Why not to have drinks in the control room

[theshaggyfreak]

2. Soda bottles are OK but you must put the cap on when it's not in your hand.
3. Coffee goes in one of those tumblers with a nice tight lid. If it gets knocked over, only a little will come out at a time. This usually gives you a chance to catch it before too much damage is done.

Those are real smart, and easily enforcable, too.

Exactly. There's ways to be smart about things without being an idiot. You can have fun and still protect your gear.

I worked in IT for about 10 years doing tech support and I've seen some horrible things that people. One woman thought it was smart to put a small fish bowl above her computer (above her monitor actually). She went to grab the bowl one time and almost dumbed the entire thing into the monitor. I've seen people put magnets on the side of their desktop to 'decorate' it.

I'm pretty careful when I have drinks around my computer but my cats are not. One of them will stick her head in the class and dump it over if I'm not there to shoo her away. Accidents will happen and rightfully so if you don't at the very least take some precautions.

[cgarges]

I'm pretty careful when I have drinks around my computer but my cats are not.

Sounds like a good reason not to have cats in the control room.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[hughmanatee]

at one point a few months ago i had a spur of the moment tracking session at 4 am. i had been drinking all night. had a beer in the control room on my desk a few feet away from the console. in any event one of those stupid system quirks decided to start happening, so i try to compensate for it while tossing my beer, the cool part is it made a full 360 landed on the floor on the bottom still full!, a couple drops got into channel 13 on the console. that is currently long gone but if i need it the mic pre still works, just cant mix with it.its my own fault i gotta stop being stupid. it gets hard being surrounded by musicians all the time, no offence really, just from experience they can help breed laziness

[SMC Productions]

I voted NO, but that is for clients....I have coffee in there all the time...couldn't LIVE without it, I'm afraid!

[grilla]

I spilled a glass of red wine on the MPC last night....

uh-oh.......

wait a minute...



2004 Rosemount Estate Shiraz: $5.00/bottle

Akai MPC2000XL: $1200.00

Realizing that you're a big hip-hop nancy-boy: Priceless



....it's drying out now and should be fine, albeit a little stinky.

Our general rule, usually enforced, is no drinks above floor level. Not on the board, the desk, the amps, the cabs, the Rhodeses, or anything else. On the floor. This is the first real spill on gear incident that we've had. *knocks on wood*

Carpets get cleaned.

[Cosmic Closet]

I absolutely second the "bottles only, with caps on when done drinking" approach; it is pretty standard behavior in my world (broadcast video) and generally we don't have accidents because of it. But sometimes you can't win:

Government broadcast room. Soundcraft board, lots of outboard boxes, 3 very expensive video tape machines. Upstairs is a meeting room. On a Friday they have a (non-alcoholic) reception. Fruit punch in a big bowl.
Someone manages to knock the almost full bowl off the catering table. They clean, get more drinks, think everything is fine. However, a goodly amount of punch has run into the floor-mounted AC ducts and is obeying gravity, looking for a way down......

.....down to the vent right above the Betacam video machines......

As the head of the facility told it to me, when he entered on Monday morning, the hideous smell immediately told him it was FUBAR time in some form, and sure enough, the faceplates of the 3 Betas had been embalmed in artificially sweetened punch.

Emergency un-racking and off to cleaning with them...they survived because the stuff never got into the head assembly or transports...otherwise the repair bill would have been otherworldly.

The things that happen....

CC.