[EAS] Sage update coming in Sept.

[Ira Wilner]

Must be "community theater" in a relatively large community Sean,  not the
case in rural America.
But I can vouch that modern theatrical lighting control systems even in
small communities often are 100% computerized.  I even pack a virtualized
version of a big lighting board in my laptop to help plan and to run shows
when we're staging them in more than one venue.  It is a lot easier to move
a laptop around than the big physical light board it emulates.  I'm running
two universes of DMX and lots of special effects and robotic instruments we
call "movers" and dozens of color on demand LED instruments.  It can eat up
over a thousand DMX addresses.

The only requirement in one theater this summer was that there be running
water for fire suppression and sanitation.  Show had to be cancelled when
the water main failed.

That said, at a minimum there should be emergency lights that come on when
AC power fails or the fire alarm system trips.  No need to signal the
theatrical dimming system to respond though it optionally could as most
modern systems have architectural control presets for the dimmers
controlling house lights that can be triggered by simple dry contact
closures from an external source.  Actually not complex at all.  If one did
set up coordination between the fire control panel and the dimming system
you would likely need to have a technician from both companies present to
sign off on it for insurance and liability reasons.

You could take it one step further and insist that some sort of EAS alert
monitoring system be active at every public venue too.

--Ira

Wrote Sean Donelan:

You sound like the stage manager at a local community theatre I used to 
volunteer as the "tech guy."  The new theatre automation system required 
hiring a "licensed fire alarm installer" to interface the theatre 
automation system and the building fire alarm system.