It’s that time of year again for many that are school teachers – school is back in session soon. For a fortunate few, this may include moving into a new or renovated performance facility. Oh yeah. It’s like Christmas. New Toys.…

Fire Doors serve a special function in a building – they are there to both contain a fire and to help extinguish it. All too often we find Fire Doors that have been modified or their automatic functions circumvented. This can lead to the catastrophic loss of life and cause additional damage to a building, so we want to see that they are used properly.…

The entertainment industry is an enormous business, it employs millions world-wide, and it crosses all walks of life. Nightclubs, Theatre, Film, TV, Education, Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing are all a part of the machine. When we start-out in this industry many of us may be star-struck with visions of being an actor, musician, or dancer; and some of us have dreams of being the greatest costume designer, lighting…

As we come up on the 111^th anniversary of the Iroquois Theatre Fire, it serves to remind us that fires in theatres are all too frequent of an occurrence. This year alone has seen numerous theatre structure fires that, fortunately, didn’t take any lives, but were non-the-less damaging to…

The North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference was held in New York City this last weekend (July 22-23, 2012). The event is held every four years and a corresponding event is hosted in Europe two years offset. This is a gathering of Theatre Consultants, Acousticians, Safety Specialists, Architects, engineers, and representatives from both fixed venues and touring shows. This mix of skills and…

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers!” – Henry the VI, Act IV, Scene III, by William Shakespeare

Good Samaritan laws exist because as a society we believe that people, in general, are good-hearted and want to help other people in a time of desperate need. Providing an attempt at first-aid, be it misguided, or not; be the administrator skilled, or not, usually will not result in…

One of the ways to get your staff and students to engage themselves with Fire Safety is to get them intimately familiar with the equipment and fire protection systems at their venue. One good way to make this fun and informative to have them search for the equipment and identify it themselves. To help facilitate this, draw a simplified plan of the building (or get a good one from the Architectural plans – this is always…