BSR E1.22, Entertainment Technology - Fire Safety Curtain Systems, is one of the newly posted standards. It describes the materials, fabrication, installation, operation, testing, and maintenance of fire safety curtains and fire safety curtain systems used for theatre proscenium opening protection. This is the second public review of the document, and is a radical reworking of what had been offered before. It is a serious attempt to avoid offering a cook-book description of a fire safety curtain system and to instead specify what it is supposed to do. That is, it doesn't tell you what kind of fabric to use for a fire safety curtain, but instead tells you how strong whatever fabric you use must be and what abrasion and fire tests it must pass.
BSR E1.23, Entertainment Technology - Design and Execution of Theatrical Fog Effects, is the second of the newly posted standards. It is a standard for planning and executing fog effects. It is modeled after the well-respected NFPA standards for indoor pyrotechnics and flame effects. Those NFPA standards (NFPA 1126 and NFPA 160) help protect workers and audience members, and also help simplify working with the local authority having jurisdiction for theeffects designers and technicians. E1.23, when it is finished, is expected to do the same for fog effects.
BSR E1.4, Entertainment Technology-Manual Counterweight Rigging Systems, and BSR E1.21, Entertainment Technology - Temporary Ground-Supported Overhead Structures Used to Cover the Stage Areas and Support Equipment in the Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events, are still available for review on the website until the end of 28 June, 2005.
The documents can be accessed at the website below:
(Lee Baldock)
