Okay we're stoked!

We learned that a new Matrix is in the works.

We had to revisit the first one when film aficionado friends told us that it was a landmark piece of transgender art created by two trans women and perfectly captured the experience of being a closeted trans person.

Totally missed it.

But that was 20 years ago and this go-around we'll try to pay closer attention.

Technology has so dramatically changed film/show/video content development, production and distribution we'll probably again be overwhelmed by the parallel, intertwined plots and special effects.

Still don't believe AI could understand how to deliver the intricacy, intimacy and complexity of something like Matrix.

That requires the human touch.

Creative Technology (CT) UK is home to hundreds of media servers, each with the latest in GPU’s and processors. Ordinarily, these servers are key to delivering live events for our clients but following the outbreak of COVID-19 throughout Europe and beyond, and the related reduction in live events, we have found ourselves in a position to really get creative with our technology. Fighting back against Coronavirus in the best way we know how, and this comes in the form of the Folding@Home project run by Stanford University.

As part of the Abu Dhabi Festival 2010, Emirates Palace hosted the staging of the famous Opera “La Bohème” on the 25th and 26th of March. The act was brought to the stage by the Puccini Festival Company, which travelled from Italy to delight the Abu Dhabi public with their voices.

As lockdown measures begin to ease, live producers are tentatively starting to investigate how events can be held that will bring people together again, while maintaining safe boundaries for the audience and artists alike. Rather than simply returning to what was previously considered ‘normal’ in terms of production, many are using what they learned during lockdown to evolve the concept of what a live event can deliver.  As part of an arts and culture festival in the medieval walled city of Templin north of Berlin, electronic DJ collaboration “ambientkarawane”, played a live, socially distanced set and decided to capture the event with a newly established streaming and recording set up, built around the ATEM Mini Pro.

Arcadia took their magic mix of metal, mechanical engineering and madness to the 2014 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (‘Glasto’ to those who know and love it!) with the return of the giant spider – around 12 metres tall and 40 metres wide - and an even bigger and better show than previous years!

Full technical production specialist CPL lit two landmark buildings in central Coventry, UK, to commemorate International Nurses Day and the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. The action also recognised the central role the nursing profession has played worldwide in fighting the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the World Health Organisation which has designated 2020 as ‘International Year of the Nurse’.

While 200,000 festival goers enjoyed glorious weather, sizzling temperatures and another stellar line-up of music and art at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, the buzzword on everyone’s lips was ‘Pangea’. “A primordial world of infinite possibility” promised the latest immersive AV, lighting, sonic and pyro fuelled adventure created by Arcadia Spectacular under the artistic direction of Pip Rush and Bert Cole, and the spectacle produced around the magnificent 50 metre crane structure towering above the Arcadia area didn’t disappoint!

CP Communications, a leader in innovative solutions and services for complex live event productions, leveraged the power of RF and IP convergence to bring the final events of Epic Games’ Fortnite Summer Skirmish competitive series to gaming fans worldwide. The four-day series, broadcast live from the PAX West 2018 gaming convention at Washington State Convention Center, was live-streamed to the official Fortnite Twitch.tv channel and social media platforms worldwide.

The Live Events industry is thrilled to announce the launch of COV-AID, an effort to assist with increasing the speed and efficiency of vaccine inoculations for COVID-19 in the United States. In a letter sent to President Biden January 26^th, industry giants formally offered their venues, staff, and expertise to the COVID-19 vaccination effort.

Mediapro was responsible for providing audiovisual production services for the Concert for Understanding among Civilisations and Human Rights, which took place last Saturday in the UN building in Geneva. Countries from all over the world broadcast the concert performed by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by its co-founder, performing works from W.A. Mozart. The XX Hall at the Palace of the United Nations, where the Miquel Barceló dome is located, played host to the event organised by the ONUART Foundation and which saw a host of world dignitaries and people from the business community attend.

After three sold-out performances at Amsterdam's Eye Filmmuseum, which saw Cosmos Within Us win a VR Days Halo award, the Future of StoryTelling will present the theatrical preview of Tupac Martir’s ground-breaking mixed reality performance piece in New York - as the Performative-R genre is born.

vog.photo It was very different. But it was a huge success. The first hybrid Ars Electronica in the era of Corona. “It wasn’t easy, but it was absolutely the right decision to let the festival take place,” Gerfried Stocker said in a first review. On site, everything went smoothly – the security concept worked, and the requirements were understood and accepted by the audience. And it was virtually sold out, the first “Kepler’s Garden” on the beautiful campus of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. “We offered 3,490 tickets and we issued them all,” Gerfried Stocker is pleased to report. “It’s really great that even in times of a pandemic there are obviously many people who are happy about cultural offerings and take advantage of them in a responsible way.” The Festival Mile in the city center with the OK in Upper Austria’s Kulturquartier (1,664 visitors), the University of the Arts (1,284 visitors) and the Ars Electronica Center (2,223) was well attended and registered 5,171 visitors. Last but not least, the physical presence of 668 artists in Linz was also very gratifying because it’s no longer a matter of course to bring so many people together for an event.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to go global, the organizers of CoNZealand, the 78^th World Science Fiction Convention, scheduled for late July in Wellington, New Zealand, were searching for an alternative to cancellation. Division Head for Technology Services, John Maizels, was already assembling a suite of publicly available tools like Zoom video and Discord chat rooms. But to stage a full virtual convention, they had to find a way to manage it with a globally distributed tech team.

“We're healing the ecosystem. Not harming it. Particles join the air, building themselves out of pollutant. Forests can be regrown. Water so pure, you can drink out of any river. This is your dream.” – Will, “Transcendence”

During this year’s summer break, the forestage area of the opera house in Kassel (Germany) was refurbished. Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup’s mission was to equip the venue with a new PA system, all connections for audio and HD video signals as well as about 140 junction boxes. The official acceptance took place on 7 November. During this demanding project, which provides the venue with perfect acoustic and optical communication tools, Salzbrenner Stagetec Audio Video Mediensysteme GmbH, the Mediagroup’s contracting arm, installed about 43 kilometres worth of cabling.