UK VCF?

[Tony Duell]

> 
> On 03/08/07, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > some years back for such an event with an eccentric friend of mine, we
> > came to the conclusion that suitable rooms (large, solid floor that they
> > didn't main us putting 19" racks on, enough power capacity for running a
> > few minis) werre very few and far between, and those we did find were too
> > expensive, based onthe number of people we expected to attend.
> >
> > I usspect such venues may be cheaper out of London, but then I wouldn't
> > attend.
> >
> 
> I had a couple of years experience in the Dog Show scene, some time
> back, and found that sports halls (school, college and stand-alone)
> tended to get used a lot.  They ranged from fairly big to Huge, and

I am pretty sure we considered such places. The main problems were the 
floor (which the owners didn't want scratched, dented or marked) and 
power. We didn#t feel like buying enough 3.4" plywood to cover the floor 
(which would have solved the first problem). But the power was the 
greater problem anywauy. Typically there'd me 4 or so 13A sockets, almost 
certainly all on one ring, so a maximum current capacity of 30A. We felt 
we needed at least 125A (our working idea was 10 exhibitors at about 13A 
per exhibitor, if somebody wanted to run a large minicomputer, well, we'd 
ensure somebody else was only rounnibg a Beeb :-)).

This led us to look at dance halls and the like. These did have 
considerable mains currnet capacity (for lighting rigs, etc), 125A 
sockets were not uncommon. The floor was still a problem (if not more 
so!), and hiring them wosn't cheap!

-tony