[SML] Orchestra Pit Netting

[Bill Conner]

Keith-

I think the fall onto the net with all of the musicians and
instruments and the corner of that upright that Stephen wants down
there will be much worse than a fall on the tensioned wire grid just
7-8" below the stage floor.And if under a filler, how do you protect
the workers installing or removing the fillers from falls?

The pit access - which I describe as either below stage (level) or
through the house - is a difficult issue.  I'm not successful on every
project but I have come to push very hard for below stage (even if
that is from the sides and down stage of the proscenium) because one,
through the house requires a discontinuity in the net or tensioned
wire grid, and two, the wheel chair access is greatly complicated by
the through the house route. Assuming the the pit is lower than row 1,
the situating of a wheelchair lift for through the house access to the
pit has to be designed first, and aisles and seating second.  Whats
more, if the lift also provides access to the stage or the stage is
less than 42" above the first row, there are few wheelchair lifts that
don't have a permanent mast or tower the sticks up a lot, often with
guards and a gate that stay at stage level.  The ones that don't cost
much more, so there will always be a push to accept the sight line
obstructer model. I can come close to showing that providing safety
from falls, not discriminating against people that must use
wheelchairs, and not having a machine that blocks sight lines is
almost more inexpensively solved with a below stage access route to
the pit.
-- 
Bill Conner Fellow of the ASTC