'See The Sound'

The Cockpit Theatre

We were asked to produce an 'Exploding Television' as a finale piece for the "See The Sound" production.

We spent a while experimenting with different explosive charges, in order to establish the best effect, including:

Tape Match, Flash Powder, Non-Fragmenting Bullet Hits and Stage Maroons.

Before eventually settling on the preferred solution that used Black Match confined in a brass barrel and ignited by a 'Davey Bickford E-type' fusehead to create a miniature pyrotechnic pusher.

These were designed to blow the pre-weakened side panels off of the television set, without creating any fragmentation (this also allowed the effect to be re-rigged rapidly).

In order to enhance the effect a number of robotic short circuit simulators were added along with a nitro-burst to create a series of spark discharges and a gout of flame, receptively, as the television set exploded.