I'm a Theatrical
Lighting Designer in Texas, but I'm not too concerned. The field of Architectural Lighting Design is huge and diversified, with work being done by sales reps from diff.
luminaire manufacturers, electrical contractors, architects, M.E.P. firms, Interior Designers, Electrical Engineers, Private Electricians, ... and well, you get the idea--lots of professions doing the job of what we think of as a "LD."
There have been several programs initiated to standardize the profession, including the LC certification, as mentioned previously in the forum, but the field is still young and flexible. And though everyone making specs has to abide by the
NEC, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility on how things are being done within the field. The problem with this is that the responsibility ultimately falls upon the Electrical Contractor to stay under budget, within load limits,
etc. Even the most meticulously designed lighting scheme for an architectural application can be manipulated during installation by the EC as a means to save money, time, wattage, etc--not very fair to the designer.
I believe this bill is an attempt to streamline the process and allow for the rigidity of the
NEC and the new Energy Laws to be implemented and followed explicitly from the source of the design, cleaning up the edges (so to speak) of a field where unanswered details simply get passed off to the next guy down the
line, usually resulting in money, time, and energy being wasted.
I do not believe this bill was ever intended to affect the art of
theatre or its designers. However, the
broad language as it is written now does seem to include us starving artists. Although I hope this bill does not pass, there is always room for amendments and added clauses to exclude groups and applications such as ours in case it does.
My father, which is an Electrical Engineer with a
MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) Firm and is doing "lighting design" work but at a much different
level than I do in my profession. He specs wattage and
photometrics, keeps things within code and simply illuminates the space--with no concern of aesthetic, color temp, angles,
etc... (again, an engineer, not a Designer) His thoughts on the Bill.... licensed professionals are overloaded with work and the sales reps, interior designers,
etc relieve a tremendous part of the load-- business would back up astronomically without their services; simply not a good idea.