I wasn't sure whether this belonged in technical, but I guess it is more technical than presentational.
What are the rules behind firelanes in television studios? While they are obviously to provide emergency escape routes, there does not seem to be a consistent rule - a lot of news studios do not have them. At first I assumed it was because only studios of a certain size were required to have them. But Studio C and E at NBH do not have designated firelanes, while South Today's studio in Southampton does - despite having roughly the same floor area. Is it to do with having a proper lighting grid? Because, if there is no real reason, why do some studios bother when they are losing valuable floor space?
I have a feeling it's down to when the studios were constructed, the intended use and probably modern risk assessments.
Southampton was intended as a general purpose production studio with changing sets, C and E at NBH are fixed rig studios with permanent sets.
In a general production studio, the convenient gaps in the set/cyclorama may not coincide with the exits so the fire lane is required to get from the set to the exit. That's especially the case for shows that might use different studios each week, the set won't fit exactly.
I suspect part of the reason for the lanes is to keep an exit clear during set striking and building, which is not an issue for fixed news sets.
News sets also tend to have fewer people on them - no studio audience, often no camera operators, boom operators etc.
Write that down in your copybook now
All studios have risk assessments for general health and safety plus fire considerations. News studios with semi-permanent installs don’t need fire lanes per sé, so long as there are clear exit routes (preferably multiple exit routes) and this will all be taken into consideration when designing the set. In very small news studios the set can be placed pretty much hard up against the walls without falling foul of fire lanes - if there’s no possible reason why someone would want to go behind a piece of flattage because there’s no door at the end of it, there’s no real need to keep it clear.
ITV Region: ITV News Central
BBC Region: BBC East Midlands Today
Just adding to what [mention]deejay[/mention] has said, when it comes to risk assessments, you need to consider who might need to evacuate and how they'd evacuate. I don't work in TV, but I do hold certain health and safety responsibilities in my workplace, so I'll convert some examples from my workplace into a TV studio environment.
The first studio we're looking at is huge. It's meant for recording game shows with a few hundred audience members at a time. It's not reasonable to expect the audience members to know how to react in an emergency. Therefore, it is important that there are clear evacuation routes which can handle the capacity and that individuals can find with very little guidance from staff members.
The second studio is a significantly smaller news studio and at most, would include a couple of camerapeople, two presenters and a couple of guests. Whilst there should be one or two designated fire exits available, there isn't a need for wide fire lanes as there are only a few people in the studio at it's busiest and most people in the room should be receiving regular fire safety training from their employer.
