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“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:
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
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:
The AES welcomes new Executive Director, Colleen Harperhttps://t.co/r7DfPp6wfE#AESorg #proaudio #audioengineer pic.twitter.com/nTKBf8oHeR
— Audio Engineering Society (@AESorg) January 16, 2019
“It’s a fine line between Saturday night
and Sunday morning” – Jimmy Buffett
“Rather a bottle in front of me
than a frontal lobotomy” — Some guy
Many people are surprised to learn what counts as a “drink”. The amount of liquid in your glass, can, or bottle does not necessarily match up to how much alcohol is actually in your drink. Even before the United States federal government withdrew from regulating alcohol, the conversation, and degree of agreement and attitude, remains remarkably regionally specific:
Missouri University of Science & Technology: What is a Standard Drink?
University of South Alabama: What is a Standard Drink?
Stanford University Office of Alcohol Policy and Education
Other nations serve alcohol to students on campus in university owned facilities.
I didn’t know that🤔 pic.twitter.com/rMT3X2fCN0
— Alix (@AlixG_2) August 17, 2024
— Dr. Maya C. Popa (@MayaCPopa) May 26, 2023
Casual reminder that Wisconsin has more bars than grocery stores pic.twitter.com/dG8YYRkoKd
— Midwest vs. Everybody (@midwestern_ope) March 30, 2025
“ 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…”
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:
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, standards@esta.org with an optional copy to psa@ansi.org). 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.
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
*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:
Beer was discovered accidentally as a result of grains being left in water and undergoing fermentation. The process of making beer involves converting the starches in grains (such as barley or wheat) into sugars, which are then fermented by yeast to produce alcohol. It was often consumed as a safer alternative to water, which could be contaminated with disease-causing pathogens.
Beer was also used in religious ceremonies and was considered a valuable commodity for trade. Over time, beer-making techniques spread throughout the world, and different regions developed their own unique styles of beer; now supported by artificial intelligence algorithms that analyze chemical compounds to identify specific flavor and aroma profiles for more nuanced flavors.
Towards Crafting Beer with Artificial Intelligence
Marc Bravin, et al
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Rotkreuz, Switzerland
Abstract: The art of brewing beer has a long tradition that dates back to the very dawn of civilization. While the brewing process has been automated to a great extent, the creation of new beer recipes remains the result of creativity and human expertise with only minor support from software to validate chemical constraints. We collected a dataset of 157,000 publicly available recipes from all over the world and created a transformer-based model to support the creative process in brewing by suggesting new beer recipe templates. As a proof of concept, we crafted the IPA “Deeper” along a recipe generated by our model. Over 100 international newspapers and radio stations have reported on the first AI-crafted beer from Switzerland over the past few months. For the first time, this paper reveals the underlying pipeline architecture of eight transformer networks trained end-to-end that made this remarkable success possible.
CLICK HERE for complete paper
There are several international organizations and agreements that set standards for beer production and labeling:
The term “lively arts” is attributed to American writer and poet James Thurber. It was popularized in the mid-20th century as a way to describe various forms of performing arts, such as theater, dance, music, and other creative expressions.
Standards Michigan Lively Art Catalog
“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 events in educational settlements. 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 Visual and Experience Association
Entertainment Services and Technology Association
Set design model for Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, created for a Paris production in 1895@GallicaBnF
print(“Lively Arts”)https://t.co/93JWrmLwPh pic.twitter.com/RRxuzmGT4r— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) December 10, 2021
The Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film commits to the philosophy that students of the lively arts must be provided w/ practical skills for employment in industry &
educational settings.https://t.co/DRe7qWJKgW@NebCarsonSchool
Print(“Lively”) #StandardsNebraska pic.twitter.com/7K8zfXYlZj— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) February 4, 2022
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.
“Art is anything you can get away with” — Marshall McLuhan
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
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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