[SML] Rock Singer Electrocuted on Stage

[e-mail frank.wood95]

It sounds suspiciously like our old enemy "lift the ground".

It can be a short term cure for hum problems. But is DANGEROUS! Yes,
hum problems are often caused by ground loops caused by inappropriate
interconnections, but the remedy is to find and solve the problem at
its root, not to make a temporary bodge.

The BBC, for whom I worked for many years, had a strict policy. ALL
exposed metalwork must be securely connected to the safety ground,
period. No exceptions, except for equipment certified as
'double-insulated'. If you had a hum problem, you found out why, and
solved it. I remember when we were building a major studio centre
having big problems in the run-up to real use. High-powered engineers
were sent from London, who quickly found that there was 7A of
earth-fault current flowing in what was supposed to be the 'clean
earth'. By working overnight, it was found that most of this
originated in the central switching area. More detailed examination
traced it to a sub-contractor's not having used the specified switches
in the routing panels. It cost them.

All the same, I find it hard to see how a lethal electrocution can
happen with US 120V supplies. I suppose that a perspiring hand
clutching a microphone in a damp environment might do it. Entirely due
to my own carelessness, I have sometimes met our 230V supply. The only
effect it had was to make me remove my fingers sharply, and to speak
profane words.

On 27 November 2014 at 00:23, Jeffrey E. Salzberg via Stagecraft
<stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> "A 21-year-old singer for a promising Argentine rock band is dead after
> being electrocuted on stage. Agustín Briolini of the group Krebs suffered
> the shock as he stepped toward a microphone, and faulty wiring is getting
> the early blame, reports the Daily Mail. Though accounts differ, the
> accident appears to have occurred during a sound check before a show and not
> during the show itself in the city of Villa Carlos Paz, reports the Austin
> American-Statesman."
>
> http://www.newser.com/story/199202/rock-singer-electrocuted-on-stage.html
>
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-- 
Frank Wood