Planing a Live Concert - help needed

[Remoteness]

DanDan, we are helping our new friend with his homework project.
I hope we get an A for all our efforts.

[aussie_techie]

Yep, they are some that we use.
Obviously you would need something with your local plug, besides that it should be the same. Our single phase outlets are 240V so you might be using a slightly lower voltage but ratings always have to be higher than is actually used for which most manufactures just use common parts with a common rating. As i understand it our electrical and OH&S standard are basically the same so everything should be covered.

Im not sure if you even have to sight the standards? Its certainly advisable for final year University anywhere, but then im not sure how academic or realistic this all has to be.

[DanDan]

Understood.
I presume it is a basic Rock band, not a lot of strange and difficult acoustic instruments.
A small 2-4KW PA with another 1-2KW of stage monitors should be enough.
The Dynacord gear is very good for the money.
I suggest that you speak to a local PA/Lights hire company. They should be able to answer lots of questions about power requirements and distribution. They should supply the Distro. They also may know the venue and it's details. e.g. what AC power is available in the Venue? The available power may decide how many lights you can run. Hopefully you will have Three phase, 32A per phase or something like that. Mains voltages vary quite a lot, you are probably 230 or 235, I think 220 is gone. Not a big deal, use 230 for calculations. It is best to have much more power than you will actually use, maybe 50% more, so VA vs Watts won't really matter. For your purpose consider them equal. Hopefully you don't have to do any calculation, e.g. The PA supplier should bring a Distro which is compatible with the available supply.
Get lots of beer for the musicians.....:-)
DD

[mixedupsteve]

Originally Posted by matico

Hey!

Sorry but theres one question left :-)

What about some kind of a splitbox and safety?I mean a box where i have 6 Outputs of electricity or something like that. And of course the safety.

Any ideas? What do you take for that purpose?

thanks and greets

You need something like this.
You going to have to tap into the house main panel most likely unless they already have a feed for PA etc. PLEASE DONT TRY THIS YOURSELF. Its clear that your not experienced in this and most experienced people don't even do it. The venue should furnish you a proper feed installed by and inspected by an electrician!

[Remoteness]

Motion Labs manufacture some mighty fine products.

[matico]

So let me break it down once again: I receive 3-phase power from my house plug (63Amp/400V), connect it to a powerwise pd620 for e.g. and this machine deliveres 32A and 240 V which i can use for all my gear? And it includes all precaution i need,too?

Sorry, but i m really not familiar to that.

thanks and greets

[DanDan]

Matico, the supplier for your PA and/or lights will have a distribution system (Distro)
They will be familiar with your local systems and have the right stuff.
We in other countries can tell you some general principles but you need local knowledge here.
FYI
3 Phase is a slightly more efficient way of delivering large amounts of current. It eliminates quite a bit of wire by sharing the Neutral. e.g. Three 64A supplies would have six wires normally. LLL NNN. Using Phase shifting, they share one Neutral, 4 wires. LLL N shared. Quite a saving in copper. 3 phase is much more common in the USA, even domestically. Their voltage is half, so their current is double. Double current means much thicker wires. In a big country eliminating two out of every six big thick wires is a very big saving!
DD

[matico]

Hey!

Thanks for your reply.

Still remember - its a school project and i have to sum up everything i need. So even if there was a distro at the venue, i would need to add it to my plans.

Still the question - is this machine by power wise,which i put on here ,sufficient for my purpose? (receiving 63A/400V and breaking it down to 32A/230V with all safety precautions i need)

Thank you.

greets

[DanDan]

That sounds OK to me matico without going into details. I am a little worried about writing about a Distro which may not be suitable, e.g. from another country. Whait I am suggesting is that you ask the PA company exactly what Distro they will be using and then get all the specs and info and write about that one.
DD

[matico]

Hey dandan!

You have to understand - this is a school project and I cant ask nobody about technical circumstances.Its all fictitious.

But you would say, that it will work and the supply is ok?

greets

[DanDan]

I don't really understand matico. You are asking us about technical details, so why not ask a local supplier? If you get the name of their distro you can look up the tech details and write about it. I can't say if what you propose will work or not, The demand for current by the lights in particular, needs to be matched to the supply. If you are saying the supply is three phases, 64A each, that is seems to be plenty. If the distro breaks this out to 32A, then the lighting rig must be matched to that.
DD

[Remoteness]

Boy, I wish there was the Internet when I was in school and dealing with all that homework I left for last minute.

[aussie_techie]

Originally Posted by matico

So let me break it down once again: I receive 3-phase power from my house plug (63Amp/400V), connect it to a powerwise pd620 for e.g. and this machine deliveres 32A and 240 V which i can use for all my gear? And it includes all precaution i need,too?

Sorry, but i m really not familiar to that.

thanks and greets

Sorry its taken me to come back to this, anyway.
A simple distro like a PD620 is all you need. You would need something with your local plugs for both 5-pin 3-phase and 3-pin single phase but the same things are going to be required by law which are an an RCD and a circuit breaker. Some units will have independent RCDs for each phase while other have a single integrated master RCD. If you dont understand an RCD then look it up because it may save your life no matter what you are doing. A circuit breaker does the same job as a traditional fuse but a simple MCB is a switch which you can reset where as a fuse would have to be replaced and in general fuses are a thing of the past anyway.
By law you may also have to have every power cable tested and tagged to meet OH&S requirements. You would have to check you local laws, and European standards. You may also need to do a risk management in accordance with BS31100 or other European standards.

You also have your ratings a little confused, if its 32amp 400v then its still 32 amp over each phase. The 63amp rating is for a master switch which always has to be rated much higher so it wont melt if you manage to exceed 32amp. Its the same on your house, your master switch will be rated at approximately double what is actually supplied due to safety.

Don't get worried about any US stuff as they do stuff differently and its really can get confusing.

In reality for anything big you will have electricians on site anyway but IME everyone who uses anything electrical should still understand the basic concepts because it can be the difference between life and death.

[matico]

Hey!

Thanks again for your answer.

I am really excited, how this project will be evaluated.

I will tell you the results.


Thanks for all your help!

greets