Risk assessment for festival event?

[geeeee12345]

Hey hey

Question hopefully someone here can help or point me in the right direction with.... ? Basically I have been asked to run a laser show in a dance tent at a local festival, the organiser has slammed me with the HSE regs doc (a good doc) and asked me to put forward a risk assessment as well as the MPE calculations on site if needed..... just wondering how to go about this professionally and to cover all areas, safety for me is paramount even if my rig is somewhat small for a marquee that will hold at least 1000 punters...

The rig that will be used is:

Crowd scan
2x 680mW RGB (300mW Red/650nm, 80mW Green/532nm, 300mW Blue/450nm)
x2 Green 100mW (100mW Green/532nm)
(possible) x1 RGY 800mW (500mW Red/650nm, 300mW Green/532nm)

overhead scan
2x 400mW Green (400mW Green/532nm)
1x 2.5W RGB (1000mW Red/650nm, 500mW Green/532nm, 1000mW Blue/450nm)

The crowd scan would be a minimum of 3m off the ground and 3m to 5m away from the crowd, the overhead would probably be round 5m off the ground...

Any help in this would be greatly appreciated

Cheers
G

[Insanity]

This should help you: http://www.pangolin.com/resguide09b.htm

Mark

[norty303]

We tend to use the term 'crowd scan' to mean any beams that actually enter the crowd. If you don't intend to crowd scan then it makes your life easier as you don't need to do any MPE calcs. Simply mask the apertures with aluminised tape so that no beams can enter the audience in the event of failure and you're good to go.

If I've misunderstood then consider that one of the 100mw 532s with typical specs won't be safe until ~50m. You also shouldn't be crowd scanning unless you have scanfail devices fitted or the uncorrected stationary beam is below MPE. Most H&S want you to demonstrate how you meet the requirements laid out in HSG95 and the more recent BS IEC 60825-3

[White-Light]

Have you taken a safety course and do you have all the necessary equipment to take the measurements you need?

[geeeee12345]

Thanks Mark, greatly appreciated there and ouch! that be some hell of a lot of reading....

Think I am getting the basics here, is to put forward worst case scenario's and give solutions to avert any danger to public & employee's and to make clear safety protocols already in place.

Also just to say checking out your website you have done some bloody awesome shows! I am still but small time, hopefully in years to come I too can pull off stuff like yours!

[Insanity]

Thanks Mark, greatly appreciated there and ouch! that be some hell of a lot of reading....

Think I am getting the basics here, is to put forward worst case scenario's and give solutions to avert any danger to public & employee's and to make clear safety protocols already in place.

Also just to say checking out your website you have done some bloody awesome shows! I am still but small time, hopefully in years to come I too can pull off stuff like yours!

Thanks mate, spent a lot of cash on kit over the years, but worth every penny

You have to cover everything from load in to load out, and yes absolute worse case scenario's, like what will you do if a girl gets on her boyfriends shoulders and sticks her makeup mirror in the beam?

Sounds crazy, but at one festival we had someone nick a mirror ball and start chucking it up into the laser effects... We obviously eStopped the show while the security kicked the cr... errm, I mean escorted him off site...

Cheers
Mark


Cheers
Mark

[geeeee12345]

Norty nice one with the tape idea, I use Phoenix4 Live where you can set the 'Worlds' so I should be able to set the higher units to not crowd scan however as a failsafe backup the tape is a brilliant idea!

This is the reason I have come here to find out 1st before F**cking up

With regards to the scan failsafes the keys are off on the units however ILDA overides this so if the signal was lost then there is no output due to the keylock being off, I have spec'd for a 16a feed with MCB/rcd distro down to four 13a outlets to handle the units off one feed that is easily in reach to "kill" all units, I will at all times be on the tower running the show and ready to hit stop at any point also I have 4 Motorola CP40 walkies of which one will be with me, one at stage with crew ready at any point to flip the MCB/rcd breaker and the other two for the guy on projectors and general stage crew.....

[norty303]

Ok I can see 3 issues there.
1. The key switch should render the projector inoperable if it's off.
2. A scanfail device is something that detects if the scanners are moving. If they aren't, it shuts down the lasers very quickly, the good ones in the order of a millisecond or two. It is designed to prevent a static beam being left in someone's face if the scanning system breaks. Most off the shelf projectors (even expensive ones) don't come with a scanfail device fitted.
3. Using the power supply as an estop is not a great idea. Turning off the power can instantly stop the scanners, whilst a laser is still lasing, leaving a static beam in the crowd again.
As I said, the masking thing will stop all of these things if you aren't crowd scanning, if you are then you have a LOT more stuff to consider, both in assessment and the actual kit you are using.

[geeeee12345]

Norty how would you go about connecting an E-Switch to multipul units, two have the two prong connector where as one has the small joystick style pin connector and my two RGB's do not have any?

There is a temptation to just set them all above height and be done with it for this event to make life simple n safe and then get myself sorted so for the next one I can crowd scan....

[norty303]

The first thing to do is confirm if the interlock loop present on the rear is actually connected to anything. They should usually be a complete loop, so that if you break it, the projector cuts out. The projector will need a board inside that can interpret this loop being broken, and turn off the lasers (usually by blanking as this is the quickest).
The ILDA connector actually has provision for an interlock loop too on pins 4 and 17. Again, these need to be connected to something internal that detects the loop being broken. Most DACs have these pins tied so that the laser won't switch on unless a DAC is connected (i.e. the loop is complete)
I've used the ILDA loop as it means not having to run an extra cable to each projector. I've also used DZ's breakout board which has a relay on it for making/breaking the loop on daisy chained projectors. I had to make up a little board and additional relay to feed the interlock on my scanfail/safety boards too.
In short, to do my 5 projectors with scanfail, interlock, estops, etc it took about 3 months, a load of wiring and electronics and the best part of £800.
If your projectors are not already configured for it, it will likely not be a trivial operation.

But as I said, first off, plug in your projector, try breaking the interlock loop on the connector you have (2 pin or 9 pin one) and see what the projector does.

There are many approaches to interlocks though, thats just my preferred one. There are also different products available, DZ has his breakout board, Stanwax has a full safety board (without scanfail), Dave Leigh has one too I think, there are scanfails from Pangolin (PASS), plus numerous European suppliers, ranging from ~£75 up to $500 (for PASS), some of which have interlock and safety features too.

It is a sad fact that although many commercial projectors claim compliance and have the right connectors (or don't in the case of 2 of yours), to make them work as might be required is often a much bigger step.