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[Stephen Swaffer]

I had to install some gooseneck architectural fixtures on the front of one of the 100+ year old buildings on our town square.  The brick on these buildings is either too soft to hold anything, or so hard it burns up carbide drills.  The research I did pointed to epoxy anchors being some of the best for that application-but I ended up using expansion because of the time of year and ambient temps. They were  much lighter than speakers, but being outdoors, my biggest concern was wind loads.

[Scott Holtzman]

I have NO CLUE as to why they would do something like that. For my new speaker brackets we put threaded rod all the way through the block wall with large fender washers on the back side. I'm pretty sure the new brackets would hold up a truck if they needed to. I just don't trust expansion anchors in cinder block to hold up speakers hanging in the air. I'm not a rigging guy but I do have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, so I'm always aware of the stresses on this sort of installation. I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough? 

You certainly did a nice job installing the new speakers from an aesthetic standpoint.  It sounds like your clients appreciate your attention to detail and that makes it very satisfying work. 

Certainly all thread with backing washers is the best possible way to distribute the load.  Since I always have a ton of unistrut and never fender washers that is usually what ends up on the other side.  I truly think Unistrut and spring bolts are divinely inspired 

Have you ever heard horror stories of install crews in churchs?  One my competitors was caught playing death metal at full tilt boogie in one HOW, I had a helper the just couldn't stop with the F-bombs at my church and I had to send him home.  My point is not everyone cares like you clearly do.

[Mark Cadwallader]

I agree with subbing out for sure.  Have to wonder what they were worried about that made them use tamper proof bolts in that location?

Use of a bolt with that style of tamper-resistant head is one way to ensure the correct torque has been applied. I have no clue if that was why it was used, however.  Mark C.

Edit:  That's a real-life application of the old mechanic's joke of "tighten it till it breaks, then back off a quarter turn."

[Mike Sokol]

You certainly did a nice job installing the new speakers from an aesthetic standpoint.  It sounds like your clients appreciate your attention to detail and that makes it very satisfying work.

Thanks... I'm just starting to design and manage church AV installs, having taught sound system setup and mixing for thousands of churches around the country over the last 15 years. I don't pretend to know everything about HOW audio, but I know a LOT of things that don't work. And it always made me mad to see shoddy system design and installation in any church. So we're gathering some really great subcontractors as well as install crew and trying to raise the bar for what's expected with a HOW install. None of our install guys will smoke cigarettes anywhere near or in a church, and I give everyone in the crew an overview of any special things to be aware of for a particular denomination. For instance, we're currently doing a big A-V install for a Seventh Day Adventist church, and they don't drink anything with caffeine or eat pork. In fact, many of the SDA churches I've taught at are vegetarians. So we don't walk into their sanctuary holding a cup of coffee with a bacon and egg sandwich. It's just a sign of respect that we're glad to do for any of our House of Worship customers. Seems strange that the other installers in the area don't treat their own customers the same way. And yes, we're hearing reports of other install crews dropping F and S bombs all the time, even in front of the pastors. Seems like a bad idea...

So here's the latest stage box install yesterday. We had to cut out a few structural beams under the stage to make this fit, so Karl built a new header and ran side-plates to the concrete floor. That way anyone jumping on the stage won't feel any flex over top of the stage box. Plus he built a picture frame around it to cover up the carpet edges. We ordered the rack rails in advance so Karl could double-check the actual fit and setback with the box in place. The media director was thrilled and says it looks like part of the original stage build. Took him around 4 hours to build and install everything starting from scratch. Like I said before, a good fabricator is a great guy to know.

[Mike Sokol]

Use of a bolt with that style of tamper-resistant head is one way to ensure the correct torque has been applied. I have no clue if that was why it was used, however.  Mark C.

That's what we thought at first, but in fact they were pretty loose and would pull out a fraction of an inch with a little crowbar action. I don't think they would have dropped a speaker, but there could have been sagging brackets in a few years since these were only in about 18 months so far. I guess they put these in with an impact wrench until the drive heads broke off. I'm not a fan of this type of installation.   

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