Category Archives: Lively Arts / Media

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Evensong “Melody in F”

Evensong services are typically held in cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and large parish churches, where choral music plays a prominent role. These services often feature the singing of psalms, choral anthems, hymns, and other sacred music.  The Evensong tradition holds a significant place in Western civilization due to its historical and cultural importance. It has provided a space for prayer, reflection, and worship for centuries, connecting individuals with their faith and providing a sense of spiritual solace.

The beauty and solemnity of the music performed during Evensong services have also contributed to the development of Western sacred music, with composers creating choral works specifically for these occasions.

Polska

History of Western Civilization Told Through the Acoustics of its Worship Spaces

Lively 200

Curtain for the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet

 

“What art is, in reality, is this missing link,  not the links which exist.

It’s not what you see that is art; art is the gap”

— Marcel Duchamp

 

Today we refresh our understanding of the literature that guides the safety and sustainability goals of lively art and special event setting on the #WiseCampus.  Consortia have evolved quickly in recent years, leading and lagging changes in the content creation and delivery domain.  With this evolution a professional discipline has emerged that requires training and certification in the electrotechnologies that contribute to “event safety”; among them:

ASHRAE International

Standard 62.1: This standard establishes minimum ventilation rates and indoor air quality requirements for commercial buildings, including theaters and auditoriums.

Standard 55: This standard specifies thermal comfort conditions for occupants in indoor environments, which can have an impact on air quality.

Audio Engineering Society

Audio Visual and Experience Association

Entertainment Services and Technology Association

Event Safety Alliance

International Code Council

International Building Code: Section 303.2 Assembly Group A-1

Illumination Engineering Society

RP-16-17 Lighting for Theatrical Productions: This standard provides guidance on the design and implementation of lighting systems for theatrical productions. It includes information on the use of color, light direction, and light intensity to create different moods and effects.

RP-30-15 Recommended Practice for the Design of Theatres and Auditoriums: This standard provides guidance on the design of theaters and auditoriums, including lighting systems. It covers topics such as seating layout, stage design, and acoustics, as well as lighting design considerations.

DG-24-19 Design Guide for Color and Illumination: This guide provides information on the use of color in lighting design, including color temperature, color rendering, and color mixing. It is relevant to theater lighting design as well as other applications.

National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security

National Fire Protection Association

Life Safety Code

National Electrical Code

Articles 518-540: Arenas, Lecture Halls & Theaters

Society of Motion Picture Technology Engineers

Professional Lighting and Sound Association

Dance and Athletic Floor Product Standards: ASTM F2118, EN 14904, DIN 18032-2

Incumbent standards-setting organizations such as ASHRAE, ASTM, ICC, IEEE, NFPA have also discovered, integrated and promulgated event safety and sustainability concepts into their catalog of best practice titles; many already incorporated by reference into public safety law.   We explore relevant research on crowd management and spectator safety.

Planning and Managing Security for Major Special Events

The circumstances of the pandemic has made “re-rationalization” of education community spaces an urgent priority.   Today at 15:00 UTC we pick through the concepts in play.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

More

International Code Council (N.B. Changes to its Code Development Process) 

International Building Code: Entertainment Occupancies

Section 410: Stages, Platforms and Technical Production Areas

National Electrical Code: Articles 518 – 540 

Code-Making Panel 15 (NEC-P15): Public Input Report 10/1/2020

Code-Making Panel 15 (NEC-P15): Public Comment Report  11/18/2021

ASHRAE 62.1 Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality

Princeton University: Set Design & Construction

Building the Virtual Stage: A System for Enabling Mixed Reality Theatre

University of California: Special Effects Safety and Loss Prevention

University of San Francisco Special Effects Safety

Dance Floors v. Sports Floors

Entertainment Occupancies

2025 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES | Complete Monograph 2630 Pages

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES | Complete Monograph 2658 Pages

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

“View from the Ancient Theater in Taormina to Mount Etna” c. 1880 Carl Wuttke

Safety and sustainability for any facility begins with an understanding of who shall occupy it.  University settings, with mixed-use phenomenon arising spontaneously and temporarily, present challenges and no less so in  square-footage identified as performing arts facilities.  Education communities present the largest installed base of mixed use and performing arts facilities.  A distinction is made between supervised occupants that are in secondary schools (generally under age 18) and unsupervised occupants that are in university facilities (generally above age 18).

First principles regarding occupancy classifications for performing arts facilities appear in Section 303 of the International Building Code Assembly Group A-1.  The public edition of the 2021 IBC is linked below:

2024 IBC Chapter 3: Occupancy Classification and Use


Each of the International Code Council code development groups A, B and C; fetch back to these classifications.   You can sample the safety concepts in play with an examination of the document linked below:

2019 GROUP B PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE GROUP B I-CODES

2019 GROUP B PUBLIC COMMENT AGENDA

Each of the foregoing documents are lengthy so we recommend using search terms such as “school”, “college”, ‘”university”, “auditorium”, “theater”, “children”, “student” to hasten your cut through it.

We find continuation of lowering of the lighting power densities as noteworthy.  Technical committees assembled and managed by the International Code Council, the American Society of Heating & Refrigeration Engineers and the Illumination Engineering Society are leaders in developing consensus products that drive the LED illumination transformation.

 

The revision schedule for the next tranche of ICC titles that are built upon the foundation of the IBC is linked below:

2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE

We encourage experts in education communities — facility managers, research and teaching staff, architectural and engineering students — to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process at the link below:

https://www.iccsafe.org/cdpaccess/

We reserve a place on the agenda of our standing Lively 200 colloquia on this topic.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

 

Issue: [18-166]

Category: Architectural, Healthcare Facilities, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Richard Robben


The International Code Council (ICC) develops its codes and standards through a consensus-driven process. The ICC Code Development Process follows these major stages:

Code Change Proposal Submission

Stakeholders (e.g., government officials, industry professionals, and the public) submit proposals to modify existing codes or introduce new provisions.

Committee Action Hearing (CAH)

Expert committees review and evaluate submitted proposals.
Public testimony is allowed, and committees vote on whether to approve, disapprove, or modify the proposals.

Public Comment Period

After the CAH, the public can submit comments or suggest modifications to the committee’s decisions.
These comments help refine the proposed changes before final voting.

Public Comment Hearing (PCH)

ICC members discuss and vote on public comments.
This step ensures that all voices are heard and debated before finalizing changes.

Online Governmental Consensus Vote (OGCV)

Governmental members vote on the final code changes electronically.
Only governmental voting members (e.g., code officials) participate in this stage to ensure the process remains unbiased.

Publication of New Code Edition

Approved code changes are incorporated into the next edition of the ICC codes.
The ICC updates its codes every three years (e.g., 2021, 2024, 2027 editions).

This structured process ensures that ICC codes remain comprehensive, up-to-date, and responsive to industry needs while maintaining safety and functionality.

Audio Standards

“A Dance to the Music of Time” 1640 Nicolas Poussin

 

 

“The voice of the intellect is a soft one,

but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.”

— Sigmund Freud

 

The education industry provides a large market for occupancy classes — athletic stadiums, student assembly spaces, performance theaters, large lecture halls– that depend upon effective audio systems*.   To an unexpected degree the structural engineering, specification of materials and electrical system design and operation is informed by acoustical considerations.  So does the integration of fire safety and mass notification systems into normal state enterprises so it is wise to follow and, ideally, participate in leading practice discovery and promulgation of audio standards.

The Audio Engineering Society — one of the first names in this space — has a due process platform that welcomes public participation.   All of its standards open for public comment completed their revision cycle mid-November as can be seen on its standards development landing page below:

AES Standards Development

Note that AES permits access to those revision even after the comment deadline.  You are encouraged to communicate directly with the Direct communication with the standards staff at Audio Engineering Society International Headquarters, 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1225, New York NY 10176,  Tel: +1 212 661 8528

We keep the AES suite on the standing agenda of our periodic Lively Arts teleconference.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

This facility class is one of most complex occupancy classes in education facilities industry so we also collaborate with experts active in the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee. Much of the AES suite references, and borrows from, International Electrotechnical Commission system integration and interoperability standards.   The IEEE E&H committee meets online again four times monthly in European and American time zones.  The meeting dates are available on the IEEE E&H website

Media production audio visual

Issue: [19-23]

Category: Electrical, Academic,  Athletics, Fire Safety, Public Safety, #WiseCampus

Contact: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey

*Mass notification systems are governed by NFPA 72 and, while life safety wiring is separate from other wiring, the management of these systems involve coordination between workgroups with different business objectives and training.


LEARN MORE:

Archive / Audio Engineering Society

 

Finian’s Rainbow

“Finian’s Rainbow” is a musical (written by E.Y. Harburg – University of Michigan 1918) that tells the story of an Irishman named Finian McLonergan who comes to the United States with his daughter Sharon to bury a pot of gold stolen from a leprechaun. Finian believes that if he buries the gold in the soil of Fort Knox, it will grow and multiply, allowing him to live a life of luxury.

However, the town they settle in, Rainbow Valley, is owned by a racist senator named Billboard Rawkins, who wants to evict the sharecroppers living on the land. With the help of a local activist named Woody, Sharon and the sharecroppers team up to stop Rawkins’ eviction plans.

Meanwhile, Og, the leprechaun whose gold Finian stole, comes to America to get his gold back. Og meets and falls in love with Susan, the mute daughter of the sharecropper Woody, and realizes that he wants to stay in America with her.

The story deals with themes of racism, prejudice, and the American dream, and features memorable like “Old Devil Moon,” “How Are Things in Glocca Morra?” and “If This Isn’t Love.”

Lively Arts 300

Theater Safety

“ I think that the theater is the initial glamorizer of thought; where it can be told – without too much disguise but without too much directness either – the secrets, and thereby its antipathies and sympathies – the secrets and the knowledge of the human heart…

…I think that makes the art of the theater as important as the doctor or the psychologist or the Minister…

…I think it’s vitally important that the world knows itself and I think the theater is one of the most immediate means of expression towards that end…”

– Sir Lawrence Olivier

Set design model by Marcel Jambon for an 1895 Paris production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello

Demand for live events in college towns — what is now called”entertainment content” — is gathering pace; owed somewhat to an older demographic that prefers expanded social interaction to the online entertainment offerings that the younger demographic prefers*.  We see an expansion of the market in the construction of architecturally astonishing buildings; though the circumstances of pandemic has changed everything.

Today our interest lies in the complex safety and sustainability characteristics of the physical infrastructure — with particular interest in the fire protection, environmental air and electrotechnologies required to make them safe and sustainable.   This facility class is far more complicated technologically and operates at significantly higher risk than, say, classrooms or office space.

The Entertainment Services and Technology Association is one of the first names in trade associations that support the ‘business of show business’ through networking, safe practices, education, and representation.  We follow the standards making activity of its technical committees and monitor public commenting opportunities.  ESTA releases markups of its consensus products for public comment at a fairly brisk pace on its standards development landing page:

ESTA Public Review Drafts

Consultation on an illumination standard runs through April 7th.

Transcripts of related standards:

2026 National Electrical Code Public Input Report CMP-15

2026 National Electrical Code Second Draft Report CMP-15

You may obtain an electronic copy at the link above, along with a comment form.  Send your comments to Karl Ruling, (212) 244-1505, [email protected] with an optional copy to [email protected]).  We encourage our colleagues in school districts and in colleges and universities large and small; with responsibilities for the safety and sustainability of cultural resource properties, media centers, performance venues to participate in the ESTA technical standards development program.

Glorya Kaufman School of Dance / University of Southern California

We keep the ESTA suite on the standing agenda of our Lively Arts colloquia; open to everyone.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.

Since the electrotechnologies for the lively arts have evolved into complex, interoperable systems we also collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee on technical specifics.  That committee meets online four times per month in European and American time zones.

“We’re all actors: We all play different roles in different situations.”

Marlon Brando

 

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, Infotech, Lively Arts,

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Christine Fischer, Mike Hiler, Nehad El-Sherif

ARCHIVE: ESTA


*More >>

State Capitals And College Towns: A Recipe For Success

Baby Boomers Are Retiring to College Towns

The original University of Michigan codes and standards advocacy enterprise interviewed an ESTA affiliate in 2015:


Entertainment Occupancies

Theatre: Lighting Design

Artificial lighting was first introduced to theater dramatic performance stages in the 17th century. The use of candles and oil lamps initially provided a means to illuminate the stage, allowing performances to take place in the evening and enhancing the visibility for both actors and the audience. Before this development, theatrical performances were typically held during daylight hours due to the reliance on natural light.

In the early 17th century, theaters in England began experimenting with various lighting techniques. Thomas Killigrew’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London, is often credited as one of the first theaters to use artificial lighting. The use of candles and later oil lamps evolved over time, leading to more sophisticated lighting setups as technology advanced.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw further innovations in stage lighting, including the use of gas lamps. Eventually, the introduction of electric lighting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries revolutionized stage lighting, providing theaters with a more reliable and controllable source of illumination. This allowed for greater creativity in the design and execution of lighting effects, contributing significantly to the overall theatrical experience.

Oklahoma City University

More

Stage Lighting 101 — Everything You Need to Know

Boston University: Theater, Lighting Design

Wayne State University: Lighting Design

Illumination 100

 

 

Audio/video, information & communication technology

Performance in the Bolshoi Theatre Theateraufführung im Moskauer Bolschoi-Theater (Chromolithographie)

Even before the pandemic, massive open online curriculum, continued growth of consumer demand for “content” and the expansion of college and universities cultural and entertainment activity, drove our interest in the technologies that make it possible to produce and deliver “content” from facilities that are safe and sustainable.

As covered in our other Lively colloquia there are about 20 accredited standards developers that claim some part of this domain, or expanding their charter to meet the demand for best practice titles.  To repeat: “Standards are the seed corn for compliance revenue.  They fertilize the land for litigation.”   These generally well-meaning organizations only invest in the administration of best practice discovery and promulgation if they see demand for conformance revenue in their future.

Education communities in every nation are also conformance organizations.

Cultural content discovery, creation and delivery depends heavily on electrotechnology.

The parent committee of the highest level of electrotechnology standardization in this domain world is International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee TC 108: Safety of electronic equipment within the field of audio/video, information technology and communication technology.   Safety first.  A committee with a similar sounding title, but a different scope is IEC TC 100 Audio, video and multimedia systems and equipment — the subject of a separate post*.

To paraphrase the IEC TC 108 Committee Scope Statement:

Horizontal safety function: Methods of measuring touch current and protective conductor current.  This includes, for various types of equipment, methods of measurement of touch current with regard to physiological effects and of protective conductor current for installation purposes. The methods of measurement consider both normal conditions and certain fault conditions.  Safety of equipment electrically connected to a telecommunication network

Group safety function:Audio, video and similar electronic apparatus – Safety requirements Audio/video, information and communication technology equipment and safety of remote power feeding.

Vancouver Film School

According to its Strategic Business Plan, the need for standardization in this technology shows up in unexpected places such as 3-dimensional printing and wearable smart devices; both of which are of interest to faculty, students and the staff that supports the physical infrastructure.

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN

The home page for the IEC public commenting facility is linked below:

https://www.iec.ch/comment/

We generally refer action in global electrotechnology standards to any one of several IEEE Societies and collaborate with the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (IEEE E&H).  We also track and participate in the standards action of several trade associations that service some part of this space; all of whom are sensitive to the international electrotechnology standards action.  Colleges and universities with federally funded facilities may need to be attentive to Trade Agreement Act matters when acquiring equipment of this nature.

As of this posting there are no Committee Draft Vote (CDV) documents released by TC 108 seeking public comment but we include it in our periodic scan of best practice literature.  We generally refer to the tracking facility available with the IEEE E&H hosted on a University of Michigan server for educational purposes.  IEEE E&H meets 4 times monthly European and American time zones.

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

 

We always encourage subject matter experts with front line experience planning, designing building, operating and maintaining these growing and complicated spaces.  We recommend US-based experts contact Tony Zertuche, Director, International Policy and General Secretary, USNC/IEC ([email protected]).

United States National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (USNC/IEC)

We renew our understanding of electrotechnology standards for Lively Arts at least once a month.  See our CALENDAR.  The IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee meets online every other Tuesday in both Central European time American time zones.   Its meeting dates and login credentials are available on its home page.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Electrical, Infotech, Global, Lively Arts

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Giuseppe Parise

Media production audio visual

 


* Related work runs through ISO Technical Committee 36 .

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