Being on the road is hard. Setting and striking a show night after night is demanding. Get-in windows are short, the outs even shorter. Stuff goes wrong. Kit gets bashed. Tempers fray.

It’s really tough. And so here’s what we do to try and make things a little easier for the crew doing the hard yards. We design for tourability. Here’s what that means:

• Weight is always a key consideration for touring. Whilst there will always be plant on site, there’s still plenty of handballing required and on this basis light is good. We have coded Aluminium welders in our team and this material is ideally suited for the fabrication of touring sets.

• A touring set will spend most of its life packed away. Designing secure and efficient stillages for a set keeps it protected and speeds up the in and the out. Often considered later in the process, we encourage teams to think of stillages up front.

• Well considered connection details are key. The use of pins rather than bolts, clips rather than fasteners, and magnets rather than mechanical fixings should be designed in as appropriate. Time spent in design and testing is always rewarded on site.

• Part identification and clear labelling is a simple win. Sorting through flight cases for specific components on site is a game that no-one likes to play for long. Etched identifiers, engraved labels, custom component trays all pay dividends here.

• Spares can be a vexed issue. Carrying spares for everything isn’t sensible, but determining the risk and better still, employing parts that are interchangeable is always a good thing.

• Integration of tech can take up valuable time on site. Our preference is to pre-fit of much as this as possible in workshops ahead of any tour. This approach can often introduce reliability benefits too.

Being on the road is hard. We can make it easier. Talk to us about your next tour.