The first is a new standard, one that will help performers and performance venue designers; the second is a programme to extend the benefits of the TSP to other organizations in the entertainment and special events industry.
The first is the publication of a new standard, ANSI E1.55 - 2015, Standard for Theatrical Makeup Mirror Lighting, which was developed at the request of Actors' Equity Association to help their members. The standard was approved by ANSI's Board of Standards Review on 25 August and published two days later, on 27 August.
The lighting market's move away from incandescent lamps has complicated the job of providing good makeup mirror lighting. ANSI E1.55 helps clarify what good makeup mirror lighting is by describing the topology of a compliant makeup mirror lighting system, the quantity of light, the distribution of light from those sources, apparent source size, brightness, colour rendering, and correlated colour temperature. The standard can be purchased from ANSI and IHS, or downloaded for free, courtesy of Prosight Specialty Insurance, from the published documents page on the PLASA website at http://tsp.plasa.org/.
ANSI E1.55 was developed at the request of Actors' Equity, the U.S. labour union that represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers; on 24 August PLASA's Technical Standards Council approved a formal programme to expand the TSP's services to other organizations in the broader entertainment industry. Entitled Our Common Goals Initiative the plan lays out what services the TSP can provide to other groups to help them develop American National Standards. The TSP has been remarkably successful over its 19 years as an accredited standards developer in writing standards to help make the entertainment industry conduct business safely, efficiently, and profitably. However, every season brings new technology, bigger events, and more severe weather; there is always more work to be done.
(Jim Evans)
