40m x 25m triple decker so the amount of equipment required filled a number of 40-ft artics.  It was like building a TV station from scratch in 10 days. I used a team of 4 or 5 installation wiremen and would work closely with the stand builders to get all the inter-area cabling installed.  Once we started putting product into the stand the Product Managers and Product Support Engineers would finish connecting up and start commissioning.  We liked to keep them away until it was convenient to us for them to be there so they used to attend the Sales Meeting. The afternoon before opening all the sales guys descended on us for hands-on training.  For the whole of the build we were in very casual dress but come opening time everyone was there in their suits, regardless of what time we finished the night before.  Once it was over we had 3 days to take it all apart put the right kit in the right boxes, store away all the cables and ship everything back.

 

Sorry I've rambled on for too long but happy days. 

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On 11/03/2024 at 19:37, Dan Dare said:

 

We're catching you up pretty quickly, Bill. SUVs are breeding like rabbits here, too. Thankfully, many are not as massive as those favoured over there, probably because many of our roads are so narrow. Many actually have less internal space than an equivalent-sized sedan. Thankfully, bro-dozers are still quite rare, but give it time...

 

It's a weird thing, everybody going for massive SUVs (which mostly still feel like smaller cars on the inside with little headroom) then moving into cramped new build estates where the roads are just about wide enough for one reasonably sized car.

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I mostly play mid sized bars downtown , and in many venues am not in the PA.

 

No rack. Small stages. Amp , preamp , small cab and I’m good to go.

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