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Israel - MSolutions has announced the immediate availability of its IP Network Analyser software introduced at ISE 2020 in February. Available for use on its MS-TestPro portable test device, the specialised, secure software gives integrators an affordable toolset to test AV signal integrity and performance over IP networks.
The MS-TestPro is one of the first HDBaseT testers to integrate AV over IP test capabilities, eliminating the need for an expensive standalone network tester. The initial software release is compatible with Cisco network switches and is activated upon connectin

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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 - After weeks of relentless campaigning, the British arts sector has been promised a coronavirus bailout worth £1.57bn.

The funding was announced late on Sunday evening, with the UK government stating it represents “the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture”.

The package includes:
- £1.15bn support pot for cultural organisations in England, comprising £880m grants and £270m loans;
- £100m of targeted support for the national cultural institutions in England and the English Heritage Trust;
- £120m capital investment to res

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UK/USA -Media serving and pixel management specialist, 7thSense Design, has appointed Eric Nolfo as project manager as the company expands its North America operations to the West Coast.
Eric’s twenty-year career in the entertainment industry has seen him work in a wide range of project management and technical direction positions, including most recently with The Producers Group as technical coordinator for Bollywood Parks Dabangg Stunt Show and Motiongate Theatre’s Step Up Dubai
Matt Barton, CEO, 7thSense Design comments: “We are excited to be expanding our global op

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UK - Artists including Sir Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Cure, Radiohead, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Annie Lennox, PJ Harvey, The 1975 and Blur are among the names demanding immediate action to save live music in the UK by signing an open letter to the UK government's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden. The move is a bid to “show the vital importance of the UK’s live music industry, ensure the Government cannot ignore live music and make noise to get the public and financial support the industry needs to survive”.

The full lette

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Brit Awards - Next year's Brit Awards have been pushed back by three months to May, to have a better chance of staging a full live ceremony featuring live performances. The 41st edition of the music awards show was due to take place in February at London's O2 Arena. But uncertainty around the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the music industry to delay it.
Organisers said they want “outstanding production levels, superstar performances and live excitement”. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of The Brits and industry body the BPI, said: "We believe that the best way to achiev

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USA - The 2020 Behind the Scenes holiday cards are on sale now at the BTS Boutique.
This year, BTS is offering new file formats and customisation options for the electronic cards and an expanded array of price points starting at $20. These join the printed card packs of 10 with a standard greeting and personalised cards with a company logo and custom message.
Six new designs are featured this year. Robert Mark Morgan and Lynn Muniz join returnees David Gallo and Robert Mendoza, and Scenic Art Studios has contributed designs by Michalyn Monson and Angelina Vyushkova.

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Operatic Moves - Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex is planning to present live opera outdoors in August, seven weeks on from cancelling its entire summer season. Mesdames de la Halle (1858), Jacques Offenbach's one-act opera about vegetable sellers in Paris, will be staged with 12 singers but no chorus. Props and costumes will come from past operas, while the number of musicians will be reduced from 40 to 13. The audience will be limited to 200 people, with tickets costing £100 each.
Audience members will be seated outside in accordance with social distancing guideli

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Coachella Cancelled - The Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals have been cancelled this year. Both events were meant to have taken place in California in April, and had been rescheduled for October. But health officials have said they are "not comfortable moving forward" - especially given how Coachella is one of the world's biggest music festivals, bringing half a million fans to an open-air site east of Los Angeles.
Cameron Kaiser, who signed the order cancelling the festivals for 2020, said: "I am concerned as indications grow that COVID-19 could worsen in the fall. Given t

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UK - Le Mark has released a rolling screen suitable for protection against sneeze and cough particles suitable for enclosed spaces, such as rehearsal studios.
Originally designed for hairdressers and beauty salons that require a simple, clear screen that could be regularly sanitised yet remain as unrestrictive as possible, the vinyl screen has lockable castor wheels and a metal frame and measures 122.5cm wide by 188.5cm high. (4ft x 6ft 2). It is available for purchase

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Arts Sector Exposed - A cut in public funding has left the arts sector more exposed to the threat of COVID-19, new figures suggest. The latest Arts Index, published annually, showed public investment in arts per head of the population fell by 35% in the last decade. However, earned income by arts organisations from things like box office ticket sales increased by 47%.
The Arts Index is published by The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA), and acts as a snapshot report of the health of England's arts and culture. It is published in partnership with the Creative Industries F

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South Africa - Due to the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa all events and large gatherings have been put on hold. As a result, Theo Rood from MJ Event Gear is taking on extra work as a forklift driver and warehouse manager for Viral Armour Sanitiser based in Johannesburg. Viral Armour Sanitiser is also now also available for purchase at DWR Distribution.
“I was very fortunate as a good friend of mine owns Mad Giant Brewery, the makers of my favourite craft beer,” Theo explains. “I have been a fan of their product for a few years.” With a ban on alcohol sales in South Afri

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Blackout Tuesday - The music industry is calling for a ‘Blackout Tuesday’ in response to George Floyd's death. Major record labels have shared a message on social media promising "a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community". Employees have been given Tuesday off as "a day of action", intended to "provoke accountability and change". Interscope vowed not to release new music this week, while Apple Music's Ebro Darden cancelled his radio shows.
"We stand together with the black community against all forms of racism, bigotry, and violence," said Columbia Record

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USA - A theatre lighting designer has launched a podcast to explore what it takes to financially sustain a career in the arts.
The Artistic Finance podcast is the brainchild of New York City-based LD and producer Ethan Steimel, who speaks to workers in the entertainment field on how they deal with their personal finances, addressing questions such as why some practitioners do well whilst others never break through to financial security.
“Our first interview is with Tony-award winning theatrical lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski,” says Steimel. “We learn how he came

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Australia - Exertis ProAV Australia has announced that it has been appointed to distribute the Airtame wireless screen sharing and collaboration platform in Australia and New Zealand.
“Airtame’s wireless screen sharing and Digital Signage platform creates a better environment for learning, sharing and creating together,” Exertis ProAV Australia president & CEO Kevin Kelly says. “The addition of Airtame to our portfolio of offerings means that resellers will have an innovative new communications and collaboration solution to offer their business and education customers.

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Royal Patronage - The Prince of Wales has raised concerns about how orchestras and theatres will survive the coronavirus crisis. He said it was important to “find a way of keeping these orchestras and other arts bodies going”. The prince, who is patron of dozens of arts institutions, noted they were of “enormous importance” to the economy. “It's absolutely crucial that they can come back twice as enthusiastic as before,” he said in an interview with Classic FM.
The heads of the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and the Southbank Centre have all warned they ar

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UK - Philip French of UK technical production company Peachy Productions has just relocated to Wiltshire after being based in Guildford, Surrey for eight years.
But during the coronavirus crisis, he is making the journey back twice a week to volunteer for the Surrey Drive Campaign.
This is a locally-based crowd-funded initiative that delivers around 2,500 cooked meals - with locally sourced ingredients - each week for hardworking staff at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust hospital.
The Surrey Drive Campaign includes some of Surrey’s live event experts. After seei

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UK - Record industry charity the BRIT Trust has announced a donation of £30,000 to Music Support, the peer-led music industry charity that provides confidential mental health and addiction services.
The funding will help Music Support at a critical time when many people in the artist and music industry community are in urgent need of its help. It will also go towards Music Support’s ambition of giving 10,000 people access to Thrive, the NHS-approved mental health app.
Matt Thomas, chair of trustees of Music Support, comments: “We are hugely grateful to The BRIT Trust, t

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UK - During Mental Health Awareness Week, Unusual Rigging is urging its industry counterparts to consider what mental health in the workplace will look like in a COVID-adapted world.
As the entertainment industry has been knocked sideways by the global crisis, Tom Harper, managing director at Unusual Rigging believes the time is right to tackle the growing problem of work-related mental health problems head-on and to nip it in the bud rather than simply putting a sticky plaster on it.
MD Tom Harper comments: “If ever there was a time for it to be OK to not be OK, it’s no

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Global Warning - Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has called for urgent funding to avoid going out of business due to the "devastating" impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The London venue has been shut since 20 March and has warned MPs it is "critically vulnerable and at risk of closure in the wake of COVID-19". It said it would need at least £5m to get back up and running.
It was ineligible for Arts Council England's relief and said it had been "left without any emergency support". In evidence to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, the theatre said

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UK - AVIXA has elected Visual Displays founder and displays consultant, Greg Jeffreys, as new chair for its Standards Steering Committee, which advises the main board on issues relating to industry standards.
The Committee will provide recommendations for standards development within the context of AVIXA’s strategic plan, and approve completed standards before they are sent for American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ratification and subsequent publication.
As one of the committee’s founder members, Jeffreys had written the previously published projection best prac

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Glyndebourne Cancels - All remaining Glyndebourne Festival 2020 performances have been cancelled. This follows the earlier cancellation of Festival performances up to 14 July, as announced. Following Government advice, the Glyndebourne site remains closed.
Executive chairman Gus Christie states: “We maintained our optimism for as long as possible. Glyndebourne is a relatively small charity but with big ambitions, driven by the belief that opera can transform lives. The Festival receives no public subsidy and our financial independence means that we are reliant on ticket sales to

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South Africa - Carolyn Steyn, South African philanthropist, actress, founder of 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day and Classic FM1027 radio host personality, has donated R100,000 (around £4,400) to the Feed Our Crew initiative established to help theatre and entertainment crew and freelancers who most need assistance.
As an accomplished actress, Carolyn was concerned about the welfare of the theatre crew, especially after the lock-down in South Africa was extended. The entertainment business has

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Missouri Breaks - Missouri is the first US state to resume live events. The latest measure was included in Gov. Mike Parson’s Show Me Strong recovery plan, which also outlines how the state’s economy will begin reopening this week, Billboard reports. Large events and gatherings are no longer forbidden; residents will be able to attend concerts and go to movie theatres and stadiums, where “seating shall be spaced out according to social distancing requirements”.
A Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services rep explained that concerts don’t have to fol
  1. Le Mark Group introduces Social Distancing range
  2. Music Support hosts 12-step support groups online
  3. Doughty makes headlines at FT-TV with Projects Department
  4. The Week in Light & Sound
  5. COVID-19: Small firms to get 100% state-backed loans
  6. PASMA launches resource library
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