Five ESTA standards recently were approved and published.

ANSI E1.8 – 2018 (R2023), Entertainment Technology — Loudspeaker Enclosures Intended for Overhead Suspension — Classification, Manufacture and Structural Testing, is the 2023 reaffirmation of the 2018 edition. This outlines what you should do so flown loudspeakers, such as line arrays that must support the weight of other speakers below them, don’t fail, tear apart, and don’t rain parts down on audiences below.

ANSI E1.21-2023, Temporary Structures Used for Technical Production of Outdoor Entertainment Events, is a revision of the 2020 edition. This document 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. The new edition brings E1.21 into line with current editions of the upcoming 2024 International Building Code, in an unprecedented harmonization collaboration when dealing with outdoor structures.

ANSI ES1.40-2023, Event Safety – Security, is a new standard. This standard is intended to be a companion piece to ANSI ES1.9‐2020, Crowd Management, in that event security is an essential component of crowd management, and some of the reasonably foreseeable risks and risk mitigation strategies will overlap. It distinguishes between privately retained or volunteer security providers, and public safety officials such as police, sheriffs, constables, or firefighters who perform crowd control.

ANSI E1.46 – 2018 (R2023), Standard for the Prevention of Falls from Theatrical Stages and Raised Performance Platforms , is the 2023 reaffirmation of the 2018 edition. There’s nothing new about the basic risk management principles for not falling off a stage!

ANSI E1.72-2023, Powered Floor Machinery, is a new standard. It establishes requirements for the design, manufacture, installation, inspection, operation and maintenance of powered stage floor machinery such as wagons, turntables, treadmills, slip stages, and trap covers. Machines that produce substantially vertical movement, such as lifts, are excluded from this standard.

You can download them from http://tsp.esta.org/freestandards for FREE, or you can buy them from ANSI and IHS. Purchases from ANSI and IHS earn a small royalty for ESTA.