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[Chris Hindle]

I do 24 hour gigs all the time. Over here in Africa folks like to dance the whole night. Almost all parties are outdoor. My Djs operate all the equipment in the open. By morning, all speakers usually have dew on the top but i never seen any dew form on the cones (Maybe thanks to the movement). I have not had any amps, speakers or mixers failing but have had a few speakon connectors go bad (But these occasionally get soaked in water as opposed to dew).
I guess most good quality analogue equipment like i use is qiute dew resistant to an extent.

Conrad
www.kooleventug.com

If the equipment is operating, it's generating heat. Heat creates airflow. Heat and airflow reduces dramatically any dew problems.
Anything that is operating should not have dew problems.

[Marc Platt]

 I think some of the fan forced heater in rack ideas might , if left alone would be a fire risk...
 I would cover everything as best you can and I would be most concerned with electronics where H2O could cause short  circuits if power is avail while wet , parrive speakers shouldnt  be as vulnerable but still should be covered.
  I would get some of the industrial fans (the type that push LOTS of air) and place the fans so they push the mass of air "through" the gear and move them around different angles with about 5-15mins per position.
  Don't leave mics out.
If you can leave fan on all night even on low great, if not these fans will dry things quick.
 Dry everything BEFORE any power is fed anywhere besides the fans.
 The commercial floor driers also push alot of air. 

[Tim McCulloch]

Leave your equipment powered up.

We tarp or cover consoles (even if in tents) and leave some ventilation space for airflow on digital mixers; amp racks are simple left powered on with the input controls turned down.  If they are subject to the weather, we cover them with plastic or tarps.

We bag wedges with trash bags.  Odd shaped things get protected with palletizing stretch wrap.  Stretch wrap comes in a nifty 4" width for bundling small items and that makes for fast and inexpensive "tape" to make tarps and roll plastic conform to racks and odd items.   If you use wide stretch wrap on monitors, you can also play a gig through a layer of it with some EQ work.  Perfect for when the rain isn't bad enough to stop the show but would accumulate and penetrate the grilles.

This topic comes up every spring.  I suggest a search.

[Kenny Deal]

This happended to me last night but I did not leave the stuff over night. Setup but 7:30. band went on at 9. PLayed till approx 1a, and when I broke down the tops of the FOH speakers were full of water/dew. Just the top. I dried them with bar napkins before loading them the best I oculd then when I got home I used towels.

[Palmer Johnston]

+ 1 for leaving consoles & rack gear on and lightly tarped

[Sven Oxtoby]

Dear all

Thank you for your phenomenal contributions here.  All saved to my reference folder.

I was alarmed to find all these responses as I had been relying on email notification of any replies, and assumed there were none due to very long-winded question.

Apologies Tim,  I did try Google at some length, which normally seems to cover PSW forums, but battled to turn up much on the subject.  Not sure if I somehow missed something on PSW.

Again, thank you all.

Sven

[Tim McCulloch]

Regarding searches... I suggest using the "Advanced Search" in the upper right of the page.  It's a custom Google search that limits hits to PSW.  With fewer returns to contend with it's less daunting to try more key words or combinations of words.

So now that we're a few months down the path, how did your spring and summer work out for you?

[Sven Oxtoby]

Regarding searches... I suggest using the "Advanced Search" in the upper right of the page.  It's a custom Google search that limits hits to PSW.  With fewer returns to contend with it's less daunting to try more key words or combinations of words.

Thanks Tim, will do so in future!

So now that we're a few months down the path, how did your spring and summer work out for you?

I'm in Cape Town, South Africa so just coming into summer now, and launching my (very small scale) sound business whereas previous work had been mostly voluntary.  One such voluntary event was what prompted me to ask about the dew problem; and I'll be applying the advice I received here for future jobs.

Thanks again.

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Odd shaped things get protected with palletizing stretch wrap. 

This topic comes up every spring.  I suggest a search.

Just got home from our annual Veterans Parade and Festival.  Had to set up the festival speakers yesterday with a storm coming in last night.  Used Stretch Wrap and it was perfect!  I have used visqueen for years but the wind always blows it off.  The Stretch Wrap is sooooo much better.  I don't have to worry about rain very often, usually once every year or two but this is my new best friend.

[Dan Richardson]

Leave your equipment powered up.

Any consideration for overnight thunderstorms?

[ProSoundWeb Community]