Editorial standards

Mechanism rather than advice

Articles describe how something works, not what you should do. Not watch your levels, but gain before feedback falls about six decibels each time the distance from source to microphone doubles. A mechanism can be checked, argued with and applied to a room we have never seen. Advice cannot.

Sources, and their interests

Every figure carries its source and the type of that source. Standards bodies, regulators and published engineering literature are named as such. Manufacturer material is named as manufacturer material and treated as advocacy, because a company publishing a number about its own product has an interest in that number.

Figures that cannot be traced to a stated method do not appear. Where we have deliberately left one out, we say so rather than reaching for a plausible substitute.

What we cannot verify

Every article ends with a section under that heading. It contains real limits rather than a disclaimer: what the measurement conditions were, who published the claim, what depends on a building we have not visited, and where this publication has an interest of its own.

Jurisdiction

Anything touching law names the country it describes and stays general. Rules differ by country and often by municipality, they change, and the applicable rule is the one enforced for the specific building or organisation. Nothing here is legal advice.

Dangerous and regulated work

Mains distribution, rigging, pyrotechnics and lasers are described as work, with an account of what the work is and who is qualified to carry it out. No procedures are published. Questions about vocal technique belong with a singing teacher and questions about hearing with an audiologist, and we send them there rather than answering them.

People

We do not publish personal information about performers, staff or audiences, and we do not name individuals in an evaluative context.

Accessibility

The site runs without JavaScript, every page is one click from the home page, controls meet a minimum touch target, contrast is calculated rather than estimated, and the layout works from a narrow phone upward. An article in the house section argues that access provision beginning at the door begins too late; the same applies to a publication.