Readings / Local Steel

“Commedia dell’arte Troupe on a Wagon in a Town Square” 1640 Jan Miel

Last update: March 19, 2021

Education communities are one of the settings for digital media production centers that service massive open online curricula and cultural performance facilities for teaching and entertainment.  On many campuses now, reading rooms and libraries have been replaced with spaces that are dense with electro-technologies that require attention to sound, lighting, heat generation and shock prevention.   

For the people responsible for creating a satisfactory experience for education industry “customers”,  the art of electrical grounding at lower voltages is subtle and often vexing. One would imagine that after more than 100 years of commercial electrical power that the problem of grounding has been solved; but you would be mistaken.  Innovation streams in electro-technology; presenting technicians renewed challenges as these systems — which we broadly call Digital Content Production Facilities — evolve to meet the challenges of merging teaching with entertainment; on-campus or on the internet. There are several consensus and open-source safety standards developers in the space; all of whom claim some part of it.  

Montana State University

Accredited standards developers who claim to set the standard of care for some part of this facility class are as follows::

• National Fire Protection Association; fire safety
  
  Article 520 Theaters Audience Areas of Motion Picture and Television Studios, Performance Areas and Similar Locations
  Article 522 Control Systems for Permanent Amusement Attractions
  Article 525 Carnivals, Circuses, Fairs and Similar Events
  Article 530 Motion Picture and Television Studios and Similar Locations
  
  
• International Code Council; means of egress
• American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers; indoor air quality
• Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Industrial Applications Society; building premise electrical safety
• Underwriters Laboratories; audio-visual products and accessories
• Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers; standards setting for motion imaging
• Entertainment Services and Technology Association; pulls together all codes and standards to meet the business objectives of the entertainment industry. 
• International Electrotechnical Commission; TC 108 deals with audio-visual, information and communication technology* 
• PLASA (Professional Lighting and Sound Association)
• AVIXA (Formerly INFOComm)

There are other consortia and open source standards in this domain.

Mid-America Technology Center | Wayne, Oklahoma

CLICK HERE for free access to the 2020 National Electrical Code.   We focus our concern on event definitions, temporary power cords, specialty connecting devices, arc fault circuit interrupters and grounding.   Comparatively speaking, these technical specifics have stabilized in recent revision cycles.   

Public input for the 2023 revision of the so-called “song-and-dance” (lively art) part of the NEC is linked below:

2023 National Electrical Code Code-Making Panel 15

A simple search on “Standards Michigan” in this transcript will reveal that the lively art parts of the NEC are stable.   Because the song-and-dance CMP-15 is also charged with a similarly risky occupancy — healthcare facilities —  we limited our advocacy resources to healthcare facilities in this cycle.   

The Joint IEEE Committee has been meeting this week (March 18-19) on preparing IEEE responses to proposed revisions for the 2023 NEC.  

Consultation on proposed revisions for the 2023 NEC  is due September 10th.

Standards Michigan collaborates closely with IEEE committees that do most of the heavy-lifting for the user-interest in the education industry in the NFPA suite.  While we are happy to drill into the details any day at 11 AM Eastern time more enlightened discussion occurs during collaborations with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee which meets again twice monthly.  Coordination of IEEE and NFPA consensus documents have been permanent items on the standing agenda but we find, on a near-weekly basis, new organizations entering the digital content space.   

University of Southern California | Glory Kaufman School of Dance

Issue: [99-3, 7-6, 12-80, 16-138, 19-154, 20-6]

Category: Electrical, Telecommunications, Fire Protection, Arts & Entertainment Facilities, Lecture Halls

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Matt Dozier, Jim Harvey,  Ryan Lawless, Nehad El-Sherif  

LEARN MORE: This occupancy class in the education industry has been growing for the better part of twenty years now.  Links to some examples are listed below:

Mid-America Technology Center

University of Michigan Duderstadt Center Audio Studios

Specs Howard School of Media Arts

Arizona State University School of Media, Arts and Engineering

 * A great deal of equipment installed in this facility class originates in non-US electrical product markets.