PARTNER UPDATE: Two ESTA TSP Projects in Review
The TSP working group meetings held in Texas in the third week of July resulted in several projects moving forward. A few of them are listed below. More will be listed as the minutes of the meetings and action items are sorted out.
BSR E1.62, Minimum specifications for mass-produced portable platforms, ramps, stairs, and choral risers for live performance events, is being offered for a fourth public review. The proposed standard covers mass-produced portable platforms, stair units and ramps used with those platforms, and choral risers, designed to be used for the presentation of music concerts, dramatic plays, fashion shows, and other entertainment and special events. The units covered by this standard are of a size and weight that allows them to be moved and erected by one or two people. Larger, heavier units are outside the scope of this standard. The scope also covers the railings provided as fall protection accessories, and the legging systems.
The major substantive change in this fourth review version is rolling back a response to a second public review comment. In that public review a comment suggested we should add specific coefficients of friction values to better define “slip resistance.” We did, but later public review comments pointed out flaws in that. The Volume 23, Number 15 Page 1 coefficients are meaningless unless the shoe sole is specified, and specifying shoes is outside the scope of the standard. We have gone back to the language used in the International Building Code and International Fire Code that simply say floors should be slip resistant. The revised draft standard is posted at https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. The public review runs through September 23; by the start of September 24 the review is finished.
BSR E1.4-3, Entertainment Technology — Manually Operated Hoist Rigging Systems, is a standard for permanently installed, human-powered manually operated hoists, used as part of rigging systems for raising, lowering, and suspension of scenery, properties, lighting, and similar loads. This standard establishes requirements for the design, manufacture, installation, inspection, and maintenance of manual hoist systems for lifting and suspension of loads for performance, presentation, and theatrical production. It too is posted at https:// tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. The public review runs through October 7. It is finished when October 8 starts.
The Fog & Smoke Working Group has voted to open ANSI E1.23 – 2010 (R2015), Entertainment Technology - Design and Execution of Theatrical Fog Effects, for revision and to rename it “Entertainment Technology— Design, Execution, and Maintenance of Atmospheric Effects.” The addition of “Maintenance” to the title signifies the changes planned. The existing standard helps an effects designer plan a safe effect and carry it out, but problems emerge when the environment for the effect changes (e.g., the show changes theatres, the HVAC flips from cooling to heating) and so the effect might not be what was originally planned. Problems also can emerge in the motion picture industry when an effect is within safe exposure limits for an eight-hour workday and a 40- hour workweek, but the shoots go on, take after take, so people are exposed for many more hours a day than eight and for many more hours than 40 in a workweek.
Anyone interested in this E1.23 project can help by either joining the Fog & Smoke Working Group or commenting in future public reviews. Information about joining working groups is available at https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/working_groups/index.html.