Smashed TVs, Broken Windows, and Cracked Plates
The day didn’t begin well. We had arrived at the venue on Friday afternoon to unload and setup a mass of equipment: video recording kit, tables, swag, banderolls, chairs, notices, more swag, a label printer, name badges, even more swag.
I was unpacking the second recording kit in The Library, one of the rooms we had hired at the venue, and was examining the back of the 40” TV on the wall for a suitable HDMI input port. Having found one I turned around to grab a cable.
As I turned back to plug it in I watched the entire setup lurch forward, tearing the mount and screws out of the wall in the process. The TV bounced off the bookshelf below before smashing into the floor, breaking the screen.
People say these things happen in slow motion, but that was very much not the case. This falling 40kg box of metal, glass, and plastic was absolutely obeying Newton’s law of universal gravitation, and there was nothing I could do about it.
My immediate reaction was, well, complete lack of reaction. This was a good thing with hindsight, as the TV fell about 6” in front of me and any attempt to stop it would probably have broken me and the TV.
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