Repeatable rigging geometry: why the hang must match the prediction
Abstract. Array prediction software commits a design to specific splay angles before the truck is packed. This note explains why the mechanical rigging must reproduce those angles exactly, what detented hardware contributes, and why captive components matter at load-in.
The prediction is a contract
A line array design is a set of numbers: cabinet count, site angle, and the splay angle between every pair of adjacent elements. Prediction software distributes energy front to back of the audience by choosing those splays, often to half-degree resolution. The printed prediction is only as valid as the hang's fidelity to it: an array flown with splays a degree or two off its file redistributes level along the coverage in ways nobody approved.
Detents against judgement
Rigging that relies on judgement, worn pins in oversized holes or angles read off a scale under load, reproduces geometry only approximately, and differently at every deployment. Detented splay hardware replaces judgement with discrete positions: the pin drops into the angle, the same angle, every time, by feel, in the dark, in the rain. Repeatability is the property being bought; speed is the welcome side effect.
The FastSet implementation
FastSet is the SSOUNDS rigging system built around those requirements: machined steel and aluminium components, captive titanium pins that cannot be dropped from height or left in a case, and detented splay steps that reproduce the prediction file's geometry deployment after deployment. Captive hardware also shortens load-ins in the plainest way, by removing loose parts from the critical path. Rigging remains safety-critical work: deployment stays within the working load limits and configurations in the SSOUNDS rigging documentation, inspected as that documentation requires.