Four Draft ESTA Technical Standards Program Standards in Public Review

Four draft standards are posted for public review on ESTA's Technical Standards Program website. Two are rigging standards with a comment due date of June 28. Two are photometrics standards with comment due dates of July 13 and August 3. Materially affected parties are invited to review them at estalink.us/pr.

BSR E1.6-1, Powered Rigging Systems. ANSI E1.6-1 - 2019 is being opened for limited revision, with the scope of revisions applying only to section 6.6 of the standard. The revisions are necessary to correct errata in that section only. No other revisions will be considered or made at this time. Comments are due no later than June 28.

BSR E1.39, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standard establishes minimum requirements for products and portable structures used in the service of PFAS. The requirements for other methods used to protect workers from fall hazards such as safety nets, guard rails, and rope access techniques are not included in this standard. Comments are due no later than June 28.

BSR E1.54, ESTA Standard for Color Communication in Entertainment Lighting. The draft standard is a revision of the existing ANSI E1.54. It specifies a standardized way of specifying color to facilitate the communications between lighting controllers and color-changing luminaires. The method is generic and is neither manufacturer-specific nor color technology-specific. The revisions are needed to make the standard more useful and to update the document's name. Comments are due no later than July 13.

BSR E1.69, Reporting the Low-End Dimming Performance of Entertainment Luminaires Using LED Sources. The standard shall describe a way of showing the end-user or equipment specifier the low-end dimming performance of LED luminaires, when the luminaire output level is set by a control signal varying over the low-end range from 10% to 0%. Right now, there is no way for an equipment specifier to assess the low-end dimming of a luminaire without actually looking at the unit, and then there is no way to tell another person what the specifier saw without using subjective terms. Marketing terms, such as "theatrical quality dimming" or "dims smoothly to black," have no objective meaning. Comments are due no later than August 3.