When the global pandemic completely shut down the entertainment industry back in mid-March, Chris Brodman and Cody Lisle, the principals of Phoenix-based LIT Lighting, were faced with two choices: do nothing and simply wait, or hit the drawing board with their crew and make plans to adapt and retool. Quickly choosing the latter option, the Phoenix-based lighting company established LIT Live, a series of live streamed concerts that has allowed its staff and clients to continue doing what they love in an environment that is in compliance with current safety protocols.
 

It was clear from the beginning of discussions with Executive Producer, Greg Fera, that 2020 Latin Grammy 2020 premiere needed to be reimagined to work with-in the confines of the COVID world. This posed a new set of design challenges for Production Designer, Matt Russell, who has designed 34 shows for the Recording Academy and Latin Recording Academy over the past 10 years.. It was not going to be realistic to build physical scenery in an arena and bring all of the nominees together in one place to celebrate as in past years so a virtual production model was embraced. The goal was to create a cohesive visual space that wraps around and embraces all of the nominees gathered virtually with physical hosts and presenters to honor their work.

Signaling the start of its around-the-clock festive music broadcast, iHeartMedia New York’s 106.7 LITE FM marked its “Flip to Christmas” in the New York City skies with a dynamic, animated aerial light show from Verge Aero, the leader in drone show technology. The pre-recorded live stream aired at litefm.com on November 13 from 7pm-8pm.
 

For the last few months, social media and the internet worldwide has been alight with The "Jerusalema" Dance Challenge – a TikTok challenge that originated in Angola and went viral after lockdown – with people sharing funny and uplifting videos of themselves dancing a series of moves often performed at African weddings to the hit song ‘Jerusalema’ by South African DJ & music producer Master KG, featuring the voice of songstress Nomcebo Zikode.

Lighting designer, Tom Kenny chose Ayrton Khamsin-S profiles as key lights in his design for this year’s iHeartCountry Festival, presented by Capital One, which was live streamed globally and broadcast on iHeartMedia’s country radio stations on 23 October. Bandit Lites supplied 24 of Ayrton’s Khamsin-S fixtures for this 7th annual celebration of country music which was rescheduled from its original slot in May at the Frank Erwin Centre in Austin, Texas, and relocated to The Steel Mill in Nashville, Tennessee.
 

When US President-elect Joe Biden delivered his long-awaited victory speech in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware on the evening of Saturday, November 7th, the exuberant celebrations culminated with a spectacular drone and pyrotechnic show from Strictly FX. “The creative on this originated with executive producer Ricky Kirshner, of Kirshner Events, who has been the nexus of all the work we’ve done with the DNC,” notes Ted Maccabee, CEO of Strictly FX.

Germany has been noticeably proactive in its quest to stage Covid-compliant live shows and events to attempt to get some of the industry moving again and people used to going out and about. One of these was the Berlin Waldbühne “Back to Live” Concerts, a socially distanced event concept running throughout September at the city’s famous open-air venue organised by promoter Semmel Concerts Entertainment GmbH. Berlin-based full production service specialist TSE was asked by the venue management team, CTS Eventim AG, to supply a flexible festival-style production lighting and video rig complete with visual design that would work for a wide range of performing artists. Lighting for this was specified by TSE’s Ronny Rud Reinhold and included Robe BMFL WashBeams, MegaPointes and Spiider moving lights among other luminaires.

Martin Audio's German rental partner, Kotsch-Showtechnik from Nessetal near Gotha, recently supplied a high-quality sound reinforcement solution for the faithful reproduction of classical music at the Schlosshofkonzert 2020.

First Option has underlined its position as the largest, most experienced safety consultants in the media and entertainment industry with the launch of its events-specific course for touring, festival and live event production professionals and key decision makers. To assist the events sector during the second lockdown and pre-vaccine period, First Option’s new Event COVID-19 Supervisor / Compliance Officer Advanced Level Training has been adapted from its highly successful TV and broadcast course to equip any crew able to work intermittently.

With its open-air amphitheater built into the surrounding sandstone, Red Rocks is one of live music’s more iconic venues. From September 24-27, the fabled venue west of Denver was the scene of four glorious nights of in-person and live-streaming music experiences. Red Rocks partnered with video streaming service Nugs.net to cap the summer off in style with local Colorado production house Brown Note Productions providing a full Elation IP-rated rig for the limited capacity 4-night run.

Brown Note Productions deploys K2 system for outdoor concert trek featuring Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna, the voices of Staind and Godsmack
 

The eighth edition of the Wings for Life World Run will definitely take place in 2021 with registration open for the May 9 event on November 17 at the official website.
 

In November 2020, the 3rd China International Import Expo was held as scheduled and closed successfully. In the live broadcasting of the CIIE this year, besides some popular technologies such as AR and VR, a new face appeared in the news anchor team-SHEN XIAOYA a virtual two-dimensional anchor that created by SMT through technological innovation. As the country's first two-dimensional virtual news anchor, SHEN XIAOYA has completed her debut on the big screen of the China International Import Expo. To ensure the live broadcasting of the CIIE, SMT enters the venue in advance for technical preparation and testing.

Music has a way of uniting people, so as the Golden Melody Awards (GMA) geared up for its annual ceremony, it opted to turn the production volume up a notch this year. The annual event celebrates top musical talent across Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, and is shared with audiences across these regions live via traditional broadcast, over-the-top (OTT) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). Audiences tuning into the production via the Taiwan Television Channel, LINE TV, and MOD were treated to a surprise, a colorful augmented reality (AR) performance by Taiwanese Artist Hebe Tien courtesy of the production crew at Getop and a host of AJA Video equipment.

The Stage Awards celebrate the very best breakthrough talent in theatre, including actors, directors, designers, writers, composers and lyricists making their professional debuts in the past year, so works made after August 1^st 2019 were eligible and the competition was extremely stiff! For Rose, this particular journey started with another prize-winning opportunity. Last year, she won the biennial Linbury Prize for Stage Design which offers 12 emerging designers the chance to work with some of the UK’s leading theatre, opera, and dance companies. Newly graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff with an MA in Design For Performance (set & costume specialty), Rose applied for the Linbury Prize with her portfolio and as one of the 12 finalists, was linked up with Leeds Playhouse who gave her and two other designers a brief for “Dr Korczak’s Example”.