Jerry Gorrell
Standards Committee Chair

ESTA has 5 draft standards out for public review thru April 26, 2005.

• BSR E1.1 Entertainment Technology - Construction and Use of Wire Rope Ladders. (full description)
• BSR E1.15 Entertainment Technology - Recommended Practices and Guidelines for the Assembly and Use of Theatrical Boom and Base Assemblies. (full description)
• BSR E1.17 Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite (This is commonly referred to as ACN) (full description)
• BSR E1.24 Entertainment Technology - Dimensional Requirements for Stage Pin Connectors (full description)
• BSR E1.25 Entertainment Technology - Recommended Basic Conditions for Measuring the Photometric Output of Stage and Studio Luminaries by Measuring Illumination Levels Produced on a Planar Surface. (full description)

Copies of the draft standards and the forms and information about submitting comments are available on the ESTA web site here.

Free Download
The NFPA is making available for download copies of NFPA 1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs (2004 edition). It is available here. The NFPA in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security is conducting a series of seminar on emergency preparedness. Information on these will also be found at the link given above.

Free to view but not to keep
The NFPA has made several of its key standards available for viewing only on-line by the general public here.

I would not recommend on-line viewing on a dial up connection unless you have lots of time. The software used does not allow printing, saving or cut-and-pasting. It also has no search function. However, if you only need a small piece of information or want to see if the standard is useful enough to purchase this will be very helpful.

The standards available include:

• NFPA 1, Uniform Fire Code™ (2003 Edition)
• NFPA 1, Fire Prevention Code™ (2000 Edition)
• NFPA 30, Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code
• NFPA 909, Protection of Cultural Resources
• NFPA 914, Fire Protection in Historic Structures
• NFPA 1123, Code for Fireworks Display
• NFPA 5000®, Building Construction and Safety Code®
  

NFPA 70, National Electrical code® is also available for viewing by NFPA members.

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The five ESTA draft standards now in public review:

After April 27 these will disappear and will no longer be accessible.

BSR E1.1, Entertainment Technology - Construction and Use of Wire Rope Ladders, is a revised version of ANSI E1.1-1999, Entertainment Technology - Construction and Use of Wire Rope Ladders. E1.1-1999 was offered for public review to reaffirm it last year, since it was at the 5-year anniversary at which an American National Standard must be reaffirmed, revised, or withdrawn. No one offered any public review comments, but close examination of the document by Rigging Working Group members showed that the specification for the wire rope needed to be changed. This is a substantive change, so this revised version is being offered for public review.

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BSR E1.15, Entertainment Technology - Recommended Practices and Guidelines for the Assembly and Use of Theatrical Boom & BaseAssemblies is a draft standard for the assembly and use of ground-supported variable and fixed-height lighting fixture suspension devices. These devices normally consist of a heavy floor base, a vertical member or members, and horizontal members (arms) coming of the vertical member for the attachment of luminaires or accessories The draft standard has been offered for public review before, but substantive changes have been made in response to comments, so it is being offered for review again.

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BSR E1.17, Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite is the draft standard commonly called "ACN." The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. Substantive changes have been made since the last public review, so it is being offered for public review again. There are 17 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the compressed file ACN2ndReview.zip. The file is a little less than 2 megabytes in size.

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BSR E1.24, Entertainment Technology - Dimensional Requirements for Stage Pin Connectors is a configuration standard covering the dimensional requirements and mechanical requirements related to intermateability for a series of split-pin and sleeve wiring devices known as Pin Connectors or Stage Pin Connectors that are used predominately in the theatre, television and motion picture industries in North America. It is not a safety standard.

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BSR E1.25, Recommended Basic Conditions for Measuring the Photometric Output of Stage and Studio Luminaires by Measuring Illumination Levels Produced on a Planar Surface describes the basic testing conditions (e.g. the condition of the luminaire, the power supply, et cetera) for any of a number of methods of measuring a luminaire's output that involve shining the light from the luminaire on a flat wall and then measuring the levels of illumination produced. The draft standard does not describe the equipment or measurement method used to measure the illumination. The document has been offered for public review before, but the resolutions to the comments have resulted in substantive changes to the document, so it is being offered for public review again.

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A complete public review packet consists of the draft standard and a public review response form. Members of the public are invited to review each of the draft standards and to give an opinion on its acceptability as an American National Standard. Essentially, a person responding to the public review is being asked to cast a letter ballot with possible votes of "yes," "yes with comments," and "no with reasons." "No" votes need to be supported by stated reasons so the standards committee will have an idea of what would need to be changed to earn an unqualified "yes" vote.

Reviewers also are asked to look for protected intellectual property in the draft standards. ESTA and Accredited Standards Committee E1 do not intend to adopt any standard that requires the use of protected intellectual property, unless that property can be licensed and used by anyone without prejudice or preference for a reasonable fee. Any protected intellectual property in the document should be pointed out in the comments.

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