The lost electrician

As it turns out, quite a bit of electrical work needs to be done before we can install the new equipment. First of all, the electrical lines to the balcony that will feed the house mixing console and all outboard processors, and the line that will feed the main power amplifier for the house speakers needs to be upgraded. Secondly, two additional twenty amp lines need to be run to the stage platform to power new amplifiers that will be installed inside the stage in a slide out rack assembly from the manufacturer "RaXXeSS". Some very nice photos of the installation itself can be found on my website's gallery, so I won't bore you further with the details.

For the less technically minded, what it amounted to was this, the electric oulets and the wireing inside the walls going up to the balcony that were used for the main power to the system needed to be upgraded to newer one capable of supplying more electrical power, and new outlets installed at a specific location in the stage area. Not easy work but hardly complicated either, since I left extremely specific instructions as to where things needed to go and how they were to be wired.

Now, where is that electrician again? ....

Now I have electricians who are licensed and are capable of doing the work in a timely and professional manner. The client insisted on using this individual, who while in possession of a license, was not in the habit of doing sound system specific installation work and therefore unfamiliar with the specific and perculiar demands that sound systems make on the electrical system. Nonethe less, the client wanted this electrician to do the work, and for the sake of client/consultant relations I agreed. I may never do so again without a stipulation in the contract requesting the electrician to meet personally with me to determine the exact nature of the work to be done, and to lay out a time line for the work. It was several weeks before I was actually able to speak face to face with the man, two additional weeks before he returned to run the lines, and then claimed that he was to wait for me to check the work before he returned to install the outlets (something that never came up in our conversation).

Yet I hold my breath and show up to find,...

Wires poking out of holes in wall which are both untagged and of undecipherable origin. Two electrical boxes on the stage platform which happen to be locet not only in the wrong location, but exactly in the way of where we need to cut a hole to accomodate the rack assebly for the power amplifiers that are to be used for the subwoofers and the stage monitors. I start to get nervous, but quickly recover after making a few voltage measurements, turning circuit breakers on and off, and quickly determine that at least all the lines are in fact on the same phase.

OK, so it's not so bad, I think. We gather together and quickly decide to scratch this guy off on finishing the job since he already did the work that technically requires a licensed electrician anyway, and was paid up on the work done thus far. I have other problems to deal with such as one EAW monitor speaker that is late in being delivered and one power amplifier that no dealer anywhere seems to have. These of course are little details that require posts of their own to do them justice.

The decision is made, and based on delivery schedules on the two prior items we outline a new work schedule. We are already three weeks behind on our schedule because of issues with the missing desk and the electrician.

I will have to figure out what to do with the "extra" cabling the electrician ran (wiring not specified in my drawings, the installation specifications, or in any of our discusions), and the manner in which to cut the hole in the stage platform that wil least disturb the electrician's work. I also have to confirm that the client is procuring some scaffolding so we can work on the main speakers safely, since it is my understanding that the previous installation of the speakers involved  folks crawling along the support beams of the open A frame ceiling. This was definitely not what I had in mind when I thought "safe work conditions".

Clearly the electrician is not pleased with our decision to finish without him, but I throw him a bone by reassuring him that the additional work involving another installation the client wishes to do will be his. Political ego massaging having been acomplished, I proceed to the next and final aspects of... yes, this all about just getting ready to actually start the installation!

Next posting I'll talk about what one has to do when things simply are not available on time.

Yes, sometimes you have no choice but to wait.

In the meantime, go experience some joy...