Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024
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UK - The widely respected PLASA Awards for Innovation are now open for entries, for any product released since PLASA Show 2022. The awards are open to all, including PLASA Show 2023 exhibitors, PLASA members, and non-member non-exhibitors. And this year, early bird entries can save 20% off the entry fee if they submit their application by midnight on Monday 7 August.

Organised in association with LSi, PLASA’s market-leading magazine, the awards celebrate innovative products from across the live entertainment technology industry that demonstrate a new style of thinking, im

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Renewable Energy - Glastonbury Festival will be run entirely by renewable energy this year. All production areas will either be powered by electricity from "fossil fuel-free sources" or will run on solar panels and battery hybrid systems. Generators will run on fuel made from waste cooking oil and Arcadia's giant fire-breathing spider will also run entirely off recycled biofuels.
Organisers said "sustainability has always been at the heart" of the festival. In 2010, the festival's cowsheds were covered with enough solar panels to power 40 homes, making it the largest privately own
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Turkey - Show architects Black Skull Creative and Balich Wonder Studios collaborated to present Pepsi’s 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show on 10 June in Istanbul.
Brazilian pop sensation Anitta and Grammy award-winning Nigerian superstar Burna Boy and special guest multi-platinum DJ and producer Alesso featured in the show.
Black Skull’s Jay Revell comments: "With The 2023 UEFA Champions League Final Kick Off Show by Pepsi, we wanted to showcase the immense power of football to unite diverse fans and cultures. Istanbul, a symbol of global cultures, serves as

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians’ Annual Awards took place on Wednesday evening, 7 June, after the first day of the 2023 ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London. This year, the awards were again generously supported by TAIT.
Ted Moore, director of rental services, said of the Awards: “TAIT is really proud to be here once again to sponsor the ABTT Awards Presentation, one of the best globally in our industry. We wish all the nominees good luck and give congratulations to whoever the winners may be.”
The five highly sought after Awards for Light

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Saudi Arabia - EFM Global has opened a 43,000sq ft warehouse in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (KSA), further highlighting its commitment to the region. Strategically located, the traditional, base level structure is designed to support growth for existing and for new customers.
In the Middle East since 2008, EFM has provided for tours, festivals, film, international sports, exhibitions and much more - Kendrick Lamar, MDLBEAST Soundstorm, Desert Warrior, the Dubai World Cup closing ceremony and the Amakin Exhibition being a handful of recent projects.
The size and scale of its Riyadh

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Artificial Intelligence - Sir Paul McCartney says he has employed artificial intelligence to help create what he calls "the final Beatles record". He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the technology had been used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could complete the song. "We just finished it up and it'll be released this year," he explained.
Sir Paul did not name the song, but it is likely to be a 1978 Lennon composition called Now And Then. It had already been considered as a possible "reunion song" for the Beatles in 1995, as they were comp

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Song Tracking - The music industry has committed to improving metadata for tracking songs on music streaming platforms, following widespread criticism from artists. The writers, performers and producers of songs will now be consistently identified. These creators say they do not receive their fair share of royalties when tracks are played on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. It comes as the government launches a group to look into these concerns.
Sir John Whittingdale, minister for the creative industries, said the move would help the UK to "offer viable career o

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South Africa - Elation Professional's exclusive sales partner in South Africa, The Production Warehouse, took to the road in mid-May to show first-hand to customers an array of its latest lighting products including luminaires from Elation’s popular Proteus, Fuze, and KL series.
While theatre, rental house and broadcast clients took the opportunity to demo products, the tour, which visited Johannesburg 15-16 May and Cape Town 18-19 May, was a chance for the AV distribution company to renew relationships post-pandemic.
Marnus Nieuwoudt, owner of The Production Warehouse, s

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UK - The ABTT’s first Make A Difference conference took place at the Albany Theatre on Friday 21 April, 2023, and the association has now announced the release of the conference’s full report.
70 industry delegates from across the country and a range of companies, venues, organisations and institutions were in attendance to discuss the industry’s current recruitment and retention challenges. The report outlines the issues which were discussed and the actions that were suggested. It also reports on some things that have already happened as a result of the conference day.

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UK - The ABTT is inviting people to sign up and participate in its Work Life Challenge initiative. It’s a challenge designed to “encourage us to prioritise time for activities that allow us to wind down from the stresses and strains of our working life, while also providing a focus and incentive for raising money for our much-loved industry charities: Backup Tech, The Theatrical Guild and Stagehand”.
The aim of the challenge is to encourage us to consider and promote a better attitude towards achieving a healthy balance between our work and other “life” activities that h

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UK - This year, Black Skull Creative, in collaboration with its sister company Black Skull Studio and Marvin Dietmann, was entrusted with the task of creating nine distinct country performances for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.
From content design and choreography to production design and stage direction, Black Skull Creative covered all aspects of creative direction and production from ideation to completion.
"As the co-creative director of nine Eurovision countries, overseeing such a massive task was undeniably challenging,” says Ross Nicholson of Bl

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Broadway Bounces Back - Broadway is making "a strong rebound", according to industry body the Broadway League, as it publishes figures that reveal 12.3m people attended shows in the first full year of data since the pandemic. This is 17% down on pre-pandemic levels. The Broadway League also said grosses for the 2022/23 season were $1.6bn and indicated that the figures compare favourably with pre-pandemic levels.
According to its data, the 2022/23 season included 1,474 playing weeks - the overall number of weeks of performance logged by all shows during the season - and 40 new prod

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UK/USA - In 2008, ETC became the first official supporter of Behind the Scenes. Ever since, it has been donating all proceeds of the company’s cutting-edge iRFR and aRFR apps, which are now split between the re-named UK charity Backup Tech, and continues its support of US-based charity, Behind the Scenes.
Cat Shepherd, marketing communications coordinator at ETC, explains why they are passionate about supporting Backup Tech. “As an industry, we always tend to push ourselves to the limit to make the show work or get it to the next venue on time, constantly solving problems, oft

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Fighting Fund - Equity has sent out a warning to theatre management that members are prepared to strike in order to secure better conditions, revealing the union now has a £1m fund to support workers taking part in industrial action. Addressing members at this year’s Equity conference, general secretary Paul W Fleming said not listening to the union would have a "serious consequence".
In his speech, Fleming listed the recent successes of the union, including securing a new pantomime agreement, and claimed "pay has risen in real terms every decade on the West End for ove

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UK - This week sees the first episode of Backstage with Backup, a new series of podcasts designed to let you know a bit more about Backup Tech by talking to the people behind the charity, the industry friends it works with, and those who have benefitted from its support.
Backup Tech is a UK registered charity that provides financial and wellbeing support to technical professionals, crew and production personnel and anyone working in the technical supply chain across the UK entertainment industry.
In this first episode, Sarah James (Press & PR for Backup) talks to

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USA - Brant Underwood has joined Theatre Projects’ New York office as associate principal. “Viewing industry consultants from the outside, I always knew TP was at the top of my list if I ever made the leap,” shares Brant.
Brant joins Theatre Projects from the world of fabrication, automation, technical direction, visual arts, scenic construction, and experiential design, where he held a broad resume, moving from union stagehand at various New York venues to lead project manager at Hudson Scenic Studios in a relatively short period of time (and with ample detours along the wa

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UK - HireTrack NX has announced the release of its Enhanced Crewing feature. The feature provides a streamlined, integrated approach to managing crew across multiple jobs, eliminating the need for multiple systems and increasing efficiency and control.
The Enhanced Crewing feature offers a spreadsheet-like editor for managing shifts, detailed breakdowns of crew pay, charges, expenses, and accommodation options. A global editor allows for booking across multiple jobs, and a calendar-style display is also included.
Customers, including TSL and Pearce Hire, have already praised

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Business Boost - Liverpool businesses have described "footfall like Christmas" thanks to an estimated influx of 500,000 visitors during Eurovision events in the city. Hotels, restaurants and shops enjoyed a huge boost as Liverpool hosted what city region mayor said was the "most successful Eurovision Song Contest".
Sweden's Loreen won the honours in the grand final on Saturday. But Liverpool is also a winner with up to £250m in economic benefits over the next two years, Steve Rotheram said. Up to 500,000 extra visitors flocked to the city during the EuroFestival bet

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Armed Presence - Drones will be restricted from flying above Liverpool during Eurovision, as police in Merseyside prepare for their biggest ever operation. Merseyside Police said restrictions affecting drones would be in place from 23:00 BST until 14 May, the day after the competition final. A "visible armed presence" was also expected as about 100,000 extra visitors are set to travel to the city.
Liverpool is preparing to host the UK's first Eurovision Song Contest for more than 20 years. Two semi-finals and a final will take place at the M&S Bank Arena between 9 and 13 May.

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Training Network - Guildhall School of Music and Drama is to roll-out a national training network in performance and production for children and young people, as it looks to "broaden the country’s talent pipeline". The Guildhall Young Artists network incorporates five existing centres across England, plus an online centre for remote study, and offers a range of one-to-one training, group lessons and holiday courses in both music and drama.
The network includes the Centre for Young Musicians in Waterloo, Junior Guildhall at the Barbican, plus centres in King’s Cross, Nor

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Royal Visit - King Charles III will officially turn the lights on to reveal what the Eurovision Song Contest stage will look like, Buckingham Palace has announced. The King - along with Camilla, the Queen Consort - will tour Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena on Wednesday ahead of it hosting the event next month. As well as revealing the stage set-up they will meet show presenters and Mae Muller, who is representing the UK.
The stage design is intended to give the impression of the contest "opening its arms to Ukraine", organisers have previously said. The Royal couple will meet the

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) has announced the latest addition to its annual ABTT Awards, the ABTT Award for Environmental Sustainability.
The award will be presented to someone who over the past 12 months has made a significant contribution to furthering environmental sustainability within the theatre industry.
The award will sit alongside the established ABTT Technician of the Year Award and Award for Emerging Excellence which recognise the achievements of individuals both starting out and well-established in their backstage careers.
Th

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Final Curtain - Andrew Lloyd Webber has warned that the days of original shows opening on Broadway "ended long ago", with the composer calling on the industry to work together to secure a future for new work in New York’s theatre district. The composer, writing in the New York Times as his musical The Phantom of the Opera played its final performance on Broadway after 35 years, warned that the costs of running musicals in New York were so high that it was forcing producers to find shows with "small casts and minimal sets" and leading to an increase in jukebox musicals.

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UK - Kartfest 2023 is all set to be the biggest and the best Backup has ever held. Taking place on 6 July, the event will see 34 teams of expert industry racers, as well as a few novices thrown in for good measure and laughs, all driving towards becoming winners of the coveted championship title. There will be tweed and flowery dresses galore, and a host of stalls to keep non-racers amused throughout the day at the first ever Kart-Fest Village Fete.
None of this would be possible without the generosity of the Kartfest sponsors. For this year’s event, Chauvet Professional once a
  1. The Week in Light & Sound
  2. The Week in Light & Sound
  3. EFM celebrates 15 years in the Middle East
  4. Crosstown Concerts refreshes promoter team
  5. The Week in Light & Sound
  6. Showforce promotes Becky Meers
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