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Events

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USA - Two more ESTA draft standards are now available for public review until 21 September 2020.
BSR ES1.7 - 202x, Event Safety - Weather Preparedness addresses the considerations, development, and use of event planning strategies that mitigate weather-related risks associated with live events, and with the temporary structures used for these events.
BSR E1.4-2, Entertainment Technology - Statically Suspended Rigging Systems establishes minimum performance requirements, recommendations, and guidelines that can be used for installation, use, maintenance and ins

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USA - Live Design International (LDI) is the latest major industry event to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic. Questex, the parent company of LDI, has announced the event will be forced to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. LDI was originally scheduled to run 23-25 October 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The event has been rescheduled for 19-21 November 2021.
The organisers say in a statement: “We recognise the tremendous economic and emotional impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the global market, and we are committed to working with each
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UK - Edinburgh International Festival has unveiled My Light Shines On, a series of video works and light installations across Scotland’s capital to mark the beginning of the festival season and celebrate the enduring spirit of the Festival City.
Through a series of digital commissions, the Edinburgh International Festival is partnering with Scottish artists and national arts companies, spanning the worlds of theatre, music and dance, to film original performances in venues including the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, The King’s Theatre, Leith Theatre, The Hub, Usher Hall a

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France - Once again BroaMan and Optocore network devices were deployed to maximum effect at this year’s Grand Concert de Paris spectacular.
The event coincides with France’s National Day (on July 14). And having scaled new heights last year with the solutions and I/O capacity provided by the two German partner brands - creating an immersive environment for Radio France, with 152 Optocore preamps and MUX22 IVT / MADI connectivity - this year technology contractors GB4D went even further. Working once again for Radio France, they set up an elaborate optical broadcast network top

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UK - The #WeMakeEvents campaign has progressed into the ‘Red Alert’ phase, with planned activities set to take place across London and other major cities in the UK on the evening of 11 August.
The initiative will raise the alarm for the live events and entertainment sector, which has been badly-hit by the pandemic, resulting in countless event cancellations.
The campaign reports that the disruption of the summer season alone has affected over 600,000+ jobs in outdoor events. Meanwhile,

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Europe - Professionals from across the global concert touring industry have joined forces to form the PSA Tour Production Group (PSA TPG) in order to provide a unified response to the impact of COVID-19 on live music events.
The body is a new arm of the Production Services Association (PSA) and includes tour managers, production managers, safety professionals, venue and festival managers, travel and logistics specialists, promoters, and industry suppliers.

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USA - Audi Presents: Summer Drive-In Concert, which was held in appreciation of Los Angeles' frontline and essential workers, was the first time the R&B artist Kehlani performed songs from her album It Was Good Until It Wasn't, which she released mid-shutdown on 8 May.
The 100-person crowd watched the show at Calamigos Ranch nestled in the hills of Malibu, California from vehicles that had been provided for the concert.
The show was also an experiment in live music and larger events in the coronavirus era, with masks required and cars spaced six feet apart.

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UK - Arts organisations can now apply for a portion of the government’s £1.57bn relief fund.
Up to £622m in grants will be made available during this first phase of the programme, including a £2.25m pot for grassroot music venues announced earlier this month.
Arts Council England will allocate £500m, with handouts of between £50,000 and £3m available for cultural organisations based in England, such as theatres, music and comedy venues and museums.
The rest of the money will be distributed by

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UK - Powerful Thinking, the outdoor events sustainable energy working group, has restructured to provide specialist sustainable energy advice to live events, appointing a new chair and project lead Tim Benson, heading up a new-look board, within the Vision: 2025 sustainable events knowledge hub, July 2020.
Powerful Thinking is a not-for-profit working group, whose mission is to provide the outdoor events industry with inspiration, resources and technical support to enable a transition from carbon intensive temporary power provision to lower impact solutions.
Tim Benson state

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Europe - Merging Technologies has supported the AES Student Recording Competition for many years, both at the European and US Conventions, by donating a prize of a Pyramix Native licence to the top student in the appropriate category.
The situation was rather different this year with the Vienna Convention being virtual; no Merging employee could present the prize. Nevertheless, the competition went ahead as normal and produced an excellent result for a student from the Detmold Hochschule für Musik. Kseniya Kawko was awarded the Gold Award in the Traditional Acoustic Category for

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UK - Leading trade bodies and businesses are joining forces to issue a Red Alert and highlight the severe challenges faced by the live events industry and its entire supply chain due to the pandemic.
Planned for 11 August, the action will include social media and video drives as well as legal outdoor events, with other specific activities occurring on the day.
The initiative is part of the #WeMakeEvents campaign that aims to raise awareness of the sector’s struggles and

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Spain - Now in its eighth year, BIME Pro takes place on 26-28 October. Say the organisers, “BIME Pro will once again bring together the biggest names in the music industry to discuss the future of the sector and debate the issues it faces in light of over 800,000 concert cancellations globally in 2020.”
Under the hashtag #masceraquenunca (closer than ever) the event urges the industry to move forward together through these unprecedented and challenging times.
BIME Pro will be held this year in a new setting – downtown Bilbao – supported by “a digital ecosystem th

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UK - The Sustainability in Production Alliance (SiPA) is joining forces with the Association of British Technicians (ABTT) and The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), to stage a free webinar on 29 July (Wednesday), where a panel of experts will discuss how the industry can use the current hiatus to create a more sustainable approach to its work.
SiPA’s Carol Scott, principal advocate for sustainability at TAIT and SiPA, will be joined by a host of respected live production industry and environment leaders to discuss how we shape the future of touring and per

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UK - The entire events supply chain is at risk of collapse without further government support, PLASA has warned.
“Research has already shown that the majority of companies are running out of reserves fast with no prospect of work on the horizon,” the Association says in a statement. “It is only a matter of time before companies begin to fail and skilled individuals are lost to other sectors.”
It has been a devastating year for companies and freelancers across the industry, with the latest PLASA survey revealing that 70% of respondents lost all their revenue in the p

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South Africa - #LightSAred will kick off with a live interactive broadcast, Live, via the SACIA YouTube and SACIA social media platforms today, Monday, 20 July at 15:30.
The broadcast will officially launch the #LightSAred campaign and will be presented by Sharif Baker, Duncan Riley and Projeni Pather.
“For too long we have been the forgotten industry, but the fire has begun. Join friends and colleagues in the live entertainment industry as we stand in solidarity to make our voice heard,” say the organisers

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UK - Owing to the ongoing situation regarding COVID-19, the decision has been taken to postpone 2020’s BPM DJ show.
A statement from the organisers says, “Since the start of the Coronavirus outbreak the BPM team continued to monitor guidance and advice from the government whilst remaining optimistic that we would be able to safely deliver the BPM show this year, however unfortunately due to the restrictions that would need to be implemented, we felt that in the interest of safety to both our staff and the customers, it is best to postpone until such a time as its 100% safe and

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UK - Similar to other musicians who had found themselves restrained by the coronavirus lockdown, five-piece UK band Mamas Gun, widely known for their album Golden Days, was struggling to find a way for all band members to play together remotely without latency or other issues. A solution was found in the form of Tin Pan Studio, which allows remotely based musicians to jam, rehearse, create, record and perform music together over the internet in realtime. Thanks to this innovative technology, Mamas Gun was able to deliver a successful live stream concert as part of the global #Don

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USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has released preliminary details on the upcoming International Conference on Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality (AVAR), set to take place in its own online virtual venue on 17-19 August.
The event will serve as a hub of innovation for the latest research in the fields of spatial audio and technology for virtual, augmented and mixed reality, with a focus on technical solutions and recommended practices in the field.
“The necessity to take AVAR 2020 fully online is ideally suited to the Conference content,” says Matt Klassen,

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UK - Technical event production specialists Sparq, part of the Saville Group has invested in Hirehop rental software.
The company recently adopted Hirehop as the rental software of choice to facilitate the comprehensive management of equipment and critical production assets. Operating on a global scale, the Sparq team identified flexible and powerful software to manage their inventory, productions and day to day operations were required.
After researching numerous systems, Sparq concluded that HireHop was best suited to their needs, due to its extensive and flexible range o

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UK - As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact on the events industry, organiser of The Showman’s Show, Lance Show & Publications Limited, has announced that the 35th edition of the event will not go ahead as planned this October. The Showman’s Show will return to Newbury Showground in 2021 on 20-21 October.
Jeremy and Johnny Lance, co-directors of Lance Show & Publications Limited have issued the following statement: “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our wonderful industry we have taken the extremely difficult decision not to go ahead wit

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UK - The Connecting Culture 2020 virtual conference and expo aims to bring together museum and heritage professionals from around the world, for two days of networking, insight, and learning, on 9-10 of September.
Free to attend, at this event visitors will have the opportunity to hear from industry leaders from the world of museums, heritage, and culture, learn about relevant technological developments and partake in discussions regarding future operating procedures post COVID-19.
The Expo at Connecting Culture boasts over 20 exhibitors. Networking with exhibitors is made

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UK - Outdoor venues, including open-air theatre, opera and music venues, can reopen from 11 July and host socially-distanced performances, the culture secretary Oliver Dowden has announced this afternoon (9 July).
This will mean venues will be able to host performances for the first time in 115 days since they were forced to shut on 18 March.
"This is an important milestone for our performing arts, which have been waiting patiently since March," Dowden said. "We are taking various measures to make these places safe as they reopen. Venue capacity will be reduced and organisat

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UK - Last night (6 July), some of the UK’s most iconic venues and landmarks were lit up in ‘emergency red’ as part of the #LightItInRed campaign to draw attention to the critical condition of the live events and entertainment industry. A glimpse of hope was given to Britain’s arts industry on Sunday evening (5 July), as £1.57bn was pledged by the government – yet the supply chain behind the production of live events and festivals, including many freelancers, is still awaiting clarification as to what support they will be offered.

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UK - PLASA has responded to the UK government’s pledge of £1.57bn funding for the arts with the following statement from its MD, Peter Heath: “While PLASA is pleased to see the government deliver a generous rescue package to arts institutions across the UK, they have only addressed the tip of the iceberg. We hope that the government will announce further support for all the manufacturers, suppliers and freelancers who help make the UK a global leader in events.
“Theatres and venues are absolutely essential to the cultural fabric of the UK, however, they only represent the
  1. COVID-19: UK arts to receive £1.57bn
  2. PLASA Show postponed to 2021
  3. Brompton Technology shines at Innovation Days
  4. Robe helps Play It Forward with Oooth
  5. Warehouse Manifesto gig backs Music Support
  6. Huge response to PLASA’s #WeMakeEvents campaign
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