PLASA Issues Latest Standards

The Professional Lighting And Sound Association (PLASA) has posted drafts of proposed portable stage and fall arrest standards for public review. The reviews run, and comments are welcomed, through Sept. 24.

While PLASA has long advocated a uniform standard of best practices, the collapse of the Indiana State Fair mainstage rigging on Aug. 13, 2011, underscored its importance. While such a standard has yet to be adopted, the organization continually reviews and updates its recommendations.

The draft standard review of portable stages presently under consideration covers design, manufacture and use of all the portable structures – not only roofs – used to support scenery, lighting and sound equipment and to cover outdoor stages. It does not include public structures such as bleachers or vendor stands.

Worker safety, including production crews and riggers, is the subject of a new standard proposal under review and seeking comment.

It establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems on portable structures including those for manufacturers and owners of structures being used as work platforms. The standards under consideration are to provide employers and crews with methods of protection that meet or exceed current standards for industrial fall protection.

The reviews can be downloaded here. For more information, Karl Ruling, PLASA’s technical standards manager, can be reached at [email protected].