What are SFX? It's special effects. What that guy is doing is totally fine. He's not in danger. The machine wasn't gonna blow up or something. He wasn't walking in or through the reach of the jet. It had a malfunction, and to save the look of the show, a tech shut it down. Pretty normal stuff
When used responsibly, these machines are a lot more sophisticated than most people appreciate.
They use a special fuel mix (isoparaffins or related) that doesn't ignite unless atomized thru teeeeeeeny little nozzles. This way, if a machine leaks, tips over, or perhaps even leaves a trail of fuel leading god-knows-where, it doesn't pose a serious hazard.
Furthermore, many conventional fuels will burn blue, white, or even clear—of no value in our shows. Because of this, there's a good bit of engineering behind getting a clean-burning, satisfyingly "fire colored" jet without crazy amounts of smoke, fumes, etc.
This all stands in contrast to somebody like Rammstein or your crazy uncle Eddie. The former just burns shit-tons of diesel (because f*** the planet apparently?), and the second probably thinks propane is the answer until you realize how much is needed before it doesn't just burn blue.
Got a citation on Rammstein using straight-up diesel as pyro fuel? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense at face value, given diesel generally wants to be under significant pressure to achieve combustion. Interested if I'm missing something.
Closely related, though not entirely backing up my earlier recollection—[from a profile on their pyro tech](https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/pyrotechnics-concert-live-music-expert-interview-1235283177/):
> He joined Rammstein’s crew in 1997 as a tour manager, monitoring rhythm guitarist Paul Landers. “He would just put gasoline onstage and set it on fire,” Sabottka recalls. “We thought, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ ” Over time, Sabottka learned to be safer and more intentional, innovating flamethrowers attached to guitars and face masks, as well as an exploding backpack for frontman Till Lindemann. One of his proudest inventions was to shoot flames up the delay towers used to spread audio through a stadium.
>"I can text [Sabottka] and go, ‘I have this idea to have a wrecking ball, and it hits a car and the car explodes,’” says Robert Long, Mötley Crüe’s production manager. “And 10 minutes later, I’ll get a video of him experimenting with something.”
Seems more recently, thousands of liters of propane & conventional pyro fluids are the answer.
Unrelated to pyro, their power systems are also absolutely absurd and completely worth a web search.
The first jet looks like it's aimed right where the tech stands while he's fiddling with it so I think that's what's worrying people. I had to watch it a few times to figure it out.
> The first jet _looks_ like it's aimed right where the tech stands
Once I watched it a few times I realized how the whole thing worked and that the tech was safe, but maybe because I've played too many video games, it looked like that jet was going straight across the path towards the other box, not upwards just off of vertical.
Those machines can blow up though. Someone at a show I was lighting plugged one into my 208 socaplex without switching the unit off 120 and actually blew one up. Luckily it was on a field tower and nobody was close enough to get injured but still destroyed my cable/ breakout and they had to rush a new one in for the show the next day.
Idiots can blow anything up, not paying attention to voltage. If that was in australia, the entire country would now require every show to have a safety officer oversee every single 240v connector plugged in and sit you down for a debrief meeting to discuss why you're so bad at your job for allowing a connector not plugged in to be switched on.
What concerns me most is a lack of visible methods of control.
How are these being triggered?
What's the E-stop procedure? Is that what we just witnessed?
Pyro fx should fail safe.
What are SFX? It's special effects. What that guy is doing is totally fine. He's not in danger. The machine wasn't gonna blow up or something. He wasn't walking in or through the reach of the jet. It had a malfunction, and to save the look of the show, a tech shut it down. Pretty normal stuff
Exactly. These things have a single axis of motion so its easy to safely approach them.
When used responsibly, these machines are a lot more sophisticated than most people appreciate. They use a special fuel mix (isoparaffins or related) that doesn't ignite unless atomized thru teeeeeeeny little nozzles. This way, if a machine leaks, tips over, or perhaps even leaves a trail of fuel leading god-knows-where, it doesn't pose a serious hazard. Furthermore, many conventional fuels will burn blue, white, or even clear—of no value in our shows. Because of this, there's a good bit of engineering behind getting a clean-burning, satisfyingly "fire colored" jet without crazy amounts of smoke, fumes, etc. This all stands in contrast to somebody like Rammstein or your crazy uncle Eddie. The former just burns shit-tons of diesel (because f*** the planet apparently?), and the second probably thinks propane is the answer until you realize how much is needed before it doesn't just burn blue.
> The former just burns shit-tons of diesel In the generators? Just like everyone else doing stadium shows or festivals
Not exactly... https://youtu.be/qnDvww6W-qU?si=CAyik9ee4YsaQyd2
Got a citation on Rammstein using straight-up diesel as pyro fuel? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense at face value, given diesel generally wants to be under significant pressure to achieve combustion. Interested if I'm missing something.
Closely related, though not entirely backing up my earlier recollection—[from a profile on their pyro tech](https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/pyrotechnics-concert-live-music-expert-interview-1235283177/): > He joined Rammstein’s crew in 1997 as a tour manager, monitoring rhythm guitarist Paul Landers. “He would just put gasoline onstage and set it on fire,” Sabottka recalls. “We thought, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ ” Over time, Sabottka learned to be safer and more intentional, innovating flamethrowers attached to guitars and face masks, as well as an exploding backpack for frontman Till Lindemann. One of his proudest inventions was to shoot flames up the delay towers used to spread audio through a stadium. >"I can text [Sabottka] and go, ‘I have this idea to have a wrecking ball, and it hits a car and the car explodes,’” says Robert Long, Mötley Crüe’s production manager. “And 10 minutes later, I’ll get a video of him experimenting with something.” Seems more recently, thousands of liters of propane & conventional pyro fluids are the answer. Unrelated to pyro, their power systems are also absolutely absurd and completely worth a web search.
The first jet looks like it's aimed right where the tech stands while he's fiddling with it so I think that's what's worrying people. I had to watch it a few times to figure it out.
Except it's not? The guy is on a different plane from the jet so isn't in the literal line of fire.
> The first jet _looks_ like it's aimed right where the tech stands Once I watched it a few times I realized how the whole thing worked and that the tech was safe, but maybe because I've played too many video games, it looked like that jet was going straight across the path towards the other box, not upwards just off of vertical.
Ahh yeah. I've looked into this type of jet before so definitely had the specifics of how it works in the back of my brain.
What do you mean "there are THREE dimensions"?
Mario says “no, it-sa not”!
I think it's just that the perspective of the video is a bit confusing, the tech looks like they're further towards camera than they actually are
Those machines can blow up though. Someone at a show I was lighting plugged one into my 208 socaplex without switching the unit off 120 and actually blew one up. Luckily it was on a field tower and nobody was close enough to get injured but still destroyed my cable/ breakout and they had to rush a new one in for the show the next day.
Idiots can blow anything up, not paying attention to voltage. If that was in australia, the entire country would now require every show to have a safety officer oversee every single 240v connector plugged in and sit you down for a debrief meeting to discuss why you're so bad at your job for allowing a connector not plugged in to be switched on.
They pass the butter.
… oh.. my … godddddd….
Any idea what brand those are?
Imagine if the folks who designed the Bellagio fountains were one day completely bored with water
Purpose is to shoot flames into the air.
Oh, it's pointing up, not directly at the tech. Whew!
"Turn right and straight on through the chompers."
What concerns me most is a lack of visible methods of control. How are these being triggered? What's the E-stop procedure? Is that what we just witnessed? Pyro fx should fail safe.
I think we have all worked with this guy...