Swedish lighting designer Fredrik Jonsson – like all on the crew and cast of “Funny Girl” at the Malmo Opera – was ecstatic to be back working on a live show, as the Opera’s fantastic production of blockbusting musical “Funny Girl” went ahead and is playing to socially distanced audiences of 50 per show! Fredrik used Robe’s little LEDBeam 150 luminaires to provide an ingenious solution to a complex staging requirement! Recognising the critical social and cultural value of live entertainment, especially during the pandemic, “Funny Girl”, which runs through until mid-December, is part of the Opera’s autumn / winter repertory programme. It was planned over two years in advance and completely sold out many months in advance, So Malmo Opera thought laterally and decided to push ahead in delivering all their acclaimed seasonal main house productions as budgets were already allocated and spent.

In the UK alone 170,000 jobs are lost in live music industry before end of 2020 as revenue falls by 80% There are over 30 million people across the globe who work in live events; the majority of which have not worked since the Corona outbreak and remain unsure as to when their work will return. Following previously successful Days of Actions from the #WeMakeEvents team, the Global Action Day sought to bring together the global industry and highlight the impact that its effective shutdown is having throughout the world.

Founded in 1983, SFJAZZ has grown to become a recognized international leader in jazz creation, presentation, and education.  In 2013, SFJAZZ took a momentous step opening the 36,000-square-foot SFJAZZ Center in the heart of San Francisco’s cultural corridor, which has served a community center of sorts, offering a space for education, performance, and even a polling location on Election Day. In order to ensure smooth operations in the auditorium, SFJAZZ equipped the facility with a comms system based on Clear-Com®’s Eclipse® PiCo  Matrix—a system that has since grown to include FreeSpeak II® Digital Wireless—that has fulfilled various requirements for SFJAZZ, including the needs brought about by COVID-19.   

Dejero EnGo mobile transmitters were at the heart of Spanish production company Quality Media’s delivery of perfectly synchronised live video feeds from this year’s Piromusical de la Mercè fireworks, watched by 600,000 of TV3’s (Televisió De Catalunya) television viewers. Due to the EnGo transmitters’ Smart Blending Technology, which intelligently combines multiple network connections in real-time for enhanced reliability, expanded coverage, and greater bandwidth capacity, Quality Media were not restricted to setting up in locations that had fiber lines already installed or have to rely on satellite for connectivity; instead they were able to deliver live broadcast-quality coverage of the fireworks display from prime spots with the best possible views relying only on cellular connectivity. Two cameras with EnGo transmitters were positioned to cover each location; Sants Montjuïc, Las Cortes, Nou Barris and Sant Martí, delivering a total of eight feeds.

For the past 11 years, LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment) in all its guises has been THE umbrella organisation that represents the UK’s live music business. It’s members include the Entertainment Agents’ Association, the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), the Concert Promoters Association (CPA), the Music Managers Forum (MMF), the National Arenas Association (NAA), the Production Services Association (PSA) and the Music Venue Trust (MVT). In other words, the Live Music Supply Chain, in full.

Seizing a chance to generate some beautiful light art, positive energy and creativity during the pandemic, Johannes Spieß, project manager from technical specialist MKM Event Show Technik based in Darmstadt, Germany, launched a new initiative of his own – ‘Bergstraße leuchtet’ (Bergstraße Lights) – to highlight some of the famous Bergstraße “mountain route’s” stunning monuments, historical buildings and public spaces. With events halted, normally busy rental company MKM had an abundance of lighting products including an extensive Astera inventory of AX3 LightDrops, AX5 TriplePARs and AX7 SpotLites sitting in the warehouse, so these were used to support all 12 of the lighting installations which were carefully crafted and delivered over a two month period.

Over the last five months, the #WeMakeEvents campaign has been tirelessly raising awareness around the current plight facing the live entertainment sector and its urgent need for financial support if it is to survive the Covid-19 crisis. With the introduction of tier systems and the continued local lockdowns, this means that hosting live events has become even more difficult than before. As such, the campaign is continuing to make its voice heard and will continue raising as much awareness as possible, as seen with the Survival in the Square creative activation which will take place later this month.

Festivals have fast become an elusive dream resembling gold dust in the Covid era – a much-missed environment for enjoying and sharing culture, ideas and social activities ... so the 2020 Parrtjima Festival of Light at Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory provided a rare reminder of the community, camaraderie, magic and imagination evoked by lighting art. Moved from its original April slot to September, the 10-day event organised by the Northern Territories Major Event Company (NTMEC), and produced and curated by AGB, went ahead due to the state’s highly successful Covid-19 management strategy.

Pristine live streams and 4K/UltraHD recordings of concerts and performances highlight creative talent at the University of North Texas (UNT) College of Music and help student musicians and choral performers stand out from the competition. Broadcasting classical symphonies, jazz arrangements and orchestral performances via live streams to connect with alumni, prospective students, colleagues, parents and music fans has proven especially critical in 2020 amidst COVID-19 restrictions, though UNT was well equipped to meet the demand, having recorded and broadcast high-fidelity live video content to global audiences for more than a decade. In the past year, operations have grown from 60 broadcasts in the main concert hall to 1,100 live streams across six campus facilities, with a range of AJA production solutions central to the university’s live video workflow. 

The brand-new Theater Zuidplein in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has over 200 Robe LED fixtures – including T1 Profiles, Spiiders, LEDBeam 150s and ParFect 150s – installed as part of an all-LED lighting rig. It is among the first cultural centres worldwide to have no dimmers! Theater Zuidplein was designed by architects De Zwarte Hond and it is set to become a buzzing cultural hotspot in the dynamic Rotterdam-Zuid (south) district, offering a lively programme of multi-genre work including dance, drama, music, concerts, youth theatre, festivals, guest curators, etc., reaching out to all sectors of the community.

Underground nightclubs provide an outlet for dancing, socialization, and general revelry but as the world went into lockdown earlier this year, clubs across the world shut their doors, and for the most part, remain closed. To support these businesses, their employees and talent affected by the European club ban, the Berlin Clubcommission, Reclaim Club Culture and Berlin Worx teamed to launch the “United We Stream” fundraising initiative earlier this year, which began in Berlin, Germany but quickly expanded into 85 other European Cities globally.

Five music industry stalwarts, who cycled even further than Land’s End to John O’Groats, arrived in London this weekend (Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October), stopping at iconic venues in the capital including O2 Academy Brixton, The O2, Alexandra Palace, Roundhouse, The SSE Arena, Wembley, The Tabernacle, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Eventim Apollo, to the Royal Albert Hall, after cycling 1,700km across the country, starting in Newcastle via more than 130 iconic live entertainment venues and festival sites in Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Oxford, Bristol, Bournemouth, Brighton and more.

Blackmagic Design today announced that 26 of this year’s Emmy® Award nominees who live or were located in California were live streamed into the telecast of the 72nd Emmys using kits built around Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and ATEM Mini Pro switchers. The kits were built by Los Angeles based C Mount Inc as part of the first virtual, nationally telecast Emmy ceremonies, which brought together nominees in 20 cities and 10 countries. The 72nd Emmy Awards were held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting the show in front of a mostly empty arena while nominees and presenters were live streamed. Broadcast around the world, the show included more than 100 virtual attendees being shown before and after each award presentation, in acceptance speeches and finally with press interviews managed through the ABC virtual media room.

The National Theatre of Greece (NTG) staged three acclaimed performances of Aeschylus’s The Persians – first produced in 472 BCE – in July at the ancient Epidaurus open-air amphitheatre, complete with a fully socially distanced audience – of 4,500 instead of the usual 10,000 capacity, who enjoyed the drama and energy of live performance in this classic tragedy. Lighting designer Christina Thanasoula chose Robe LEDBeam 150s to add flexibility and multiple options to her design, placing 10 of the versatile little fixtures in the footlights position around the front of the stage floor.

Persistent and torrential rain didn’t dampen any spirits or enthusiasm at Silverstone Circuit in the UK where moving light manufacturer Robe UK, rental and production company Clearsound and Silverstone’s events and conference team transformed the world-famous race track’s ‘Wing’ building and conference centre ‘resplendent red’ for the evening of 30^th September 2020.This massive effort was proudly in support the #WeMakeEvents Global Day of Action. #LightItInRed, one of many elements making up this general technical production industry alliance, helped coordinate thousands of similar lighting interventions which took place across 25 countries and all continents … to highlight the urgent need for the global live events / entertainment industry to be allowed to safely get back to work.