UK - Independent providers of specialist rigging services, Rigging Team, have been working with students at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance, helping deliver a live event staged at the college.
Created as an opportunity to study working as part of a live production crew, the show allowed students to gain valuable experience, experimenting with a range of professional, industry equipment.
Rigging Team managing director, Adam Searle comments, “Rigging Team are proud to have donated equipment in support of the project at Rose Bruford. Along with the regular training and tuition we provide, we’re always keen to help deliver experiences such as this to students looking to become part of our industry.”
The company provided a number of their EXE-Ris

Germany - For many years Thomas Gerdon from Gerdon Design has been in charge of lighting the German TV show Verstehen Sie Spaß (Do You Understand Fun?), in which unsuspecting people are victims of pranks and filmed with a hidden camera.
Kimmig Entertainment produces four editions a year in the Bavaria Studios in Munich, two of which are broadcast live. The first live edition on 17 April 2021, provided the space and opportunity for a world premiere of the new Fusion Stick FS16 Z from Fusion by GLP which was used for the first time.
As lighting designer and lighting cameraman, Gerdon used the new LED battens on the show stage during the performance by Sarah Lombardi and Luca Hänni as an effective show light..
Six towers were placed on the stage, each of which had two horizontally hung FS16 Z LED battens in addition to further spotlights. "Our goal i

The Netherlands - IBC Show 2021 has been rescheduled to take place on 3-6 December at RAI Amsterdam, moving from its usual slot in September.
Health and safety were key factors behind the decision, with the IBC operations team focused on creating a safe environment.
IBC chief executive Michael Crimp explains: “Following a period of industry consultation, the IBC Partnership Board has agreed that December is the best date in terms of safety and industry readiness to engage. Our conclusion is based on the results of the recent IBC exhibitor and visitor surveys and macro evidence of Europe opening up for business. We really value the feedback and candid input of our community - we have always been ‘by the industry, for the industry’, and this ethos continues to guide our daily decision-making process.”
IBC has surveyed visitors and exhibitors, and two third
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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

UK - Liverpool Public Health officials and scientists have found the city’s pilot events did not cause any detectable spread of COVID-19 across the region.
The city hosted four successful events as part of the national Events Research Programme (ERP), with a total of 13,258 people attending The Good Business Festival, two nightclub events hosted by Circus and the Sefton Park Pilot music festival.
All attendees were required to take a lateral flow test ahead of the event - a negative test would allow them access. Five people with the COVID-19 virus were identified through this process and were not allowed to attend.
Ticketholders were encouraged to take a PCR test on the day of the event, and a second one five days later.
This process identified four people as possibly having the virus at an event; and a further seven were identified with the virus four to

UK - Founders of the global #WeMakeEvents movement feature in the fourth episode of The Meister Series, Jägermeister’s project celebrating “the mavericks and innovators in the music and events industry.”
In April 2020, #WeMakeEvents was launched by PLASA in response to the impact of the pandemic on the live events ecosystem. What started as a single UK campaign soon grew into a global movement now spanning 40 countries. Since then, through fundraising, mental health support and campaigning, the organisation has worked tirelessly to keep the music industry alive and support those impacted by the crisis.
In this fourth episode, founders and board members of #WeMakeEvents - Nicky Greet and Peter Heath from PLASA, Koy Neminathan from Avolites and James Gordon from Audiotonix - join Jägermeister in a passiona

USA - Pixotope has announced three senior additions to its global staff.
Juan Rubio, is joining the team as a new product specialist and evangelist. Based in the US, Juan's career has spanned across feature film VFX, AAA Games, and enterprise, having worked on movies like the Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, The Day After Tomorrow and The Watchmen.
Rubio said, “Having first-hand experience of being the customer, and being in the driving seat of a number of productions, it’s promising to see mixed reality’s popularity and offering growing in abundance. I’m joining the Pixotope team with a vision of delivering what our customers really need when it comes to virtual productions.”
LA-based Brad Rochon is Pixotope’s new vice president of sales and marketing. His move follows a 23-year stint at Ross Video, where he held various positions i

Long-term Recovery - Arts Council England has announced details of a £42m fund to support the long-term recovery of the arts, heritage and creative sectors. The Cultural Investment Fund, which is a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport programme administered by ACE, is made up of three strands. These are the Cultural Development Fund, Museum Estate and Development Fund and Libraries Improvement Fund.
The Cultural Investment Fund was originally announced in 2019, but was put on hold during the pandemic to prioritise the delivery of the Culture Recovery Fund. With a budget of £18.5m in this financial year, the Cultural Development Fund will support places outside of London to invest in "creative, cultural and heritage initiatives that are designed to make places more attractive to live and work in and to visit". This is the second round of the Cultural Development

USA - Behind the Scenes has announced that Cable Munkey has become a Pledge-a-Product partner by pledging a percentage of sales from its Cable Munkey cable management product.
Cable Munkey is a small business founded to bring innovative products and solutions to the theatre and live event market, like Cable Munkey. Founder Jonathan Allender-Zivic says he decided to support Behind the Scenes with his product because “I am a lifelong theatre artist and practitioner who wants to give back to those in need within our industry”.
BTS Foundation chair Rick Rudolph commented, “We’re delighted to welcome Jonathan and his unique product as Pledge-a-Product partners. He’s a wonderful example that you don’t have to be a large company to want to give back and support your industry. Every commitment makes a difference in what we are able to do to help our colleagues in

South Africa - The South Africa Events Council has published its review of the past year. “The SA Events Council is fighting to retain the headway we have made towards re-opening the events industry before the losses we are suffering reach a point of no return,” says the council.
“For 14 months, the associations that make up the SA Events Council have collaborated on various measures to re-open the industry. We have developed a stringent set of ‘Re-opening Guidelines’, sent scores of lobbying letters and hosted in-person, proof-of-concept events to show what is possible. We have also conducted awareness campaigns, hosted webinars, organised radio and television Interviews, provided information sessions and engaged with the various relevant government entities in person.”
As one of the first responders to the crisis, SACIA's Event Safety Council developed a

UK - Bluesound Professional has announced the launch of the fourth instalment of its podcast series called Surroundscapes. The series continues to feature expert guests from around the world offering perspectives on changes affecting the current and post-pandemic workplace.
The series is targeted at commercial A/V integrators, consultants and business owners interested in the idea of using audio visual technology to ‘help create memorable and immersive experiences in commercial environments amidst our new reality’.
Hosted by Graeme Harrison, VP and GM of Bluesound Professional, Surroundscapes Series 4 is theme focused on the Future of Music and Music Creation. Harrison, along with invited industry experts, will explore two principal areas of the music industry. First, they will investigate new ways of both composing and performing music often

USA - One of the most highly anticipated tours in the Contemporary Christian music world this year is The Blessing USA Tour, pairing six-time GMA Dove Award winner Kari Jobe and husband/partner Cody Carnes. Kicking off in Pittsburgh on 15 April and culminating in Brandon, Mississippi on 18 June, the tour is taking the singer-songwriter duo on a 24-city run of shows at large houses of worship and theatres across the Midwest and South, including Dallas, Orlando, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Houston and elsewhere.
Sponsored by illumiNations and CovidSafeChurch.com, the tour is implementing “socially distanced and/or reserved COVID-safe seating and capacities” in each venue, and tour members will be tested and everyone entering will be temperature checked, in addition to other standards and local requirements. What’s also different about this tour is how the DiGiCo Quantum338 co

USA - After the widespread cancellation of the 2020 Graduation and Commencement season in the States, students were anxious to know whether this year they would be able to celebrate the completion of their degree programmes on a grand stage.
Cooper Cannady of Martin Audio partner RMB Audio, the event’s long-term services provider, was faced with the same conundrum.
“We have serviced Duke University Commencement at the Wallace Wade Stadium [in Durham, N. Carolina] since the evolution of the campus back in 2003,” said the RMB Audio owner, whose company is based nearby.
“This year I was invited to initiate planning for an event which I knew may never occur.” However, when University president, Vincent Price, finally received the green light from the Centre for Disease Control and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the RMB Audio tech te

UK - Collaborative Creations (CC) has announced that its centrally located, London studio space is open and available to companies and individual members of the events and event technology industries. With restrictions now coming to an end, booking is no longer essential though for specific product viewings is advisable.
Less than a minute’s walk from London Waterloo the CC Studio is a multipurpose environment available for use by the events and event technology industries.
Newly refurbished, the CC Studio can welcome up to 60 people standing, up to 30 in a theatre-style configuration or 12 in a training room seating arrangement. Operational as a boardroom style meeting room, the studio can seat up to 14 and features an engaging 70-inch interactive touchscreen for presentations.
The space is equipment ready with Chamsys controlled Martin Professional lighting

South Africa - Mellow Yellow Entertainment, producers of South African music games show Musiek Roulette wanted a new look for the 2021 season, so called on the services of Ryan Lombard, head of show lighting at Blond Productions and Michael Gill, owner of Michael Gill Designs to design lighting and set respectively.
TV lighting specialist and rental company Blond Productions supplied all the lighting equipment, while the set was built by Dream Sets.
Ryan needed a highly adaptable lighting rig and used 72 x Robe moving lights to assist him in lighting the series, which was recorded at the Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg.
The idea with the new aesthetics was to retain a casino vibe but offer a more streamlined and modern feel, with the studio floor featuring a striking stylised central roulette wheel and three large LED screens around the circular-shaped

UK - Following an extensive £3m refurbishment, the grade II listed Crewe Market Hall is set to reopen to the public this week (19 May). The space, which has been completely transformed as part of Cheshire East Council’s town centre regeneration programme, is set to be home to a variety of independent local businesses, will feature a new seating area with bespoke tables and chairs as well as a stage which will be used as part of the Market Hall’s exciting calendar of events.
When White Light (WL) was approached by East Cheshire Council to supply a temporary stage for the venue, it turned to Doughty Engineering to deliver the solution.
Paul McLean, project manager at WL, explains: “We were asked to supply the stage for live events that will take place in the Market Hall which could typically be configured as 6m x 6m but with the flexibility to be able to form a nu

UK - Artistic Licence products have been used to provide new DMX infrastructure in the Manchester Studios complex, formerly the Granada/ITV headquarters.
The studios have been undergoing massive refurbishment since 2016. The Granada Studios were built in 1954 for the purpose of recorded and live filming, and served as the Granada/ITV headquarters until 2013.
As part of the refurbishment, Artistic Licence products have been installed in the ongoing upgrade to Studio 1. This is the largest space within the complex, housed within a self-contained building complete with wardrobe, props, dressing rooms and production offices.
A central DMX patch houses two rackLynx octo 8-universe Art-Net gateways and four rackSplit octo 8-way DMX/RDM splitters. These distribute DMX out to eight wall boxes around the studio floor that each house two further rackLynx octo splitters.

USA - Each spring, the annual NFL Draft broadcast offers millions of sports fans an opportunity to discover with which franchises players will be signing for the upcoming football season. This year’s event, held in Cleveland from 29 April to 1 May, welcomed 50,000 fans a day for live events, including the NFL Draft Experience interactive football festival and nightly concerts from Black Pumas, Kings of Leon, and one of the city’s native sons, Machine Gun Kelly.
Once again, the National Football League and events promoter C3 Presents chose Houston-based certified provider LD Systems as the live sound vendor for the NFL Draft. LD’s primary deployment was for the Draft Theatre, a massive 200ft-wide by 220ft-deep by 80ft-tall half-moon structure created by Stage FX. Erected near FirstEnergy Stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, overlooking Lake Erie, the structure

The Netherlands - “Using Capture 2021 is almost like seeing the visuals in real life,” is Eurovision LD Henk Jan van Beek’s assessment of the Swedish manufacturer’s pre-visualisation software system. No stranger to the Eurovision event, having been part of the 2005 programming, Capture Visualisation was proud to be part of this year’s show at Rotterdam’s Ahoy Arena. Always an extravagant feast of lights, video and FX, Eurovision 2021 was chosen as one of Europe’s pilot events for COVID safe live events, making for one of the most eagerly anticipated Eurovision shows of all time.
Since 1994, Capture Visualisation has been developing and evolving the software in the pre-programming sector and is now seen as one of the leading brands in this increasingly busy sector of the entertainment market.
"It is an honour to be the preferred solution for this premier

The Netherlands - Located on the banks of the Zaan river in the city of Zaandam, a few kilometres north-west of Amsterdam, Filmtheater De Fabriek (The Factory) is a popular cinema. The cinema has recently added a new 30 seat theatre and, at the same time, updated the audio in its existing 90 and 64-seat theatres, all with Alcons Audio pro-ribbon systems.
Filmtheater De Fabriek offers an in-depth movie experience, each month offering introductions, after-talks or panel discussions about its programme of films. These provide more context for the films and the viewer with food for thought. This approach to providing a more complete experience includes the sound.
De Fabriek occupies a 100-year-old former school building, which has seen many changes over the years. A recent refurbishment saw original details being preserved and, at the same time, the cinema being brought ri

UK - LED lighting manufacturer CFE Lighting has completed a major project at the luxury Sandburn Hall Hotel, near York, North Yorkshire, which is set to open this week.
The company, which specialises in bespoke LED luminaires and lighting solutions for the commercial, industrial, and public sectors, designed and manufactured 55 exterior lighting bollards, which have been installed by electrical partner NEC Services at the new hotel complex.
The bollards are fitted with low-energy, high lumen LEDs, which will provide wayfinding and emergency lighting along the main walkways which run around the front and back of the 40-bedroom luxury hotel, which will open its doors to guests for the first time on 24 May.
The £5m hotel will be the first major new-build hotel development between York and the coast for over 20 years, with the site already home to an 18-hole champio

USA - Multinational retail corporation Walmart relied on the disguise extended reality (xR) workflow to host two of its most important corporate meetings virtually for the first time earlier this year.
Walmart needed to address a global audience of investors in its annual Investor Community Meeting (ICM), as well as key management personnel in its Year Beginning Meeting (YBM), remotely. Partnering with experiential event company LEO Events, Walmart invited Xite Labs, a long-time disguise creative and workflow partner, to deliver a custom-built stage powered by disguise xR at Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, to host the two virtual events.
Using the extended reality set-up, speakers could present information, showcase statistics and accent the meetings with augmented reality elements to add layers of visual interest and engage viewers in a compelling

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