In 2014, the European Centre for Standardisation (CEN) opened a Technical Committee (TC) related to Structures and Stage Machinery used in the entertainment industry: CEN TC433.

After a few years of work, the TC published a number of standards, one of which is EN 17206: Machinery for stages and other production areas – safety requirements and inspections.

The standard represents today the milestone and the reference norm for the safe design and testing of any machinery used on stages anywhere in Europe.

THE SCOPE OF EN 17206

This document applies to machinery, machinery installations and machinery control systems used in places of assembly and in staging and production facilities for events and theatrical productions (stage machinery, for short). Such facilities include theatres, multi-purpose halls, exhibition halls; film, television and radio studios; concert halls, schools, bars, discotheques, open-air stages and other rooms for shows and events.

The document applies to machinery installations with guided or unguided loads.

This document covers machinery used in the entertainment industry including machinery that is excluded from the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) specifically Article 1, 2(j) which excludes “machinery intended to move performers during artistic performances”.

This machinery includes controls, electrical and electronic control systems, electrical and electronic equipment, hydraulic and pneumatic power supplies.

The principles in this document also apply to machinery installations based on new technologies or specially designed installations which are not expressly mentioned here but which nevertheless operate in a similar manner or are meant for similar purposes to the equipment listed above.