Starnacht (Star Night) is one of the more popular televised live music programs in German-speaking countries. Broadcast from Austria since 2000, the program has several editions and is known for its diverse mix of national and international artists who perform amid a festival-like atmosphere against majestic backdrops like the Giant Ferris Wheel in Vienna or the spectacular peaks of the Alps.
 

South African rental and technical production company Blond Productions invested in its first Astera products – Titan Tubes and AX3 Lightdrops – for the first series of reality dating show Love Island France. This was filmed earlier in the year at a luxury villa on the beautiful Lothian wine estate in Elgin Valley, on the banks of the Palmiet River – and with its own private lake – about an hour’s drive from Cape Town.

When the live music industry screeched to a halt March 13th due to COVID-19, Sidewalk Prophets, a Christian music band knew they still wanted to reach out to people with a message of love and positivity. Their tour was revamped for a virtual audience, and rather than stream one show, the band has twelve performances scheduled for free access, if you live within the region of the show, with different set lists played live.  
 

With the slogan “Autokultur – from Hannover for Hannover”, an unusual series of events is helping to keep the entertainment scene in Northern Germany buzzing. Every evening, up to a thousand vehicles converge on Hannover’s Schützenplatz fairground, where they tune in their UHF radios – just like in a drive-in cinema – to listen to exciting stage performances, from concerts to comedy. It’s all a welcome distraction from life during lockdown, and an optimistic ray of light in a time when typical live events have all been cancelled.

Lighting for comedy has its own special characteristics and lighting designer Marc Janowitz, who recently lit comedian Jimmy O. Yang’s debut stand-up comedy special on Amazon Prime – Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal – using Elation Rayzor 760™ and Fuze Z350™ LED wash lights, knows all about them. “In the concert industry you can end up with a thousand different ways to use a light in a single show but in comedy you work hard to come up with a perfect look that stays throughout the entire show and needs to look right from a multitude of camera angles.”
 

“I’ve had the pleasure and the honour of working with KLANG’s immersive mixing system in the last few months, as an in-ear monitor system for me and my band, and for two online shows as a PA for a broadcast,” says top Israeli artist Danny Robas, who experienced KLANG’s full potential at The Show Must Go On, a series of ground-breaking live streamed concerts. “It is a marvellous aid and it allows me to be focused on every note and each instrument separately, and to enjoy the show in a new and exciting way.”

Magdolna Ruzsa Band recently played two concerts at the Papp László Budapest Sportarena through a Martin Audio MLA award-winning PA, supplied by their Hungarian partner, BG Event.
 

Brainstorm, leading manufacturer of real-time 3D graphics, augmented reality and virtual studio solutions, and Mena, a Sports Services Provider and system integrator from Egypt and Kuwait, were involved in the live broadcast of the Opening Act of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Kuwait, providing augmented reality content and graphics.

Ralph Larmann, born in 1963, calls himself a performance photographer. His career began in the late 1980s and since then, he has photographed, among others, AC/DC, U2, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, Pink, Robert Plant, Prince, as well as Kaija Koo, Cheek and Sunrise Avenue.

Over the last two months, Stage Right Lighting of Virginia Beach has been hosting a 6 Feet Together livestream concert series that has put some much needed joy and optimism into the live event community. Stage Right’s final livestream concert will be held Saturday, June 6^th at 8:00 pm EDT and will feature Celtic-inspired rock band The Fighting Jamesons.

A star-studded line of music stars and artists performed during a protest concert in Charles Clore Park, Tel Aviv, titled “Behind The Scenes: An Assembly of Solidarity” to draw attention to the plight of freelancers, backstage technicians and all the zero-hours contract workers in the Israeli event industry whose livelihoods have been decimated as the music and live event industry has been paused in the fight to control Covid-19. This solidarity rally was initiated and produced by Tali Yaacobi Events Production and backed by Inbar and Marius Nacht – an Israeli entrepreneur, social activist, and philanthropist – who made a generous donation to all the crew working on the show.

One of the more pressing questions our industry has had throughout the COVID-19 pandemic is how can we safely present a staged event to a live audience. DRIVE.IN Concerts of Monheim, Germany has come up with one concept, a solution that allows music fans of the area to attend a live concert again.

In France, two of the country’s most popular game shows, Tout le monde veut prendre sa place and N'oubliez pas les paroles!, both broadcast on France 2, have been staples of French television for well over a decade. Over the years, Jean-Philippe Bourdon, one of France’s most renowned lighting designers and directors of photography, has handled lighting duties for the popular programs and has recently added Elation Fuze Profile™ moving heads to his lighting toolbox.  
 

Technology pioneers XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime American television when pop sensation Katy Perry performed her new single ‘Daisies’ on the season finale of American Idol. The project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the Production Vendor.
 

Aiming to help inspire the increasing number of people in lockdown turning to cooking and baking, AEG collaborated with video production company Monarki Stockholm and Scandinavian Photo to help produce a multicam live stream cook-along show. Broadcasting on the AEG Global Facebook account, the six episodes have amassed hundreds of thousands of views, with the most popular “Crispy fried chicken with star chef Sebastian Gilbrand” attracting more than 135,000 watchers.