USA - ESTA is planning its Annual General Meeting on 4 March at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The AGM will be in-person and take place from 9:30am-11am local time. The event will see ESTA honouring the recipients of two of its highest awards. R. Duncan MacKenzie of Proskenion Design will receive the Lifetime Technical Achievement Award, which recognises individuals who have been a sustaining influence for more than 25 years and whose technical contributions have had a significant impact on the world of entertainment technology. The ESTA Board of Directors and Technical Standards Council have selected MacKenzie for his 50 years of designing control systems for rigging and stage machinery, including projects at the MGM Grand, Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Centre, and the Chicago Lyric Opera. Solana Bolton of InterAmerica Stage will present the award.
Europe - With less than 18 months to go until the next in-person gathering, Showlight is putting out a call for papers. Now is your chance to share your lighting or terrific technology by presenting a paper at this quadrennial networking event, say the organisers. The heart of Showlight has always been its varied mix of papers showcasing different disciplines and specialities of lighting. These are delivered by international lighting designers, lighting directors, directors of photography and architectural lighting designers, or associated crafts like programmers and manufacturers. Past subjects have covered designs and achievements in the fields of lighting for ballet, rock ‘n’ roll, opera, theatre, the largest tv spectacular and the smallest student projects, as well as lighting for landscapes, new and fascinating architecture, puppet theatre, animated films, and innov
USA - Organisers of the New World Rigging Symposium has announced the 2022 edition of the event will take place online on 5-7 April. The symposium will carry nine ETCP education renewal credits for re-certification, and the admission cost is $99. “We’ve turned the table on the ever-popular session featuring some of the industry’s top structural engineers - Bill Gorlin, Dan Louis, Miriam Paschetto, and Jeff Reder,” say the organisers. “Instead of getting to ask your questions, they are going to tell you the things they want you to know. There was so much we’ve given them two sessions to cover subjects such as ballast, wind speeds, site safety, codes, AHJs and why things don't always stay the same.” Paul Sapsis will walk attendees through a complicated custom flying system designed for a concert and DVD shoot at the Wembley Stadium - from concept to implem
UK - SLX has launched a new website and logo as it undergoes a complete rebrand. This follows a successful 2021, in which the Bristol-based hire and events company doubled its workforce and added more than 2,000 lighting fixtures to its stock. The rebrand is intended to reinforce the business’ brand identity and outline its core values. The new website emphasises SLX’ all-in-one approach to event production and its ability to handle all aspects of design, equipment hire and delivery. The site also contains detailed case studies of the company’s past work in broadcast, theatre, sport, corporate and experiential. The rebrand further underscores SLX’ commitments to sustainability and social values, which include making the SLX warehouse completely energy self-sufficient, providing suppo
Spain - Cycling enthusiasts have raised more than €6,000 for entertainment technology industry charities after riding along a 400km stretch of the Spanish coast for BikeFest Spain 2022. Cycling from Valencia to Barcelona in just three days, a team of 10 industry professionals overcame challenging mountain terrain en route to the final destination - Fira de Barcelona, where the now-postponed ISE 2022 tradeshow was set to take place earlier this month. For the riders, the arrival was bittersweet - although a small group of industry colleagues had gathered to celebrate the team’s achievement, the exhibition centre stood empty. But their efforts have raised €6,000, and donations continue to come in. The funds will be split between industry charities Backup in the UK and the AAA Foundation in Spain. Organised by #WeMakeEvents in partnership with PLASA, A
Europe - Shure has partnered with Crestron to support the upcoming Crestron Next Road Trip Europe, a tour with a mobile experience centre that will visit 38 stops in 19 countries. The truck will provide every attendee with a safe environment in which they will be able to get hands-on, one-on-one demos of the most recent audio technology from Shure and Crestron. The mobile experience will cover Shure and Crestron’s collaborative conferencing technology as well as the whole Crestron ecosystem of solutions for hybrid workplaces, classrooms, government organisations and more. Crestron Next Road Trip Europe will tour Europe from March, to offer dealers, partners, and customers all over Europe an opportunity to experience the latest innovations in audio technology from Crestron and Shure.
UK - Following a two-year hiatus, PLASA Focus Leeds will return to the Royal Armouries from 10-11 May, with free registration now open. Across the two days, visitors will be able to see products in action and gain insights from industry leaders. And with two years of catching up to do, the 2022 edition of the show will serve as a vital crossroad for the live events, entertainment and installation industries. Spanning two halls, the showfloor is home to 150+ brands from the worlds of audio, AV, lighting, rigging and staging. Each exhibitor is set to present their most popular products and solutions, including several new releases and debuts. PLASA says more and more exhibitors are coming aboard, with initial highlights including show spo
China - Clear-Com will be attending Prolight + Sound Guangzhou (PLSG) this year, from 22-25 February. Clear-Com will show its latest innovations - Arcadia Central Station and FreeSpeak Edge Base Station - as well its market-proven solutions. “We are especially excited to attend this show as live events have begun to come back online,” comments Jeffrey Wu, Clear-Com’s regional sales manager and chief representative for China. “Clear-Com products have been critical to the live market for over 50 years, but we are still developing new and innovative products that we know will be welcomed by the attendees of this show.” Featured on the stand will be the new Arcadia Central Station, a scalable IP intercom platform that integrates wired and digital wireless partyline systems along with third-party Dante devices in a single rack unit. The system scales to meet var
UK - HireHop Equipment Rental Software has released its route planner plug-in, which allows users to plan vehicle schedules and optimise routes for deliveries, collections and services call-outs. Via the plug-in, routes, destinations and depots are visually displayed on a map, with the ability to easily allocate single or multiple jobs to vehicles. You can also include additional hired in or temporary vehicles into your fleet on a daily basis when needed, with an unlimited number of deliveries, collections and services per job. Journeys can also be assigned to purchase orders, enabling you to incorporate collections and returns into the driver schedule of items you have rented or bought. The new route planner is also able to link with many vehicle tracking units, so you can see the locations of your vehicles on the map within the HireHop route planner. HireHop ha
World - Over 1,200 people representing more than 60 countries around the world have already registered for ETC’s 2022 CUE conference. The 24-hour event is slotted for 17 February and starts in Asia at 11:00am HKT with a keynote address from ETC’s vice-president of marketing David Lincecum. This is followed by the European sessions, which will take place from 10:00am to 5:00pm GMT. ETC staff and other industry experts follow with a series of sessions over the course of the day in multiple time zones and multiple languages including French, German and Russian. The conference wraps up in North America at 5:00pm CST. The agenda will cover the topics impacting the live events industry. Session topics include product technology, building theat
France - Organisers of Showlight have announced that plans are underway to reinstate Showlight 2023 which, after a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now scheduled to take place between 20-23 May 2023. The venue for this much-loved lighting quadrennial will be the Théâtre Municipal in Fontainebleau, near Paris, France, the original destination for the postponed 2021 event. “The Showlight committee is now planning for the next live Showlight in May 2023 and we hope this time nothing will de-rail it!” says Showlight chairman, John Allen. “We are delighted to have the continued support of our main sponsor, Robert Juliat, along with many of the sponsors who were already supporting Showlight 2021. Fontainebleau’s local administration has, once again, made the Théâtre Municipal available for us - right in the centre of the town - and, as a result, t
UK - PLASA and #WeMakeEvents have published a detailed global survey report on the current position and future recovery of the live events industry. The survey ran from 1 November to 21 December 2021 and was completed by 1,948 respondents in over 40 countries in five different languages. “The data provides strong and clear evidence of the challenges currently facing the sector, with the vast majority currently reporting delays, shortages and cost increases,” say the organisations. The outlook is mixed, with the majority of respondents lacking confidence in industry recovery within the next six months. This is even more startling considering the survey was conducted before the omicron variant threatened the lucrative winter holiday season. However, there is cautious optimism from seven to 18 months, which mirrors the progress made when the live events industry re-o
UK - Production services company Full Production has appointed a new director of live events and touring. Marc Thornton steps into the role after several years as lighting director and programmer for artists including Foals, Charli XCX and Goldfrapp. He will be overseeing the live events and music arm of the business. Marc is a BRIT school graduate who began working alongside Full Production MD Steve Richardson early on in his career, whilst they were both working at White Light. Marc worked with Full Production as part of a successful freelance career for the past eight years, before joining the company on a temporary contract in February 2021. He played an integral part in some of Full Production’s biggest projects of 2021, including the Warwick Castle Sundown Spectacular. “I’m delighted to be coming on board full time with the team at Full Production,” adds
USA - The 2022 New World Rigging Symposium, taking place virtually on 5-7 April, will bring together professional riggers, engineers, manufacturers, venue managers, educators and students to further their rigging knowledge, hear about challenging projects, get up to speed on new technologies, discuss current industry challenges, and get their questions answered. The session line-up features an array of subject matter experts sharing their knowledge on: Rope 201, Load Monitoring Systems: Know Your Limits, Rope Access in Entertainment: Training and Usage, Performer Flying Case Study: It Happened at Wembley, Hosting Road Shows at a University, What the Engineers Want You to Know, Touring Overseas: Getting Your Ducks in a Row, Rigging Challenges: Infrastructure Case Studies, Women Riggers of ETCP and Intro to Mental Health First Aid. The three-day symposium will also inclu
UK - Outdoor Digital Productions (ODP), a collaborative enterprise between ADI, JA Productions and Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS), has been chosen to deliver the official Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival Live Sites. ODP aims to transform multiple city locations from large capacity venues, such as Smithfield, to civic and community green spaces, into accessible hubs for cultural placemaking and collective celebration during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Live Sites will include showpiece creative staging, participatory activations and live arts performances with a focus on locality and sustainability. Emily Muirhead, Live Sites project manager at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, commented, “We’re excited to have the Outdoor Digital Productions team on-board to facilitate our Live Sites during a momentous occasion for Birmingham and the surrou
Europe - After consultation with the ISE exhibitor and visitor community and in the light of the increasing impact of the Omicron variant in Spain, Integrated Systems Events has announced that ISE 2022, scheduled for 1-4 February, has been postponed and will now take place on 10-13 May 2022 at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Vía. Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, says: “We’ve been closely monitoring the conditions in Europe and have been working hard on your behalf to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and in-person interaction. It’s been a challenging time for so many over the past two years, and whilst we cannot wait to meet up with everyone at ISE 2022, listening to our exhibitors, owners and stakeholders, we have agreed the best course of action is to postpone the show edition for three months. “By moving
UK - The Back Lounge founder and Tour Production Group (TPG) facilitator, tour manager Suzi Green, is spearheading a new series of free workshops for the live music industry. Following the strong response to the Resilience Workshops in summer 2021, Green is combining the core principle areas of the TPG - sustainability, mental health and diversity - for a three-part, community-focused series. Green, whose clients include Placebo, PJ Harvey and Katie Melua, is passionate about both personal and wider industry wellbeing, having founded mental welfare digital support group The Back Lounge during the pandemic, as well as taking on a facilitator role with the TPG, a UK-based and internationally attended association of live music touring professionals. With 2022 likely to see an upscaled return to work, she believes now is the time for meaningful education that can b
UK - With government advice putting the decision-making onto the shoulders of the public and consumer confidence eroding as a consequence, the live events sector is stressed to the limit, says industry organisation #WeMakeEvents (WME). Despite a devastating 2020 and a challenging 2021, businesses in the industry have worked hard to exceed revenues last recorded in November 2019 by the same month in 2021. But, says WME, the current climate has already eroded this by 80% during December 2021 and is forecast to continue through January. From the UK’s first lockdown in Spring 2020 until summer 2021, companies in this sector only received around 12% of the Cultural Recovery Fund (CRF) awards whilst many of the freelance technical specialists who work in the industry are still catching-up on their finances, having had no work for over a year. WME says in a statement:
Spain - ISE has announced details of its 2022 programme of conferences, education offerings from AVIXA and CEDIA, and show floor stages and networking lounges. Seven conferences will target key vertical markets served by the pro AV industry. Topics that will be covered include creating safe, sustainable, smart buildings; re-shaping the workplace; the new agenda in digital signage and exploring the strategies, learning models and trends that are driving the deployment of digital learning technologies in universities, schools, corporate bodies and training facilities. Presented in Spanish, the AV Experience Zone produced by AVIXA will showcase AV projects and present customer testimonials from experienced professionals in the sector. The showcase will be of interest to end-users from major vertical markets, professional technicians, and includes sessions for students acr
UK - #WeMakeEvents is calling on central government and local authorities to urgently provide sector-specific support for the UK live events industry in light of the omicron variant. Since the UK’s emergence from lockdown in July, the events sector has made great progress, says the campaign. “Whilst it was not plain sailing nor 100% recovered, theatres, gigs and events proved their resilience, and many were looking forward to the boost of the traditionally strong December trading when most generate around a third of annual revenues.” #WeMakeEvents states: “We are seeing countless theatre productions and concerts cancelling due to staff sickness and absence, and tours are being postponed, curtailed, or delayed as once again the risks are too great, the uncertainty is devastating. In addition, the government mixed messaging has meant consumer confidence has crash
USA - Registration is now open for the 2022 New World Rigging Symposium, which will take place online on 5-7 April 2022. Produced by ESTA and USITT, the NWRS brings together professional riggers, engineers, manufacturers, venue managers, educators and students to further their rigging knowledge, hear about challenging projects, get up to speed on new technologies, discuss current industry challenges, and get their questions answered by a host of subject matter experts. The NWRS also offers valuable information to those working in other areas of the industry who want to further their knowledge of rigging. The three-day symposium will also include breakout rooms where attendees can get in-depth information from our sponsors as well as virtual networking opportunities with attendees and presenters. The event will carry ETCP education renewal credits for re-certification.
Europe - Creating a sonic environment that can have a positive influence on customer spend and repeat business will be the subject of a free webinar organised by Yamaha this week. Taking place on Tuesday, 14 December at 2pm GMT (1pm CET), the session will look at how to set up effective audio systems for commercial and public spaces using the company's Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) range. Scott Coltham, UK application specialist and Reece Stead, business development manager, will present the hour-long Zoom webinar which delivers a high-level overview of the CIS range, including speakers, amplifiers, matrix processors, control interfaces and microphone systems. Aimed at consultants, systems integrators, sound designers and anyone with a passion for professional audio solutions in the corporate, education and entertainment sectors, the webinar will use demo
Gremany - Prolight + Sound 2022 will offer ‘a new, interactive experience zone for companies and visitors from the fields of audio production, DJing and digital live performance’. From 26-29 April 2022, the Performance + Production Hub will feature product presentations, demos, live performances and workshops with artists and experts from well-known brands. There will also be live visual showcases. The area is being created in cooperation with the makers of the Sample Music Festival. “With extensive new offerings, we are strengthening the audio section as a mainstay of Prolight + Sound,” says Mira Wölfel, director Prolight + Sound. “We are thus underlining our commitment to making the event a hotspot for sound professionals from all fields of application: from live sound reinforcement to recording, mixing, mastering and DJing. “The premiere of the Pe
UK - Ross Robertson has joined Arena UK MEA as managing director of the structures division, based in Arena’s St Ives headquarters. Arena chief operating officer EMEA Tom Evans comments: “Arena Group is taking on a new look as we bounce back from the pandemic, and I am sure that Ross is the right person to steer the structures division, bringing great experience to achieve ambitious expansion beyond our core events sector. “Arena’s structures division is gearing up for an incredibly busy 2022 across a wide range of events, and we are investing in our team to support our project directors, managers and site crews’ delivery of amazing events on behalf of clients.” Arena’s structures team is already well underway with the build for Europe’s largest temporary triple-decker hospitality structure for the 2022 Cheltenham Festival and next year will also
