NEW YORK – ESTA has started work on a new project to write an American National Standard: BSR E1.42 – 201x, Entertainment Technology – Installed Stage Lift Safety Standard, and also announced two new draft standards public review related to chain hoists and RDM. The new project related to stage lifts was undertaken because stage lifts, such as orchestra pit or theatre forestage lifts, are not the subject of any current national standard. As result, safety requirements and inspections of them are inconsistent. This project is to develop a standard for stage lifts that can be referenced by the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association.
The scope of the project related to stage lists is limited to safety and to lifts that are installed as a part of the building and that are not for a single theatrical production. Any person involved in the design, manufacture, use, or inspection of stage lifts and who is willing to actively work on the project is invited to join the new working group.
A working group application form is available on the ESTA website at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/procedural_docs.html .
An accelerated schedule has been proposed for developing BSR E1.42 so that the project can be completed in two years. Meetings will be held monthly to accomplish this. Most of the meetings will be virtual meetings on the Web, but the working group will also meet face-to-face at the usual quarterly ESTA Technical Standards Program meetings. A high-quality webcam and headset, as well as a computer with a broad-band Internet connection, are required for participation in the on-line meetings.
The first meeting will be an on-line meeting scheduled for Monday Dec. 20, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
For more information about the project and how the meetings will be conducted, please contact either Martin Moore, the secretary for the working group, at martinmoore2010 [at] gmail.com, or Karl G. Ruling, ESTA's Technical Standards Manager, at standards [at] esta.org.
The two draft standards that have been posted for public review on the ESTA website through Feb. 7, 2011 include BSR E1.6-2-201x, Entertainment Technology – Design, Inspection, and Maintenance of Electric Chain Hoists for the Entertainment Industry, and BSR E1.37-1-201x, Additional Message Sets for ANSI E1.20 (RDM) – Part 1, Dimmer Message Sets, which is part of the BSR E1.37 project to add additional features to RDM.
The latter draft standard, BSR E1.37-1-201x, provides additional get/set parameter messages (PIDs) that are intended for, but are not limited to, use with entertainment lighting dimming systems. These additional messages allow access to configuration parameters commonly found in many theatrical dimming systems.
Members of the public who are interested in the use of chain hoists in the entertainment industry or in possible enhancements to RDM to help the remote management of dimmers are invited to comment on the draft standards.
They are posted at: http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.
For more information, please visit www.esta.org.
