ESTA, the Entertainment Services and Technology Association, is a nonprofit trade association based in North American for the entertainment technology industry. ESTA engages in skills certification in many of the crafts represented by the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), and develops standards in those areas through an ANSI-accredited Technical Standards Program (TSP). Its industry-leading standards program enjoys international participation and currently has working groups in nine areas: control protocols, electrical power, event safety, floors, fog and smoke, followspot position, photometrics, rigging, and stage machinery. Standards from ESTA are available both individually, directly through the ANSI webstore, and as part of a Standards Subscription. If you or your organization are interested in easy, managed, online access to standards that can be shared, a Standards Subscription may be what you need - please contact us at: [email protected] or 1-212-642-4980 or Request Proposal Price.
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ANSI E1.21 covers temporary structures used for the technical production of outdoor entertainment events. Custom temporary structures supporting performance platforms are included in the scope of this document, but pre-engineered, manufactured, modular staging systems used as platforms for performance, independent of other temporary structures, are not within its scope. This document helps to ensure the structural reliability and safety of these structures, by setting required levels of design and performance parameters, and establishes a reasonable standard for care for their design and use.
E1.21 establishes a minimum level of design and performance parameters for the design, manufacturing, use and maintenance of temporary ground supported structures used in the production of outdoor entertainment events. The purpose of this guidance is to ensure the structural reliability and safety of these structures and does not address fire safety and safe egress issues.
ANSI E1.42-2018 covers the design, construction, operation, inspection, testing, maintenance, alteration and repair of permanently installed orchestra pit lifts and their associated parts, rooms, spaces, enclosures and hoistways, where located in a theatre or a similar place of public entertainment. It supersedes ANSI E1.42-2016.
This standard offers guidance on inspecting entertainment rigging systems, which are systems used to lift and support scenery, luminaires, and other equipment overhead in entertainment venues, such as theatres, video/film studios, amphitheatres, and arenas used for live performances or special events.
The scope of this standard is to define "crowd management" as distinguished from "crowd control", to provide an overview of crowd management theory and vocabulary, and to apply these terms to certain reasonably foreseeable risks that arise during live events. The standard is intended both to identify minimum requirements and provide questions and suggestions that help event organizers make reasonable choices under the circumstances of their event.
ANSI E1.1 - 2018 describes the construction and use of wire rope ladders in the entertainment industry. It is a revision of the 2012 standard, which was a revision of the 2006 standard with changed load ratings to accommodate heavier workers. Wire rope ladders are distinguished from other ladders by having flexible rails. They are used in applications where ladders with rigid rails are impractical to use, or where a rigid ladder would pose a greater danger to the user or other workers in the area.
ANSI E1.3, Entertainment Technology - Lighting Control Systems - 0 to 10 V Analog Control Specification, describes a method of controlling equipment by means of an analog control voltage in the nominal range from zero to 10 volts positive, with the controller sourcing the signal current. This document is a reaffirmation without substantive changes of ANSI E1.3 - 2001.
The original E1.4 is being expanded into a suite of documents to include all manually powered systems, and those rigging systems in which scenery, stage lighting, or other theatrical equipment is hung from static battens. This part of the suite applies to permanently installed, manually operated systems of stage rigging hardware for the raising, lowering, and suspension of scenery, lighting, and similar loads. It also applies to variations of manual counterweight rigging, including rope and sandbag systems.
The users of theatrical stages and raised platforms can suffer debilitating injuries from falls into orchestra pits, open stage lifts, and similar openings in stage floors. Health and safety regulations require action to prevent these falls, but offer little guidance that is suitable for theatrical environments. This document provides that guidance. This revised edition addresses recent changes to 29 CFR 1910 subpart D
ANSI E1.2 describes the design, manufacture, and use of aluminum trusses, towers, and associated aluminum structural components, such as head blocks, sleeve blocks, bases, and corner blocks, used in the entertainment industry in portable structures.