Show dictionary · Rigging & Staging
Chain Motor
Also: motor · hoist
A chain motor is an electric chain hoist used to lift and hold entertainment loads: trusses, PA hangs, scenery, video walls. Entertainment practice typically runs them "motor up" (hoist body climbs its own chain toward the point), in capacity classes like quarter-, half-, one-, and two-ton.
In practice
Motors are controlled in groups from pickle switches or motor controllers, lifting a truss on multiple points that must move together; an out-of-step motor redistributes load onto its neighbors immediately. Load cells under points give the honest numbers when it matters.
The entertainment fleet is dominated by hoists built or configured to entertainment standards (the D8/D8+/C1 classifications in European practice govern what may hang over people, and whether a secondary is required). Which standard applies is a per-jurisdiction, per-show question answered by the rigging plot, not by habit.
How you’ll hear it
"Mains are four one-ton motors a side; bump point three up two clicks, it is lagging the trim."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.