Subject:
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Re: Booth monitors and crowd control
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf
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Date:
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Tue, 8 Aug 2000 04:46:08 GMT
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Viewed:
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664 times
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In lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf, "David K. Z. Harris" <zonker@gnac.com> writes:
> X-10 power control.
> We had a wireless remote control to turn two outlets on or off. These
> controlled the track controllers for both loops (ckt. 1) and the power
> to the rotating doggie atop the Spamcake Diner (ckt. 2).
I think I had to use this once because the dog got motion sickness. ;-)
> Oddly, the RF remote was usually in the hands of the operator who
> stood closest to the track power controllers...which left the other
> operator calling out "Stop the outter loop!".
That's true. There was some operator "floating" going on.
> I think the remote idea works well, and I'll develop that further.
> I'll also suggest that we try to have more than one remote, so a few
> booth monitors can "throw the switch" when they see trouble. The person
> near the controllers would be the last person to get a kill switch. ;-)
But even so, it's hard to stand still inside the display. I would move to
monitor another side if the crowd suddenly swelled there if my boothmate was
preoccupied, thereby relocating the remote.
It almost seems like instead of monitoring the sides of the display, we should
monitor the corners, which could include the two adjoining sides.
> These pocket remotes are also available in 4-ckt versions, and I may
> consider picking up a few of those as well, for larger layouts.
That'd be swell. Outside personnel should have these as well.
> Monitors on the outside
>
> I think that having members on the outside worked well, when we had
> some members outside helping. The main problem is, you don't have an
> area to sit down when you are working outside. Since standing all day
> is a drag, this also speaks to having shifts, or even rotating from
> "inside" (with a chair") to "outside" during your shift.
Yes it did work. However, sometimes I think it might have lent itself to more
public hands-on because people (mostly kids) sometimes didn't readily
associate someone outside the booth as a club member 'fixing a problem' or
embellishing the display. And because of the position of the roundhouse, one
corner was impossible to reach from inside the booth; so I tried to be there
when outside.
> More room on the inside
>
> Well, I'd like to think that we were crowded due to a lack of planning,
> but I have a gut feeling that tells me that even with great planning,
> putting on a show will frequently throw us last-minute changes, and
> I'm not sure how to plan for them.
Plan for the unexpected? Hmm... Did anyone use the track layout designing
software?
> The round house was to blame. It was an odd-size, versus Mike's tables.
> There was a presumption of where the tracks would pass along the module,
> but it was wrong, and we ended up designing the show layout all over
> again on the back of used pages, less than 12 hours from move-in to
> the show floor. At that point, it didn't matter about earlier versions,
> or how much planning we had done. We guessed at a track design, but then
> the task of putting it together showed us where we had mis-guessed at
> room needed for switched track, etc.
Yet it was impressive to visitors nevertheless. But without further thought, I
couldn't say how to fix the problem, short of having a perfect rectangle in
the middle of the layout, thereby making the roundhouse module stick out
[undesirably] further.
> In one area, we only had 30", and that was pretty narrow. We should
> plan for more room in the middle, but since Mike's tables are 45" deep,
> that means the booth needs to be larger (which means more tables...).
I think it would also help to get all or most of the storage and personal
effects pushed out almost all the way to the proposed skirting; that way it
wouldn't seem so crowded either. That way, there'd certainly be more room for
the chairs.[1] And, having a piece of carpet down where folks go in-n-out
would save a few knees as well.
> We also need to discuss tables versus modules again. Mike's still
> working on his. Who else is planning on trying to build a module or
> more on their own?
I don't have the room for that kind of thing.
> (Maybe we should plan on those modules being used to expand Mike's modules?
At least for the short term.
> He can make corners and switches, and the
> others are simply straight tracks following his zoning/placement plans?)
If newly added tables or modules weren't square, as long as when they're
turned either way their length or width adds up to a multiple of 15" (size of
a big baseplate), they could work, provided that there was a correct number of
them to line up, though perfect squares would still be ideal (if I'm thinking
correctly on this). This might work if someone wanted to build a smaller
layout on their own and didn't have quite the room, yet still wanted to lend
their tables to the occasional public layout.
> When would we want to use tables instead?
A table might be good when less than 45" wide or long is the desired result.
If the roundhouse comes into play and we want nice straight edges inside the
booth as well, then we might want to. Two good places would be on either side
of the roundhouse, to either expand the yard and/or to expand real estate for
town structures.
> Mike was talking about selling his tables before the show at cost.
> I don't know if they are still available. After the teardown, I think
> Mike, Tom McD. and I agree that the tables with fold-up legs are much
> nicer towork with than the PNLTC-style...
Yes, for quick teardown, which is what one wants after a long day of standing
around so you can stand around and wait some more for the truck to arrive at
the dock :-)
One thing that I might lobby for is for at least one module to have a set of
wheels mounted to the underside of a module frame so that you can stack
modules and then roll them without the need to hunt down a dolly.
> maybe Mike's going to retrofit his tables, and use them for modules?
I get the feeling that Mike would probably just want all standard size modules
if he could get them.
> My main point here is that we probably need to try to get our tables
> together before a show, and make sure we all see how they fit. The
> NMRA show was the first time many of these tables and legs had been
> mated together, and new holds had to be drilled, etc. The show floor
> is a hard place to do integration. Having a test-run before the show
> would have given us some time to rework the track plan, and maybe even
> make another table or two. (We can now try to make some layout designs
> with more room, so when we get asked to display, we can try to get a
> slightly larger booth, having tried a few other designs.)
Actually, having new holes drilled on a fairly level cement floor might be
preferrable to doing it in the carpeted Fukaya Room, though I understand doing
it at the last minute was the aspect least desired.
I was also thinking of a pole with a sign mounted on top, but at this point,
I'm not looking to volunteer anyone.
> On-site storage
>
> With most display items arriving in LEGO tubs and model boxes, these
> containers were visible to the visiting public. Many folks thought we
> were selling LEGO. Some kids wanted to open the boxes. I think having
> some kind of drape in front would have been great, to hide the boxes,
> as well as concealing our chairs, and personal belongings.
It'd be awesome if Lego sold bedsheets. ;-)
-Tom McD.
[1] I'm all for built-in drink holders :-)
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Booth monitors and crowd control
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| They only tend to have twin sheets in stock, and that would get REALLY expensive, unless we could talk Brad into sending us a dozen or so sets. If he did, we could even put pillows in the pillowcases for on the chairs for longterm seating ;-) (...) (...) (24 years ago, 8-Aug-00, to lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf)
| | | Re: Booth monitors and crowd control
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| (...) I can do this!!! I have 2 or 3 large signs from the Shell station outside Fresno that was Mike's main supplier. I can make a tall pole (1" diam) with a crosspiece to hold the signs. Paul Sinasohn (24 years ago, 8-Aug-00, to lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Booth monitors and crowd control
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| X-10 power control. We had a wireless remote control to turn two outlets on or off. These controlled the track controllers for both loops (ckt. 1) and the power to the rotating doggie atop the Spamcake Diner (ckt. 2). Oddly, the RF remote was (...) (24 years ago, 8-Aug-00, to lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf)
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