Wow I feel like a meathead. That old avalon theatre must be a great place to work. I posted in the nostalgia section, see if you can get a permanent job there. If for no other reason than to provide me with many many neat pictures to look at. I love old buildings. Yeah, I know, i'm wierd.
I showed this thread to a friend and he reminded me of a problem that he had had. We both worked on a PA system installation (massive stadium) that had many, many amplifiers. I think it was 21, but I can't remember and he wasn't sure. Due to the required output wattage needed, all of the amplifiers were large, 3 phase units. He kept having issues with controlling them, as they would just kinda work whenever they felt like it. I never really dealt much with it as my job was just hand soldering microphone wall plates.
I was finished with my part of the job long before he had figured out what was wrong, so I moved onto another project in a different building. 2 years later, he still remembers what the problem was. Each amplifier had a 30 amp 3 phase 208 volt mains connection. They each also had a 120 volt "control loop" which drew about 10 watts. being as though this is practically no current, he just kinda wired them wherever was convenient. It turns out, however, all control lines must be wired to the same phase. He ended up ordering a 10 amp QO breaker, and wired all the control lines to it through a contactor. the contactor was then hooked into the large, computer controlled system. Sure enough, this solved the problem and left many people scratching their heads. 2 years later, they have had no problems with the system. Go figure. I guess thats why we haven't used amplifiers from that manufacturer since then.
