As the live events sector wakes up from the nightmare of Covid, it seems to be greeting the new day with unexpected vigour.

“Covid devastated the live events market almost overnight,” says Glyn Harries, rental manager at Audio Visual Material. “We lost some good people, and longstanding clients who’d weathered previous crises went under. However, the industry is recovering better than we all thought. One thing we’ve learned is that people want to be with people to share an experience face to face. While there’s a place for virtual, the future of live events looks very healthy indeed.”

“According to many of our US customers, business will be back above 2019 levels this year,” says Yannic Laleeuwe, segment marketing specialist for live events at Barco. “Some even speak about a 30 per cent plus increase compared to 2019. For example, we see that the big tours – the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga – are starting up again in the US, many of which were put on hold by the pandemic.”

Craig Heffernan, technical sales director at Blackmagic Design, has been impressed by the resilience of live event organisers. “The ‘show must go on’ mentality has been so positive. Losing crowds from events meant switching to streaming platforms so concerts or sports events could still reach an audience. We saw a lot of creative thinking in how to make remote events as engaging as possible – increasing participation and creating feature rich experiences for audiences at home – and how to use online platforms to build new ways of reaching audiences.

“We’re now seeing event organisers delighted to bring customers back to venues, but still working on how they can run streaming and online options, so it’s likely these hybrid models will stay in place.”

In business and corporate events, virtual and hybrid models have also proved popular, changing the AV requirements. “Traditionally, all that was needed was a projection system for image magnification and a basic switcher,” says Tony Mastantuono, product manager at Broadcast Pix. “Now, video streaming capability and video conferencing applications such as Zoom have become the norm, which also brings new requirements, such as internet bandwidth.”

“The pandemic certainly accelerated the transition to online and brought about a new language of ‘hybrid’ in events management,” says Jason Larcombe, senior project manager at White Light, which has developed an XR suite, SmartStage, to create immersive live environments. “We can present hybrid experiences and use AV technology to create new relationships between the real and online worlds, such as via the metaverse or virtual production. These realtime environments enable us to present content to new audiences in innovative ways, focusing on those that deliver maximum engagement, to improve RoI for event organisers.

“Online audiences represent an increasing demographic who wish to have their own unique, immersive experience in realtime, but not necessarily in a physical space. They’re like a digital twin that coexists alongside the live audience.”
“We work with a number of companies looking to develop and drive AR and VR solutions in live event production,” adds Heffernan. “These technologies create unique ways to interact and engage with a live audience, and allow audiences to experience events in a totally different way – for example, using VR to place you on stage at a concert right next your favourite artists from your own sofa.”

À la carte consumption
Perhaps the enforced shift to hybrid working and virtual events has left an indelible impression, because even when they attend an event in person, many attendees now want more choice over how they consume information.

“They may choose to attend some sessions in person, some as live streams or online panels, and others on-demand at their own convenience,” says Larcombe. “A connected AV strategy empowers delegates with more autonomy than ever before, and allows event managers to provide the most up-to-date information to all delegates. AV solutions for wayfinding, point of sale, branding and advertising, as well as lighting, audio and video, can all be controlled centrally and regularly updated to seamlessly manage events in realtime.

“We can use different technologies, such as AI, across event spaces to assess audiences and gain metrics on what content, topics or presentation styles they’re engaging with. Simple detector systems can scan things such as eye movement and body posture to provide valuable data to measure effectiveness. This can help organisations to customise content to suit specific audiences or make changes in realtime to improve presentation style.”

It is not just delegates’ responses that can be measured. New technologies are enabling event designers to gauge their clients’ likely reaction before a single piece of kit has been installed. “Through advancements in visualisation tools, we can now demonstrate to clients what a bespoke design will look like prior to the event,” says Larcombe. “Many decision makers are not visual thinkers, so devising new ways to be able to achieve this is hugely powerful at point of sale. Technologies such as Event Preevue, a realtime 3D digital twin of venues, allow clients to collaborate with creatives and fully visualise their events from the perspectives of the speaker and both live and online audiences.”

The virtual or hybrid focus necessitated by the Covid pandemic has accelerated a number of technological changes. “Lately we’ve been seeing a move to AV-over-IP setups to handle the increase in broadcasting live events, remote collaborations between groups, and other challenges that have become more prevalent during the pandemic,” says Mark Bishop, president of LynTec. “The industry was heading down this road pre-pandemic, but at a significantly slower pace.”

Networking is a key trend, Larcombe observes. “It’s allowing us to deliver more complex live experiences. The advance of AV-over-IP and wireless systems, such as 5G, has increased flexibility in technological deployment, enabling us to combine a far wider range of products within one integrated system. This is simplified by increasingly unified data languages and standardised connectivity.”

Connectivity needs to be in realtime, with minimal latency and visual degradation. “For example, AV-over-IP systems can be highly efficient to operate, and allow flexibility in live event scenarios to deal with inevitable changes to layout or system design,” says Larcombe.

“The ability to be flexible with minimal cost implications on time, labour and additional equipment increases the potential to use AV technology in more demanding and exacting circumstances.”

Unexpected side-effect
An unexpected side-effect of the pandemic has been a new adventurousness in product selection. “Single-vendor or one-stop shop sourcing had become a wonderful solution to an ever-changing product landscape for the hurried consultant, integrator and production house,” says Bishop. “But since the pandemic switched off supply chains from overseas, companies have had to rely on ‘whatever is available’ to fill the gap. This has caused vendor-customer relationships to crumble, but at the same time allowed customers to start trying out new brands that they might not otherwise have given a chance. Just because one vendor had everything, it doesn’t mean these were all the best products, so customers can now put on a higher quality show by sourcing equipment from available vendors.”

Another pandemic effect has been a demographic change in those who operate event technology. “Covid created a shift towards smaller, online events that are driven by people whose primary job is not event production,” says Mastantuono. “So we must make our products more accessible, simpler to install and as easy to use as possible. The challenge is for us to help these new users to produce compelling content. We think there’s too much focus on technology, and not enough on production values and how to use the technology we’re supplying.”

In fact, Covid seems to have made the ubiquitous AV skills shortage particularly acute throughout the live events industry. “Many of the skilled, typically freelance AV crew members left the sector,” says Laleeuwe. “Many went to broadcast, or other jobs with a better work-life balance. These people won’t come back to the live events world, so the biggest challenge is to attract new people, and for the vendors to deliver AV equipment that supports the work flow of the operators.”

“New skills and educational routes are urgently needed,” agrees Larcombe.

“There’s a lack of technologists in the industry, and the more traditional educational routes are no longer appropriate to the highly digital world we now live in. We need better educational programmes, and the ability to attract the top tier of talent into our sector.”

Case study: 5G Festival Showcase

The hybrid event model is not just for audiences. Performers, too, can benefit. In March, the 5G Festival Showcase saw more than 20 musicians playing together from three different locations: Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, the O2 Blueroom at London’s O2, and Brighton Dome. Underpinned by 5G technology, this was the culmination of a two-year R&D project, using DiGiCo technology and d&b’s Soundscape.

“This unique concert demonstrated the role that advanced digital technologies could play in festivals of the future – in particular solving the issue of latency between artists collaborating remotely from different locations, which is currently not possible over an ordinary network,” says Hendrik Ahrens, market segment manager for rental and touring.