WWW.LSIONLINE.COM • APRIL 2020 19i INDUSTRY ISSUES
now under financial pressure and unsure
of how hard to push.
While many of us are paused, others
aren’t. We are reminded of that when we
see supermarket staff in person, and the
frontline NHS staff - hopefully only on the
news. But not all of our industry has
stopped, though it’s sometimes unclear
whether or not this should be the case.
“Construction seems to be continuing on
government advice to keep building sites
open,” notes Adam Blaxill of Stage
Electrics. “We are being told that we are
expected to fulfil our contractual
obligations at risk of financial penalty -
that’s becoming hard with the increasing
challenges of finding accommodation and
sustenance for our specialist staff. And
there are stories of contractors being
stopped by police and told their journey to
work is not essential, thanks to the mixed
and confusing messages from
government.”
New ways of working are also being
learned at a rapid pace. “We had already
been investing in software to work
remotely,” comments Push The Button’s
Nick Ewins. “We hadn’t really started
using it fully because we could still go
into the office; now we’re forced to work
remotely, we are all embracing it, and in
some ways we are more efficient.”
Education, too, is having to master these
technologies quickly, with colleges trying
to work out how to teach, showcase and
graduate their students online.
Other industries are also facing the same
challenge, and since this is what we do,
there are perhaps opportunities here
even while the traditional lighting market
is on hold. “An owner of a basketball
team was live-streaming from his home
office,” recalls Anne Johnston of PRG US.
“It was being picked up by mainstream
media, but it just looked bad. So our team
of 10 people - all we were allowed in
the warehouse - put together a kit of
a camera, some little lights and a better
microphone. We delivered it to his door
and he figured out how to put it together.
The next day, you could see him better
and hear him better.”
But also noticeable is the number of
entertainment companies that are
turning their hands to dealing with more
urgent requirements. ETC, PRG,
Daedalus and Showman, amongst
others, are now producing face masks
and PPE equipment for an American
healthcare system that is alarmingly
short of them.
Similarly, it can’t have escaped anyone’s
notice that a lot of the resources our
industry has available - particularly lights,
mains distribution, rigging and miles and
miles of cable - are all things that could
be useful to those setting up temporary
hospitals or other emergency sites. Or
that the work of enacting those
transformations is really no different to
setting up a space for a concert or an
event.People who work behind the scenes also
don’t like being idle, and want to help.
This led Katharine Williams and Jono
Kenyon to write an open letter on behalf
of our industry to the NHS. It was an
immediate and heartfelt response to the
crisis, well worth reading in full (//plasa.
me/pplpowered) and it had an immediate
effect, picked up by Scotland’s First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon and quickly in
circulation around the UK government
and the NHS. The resulting group, People
Powered (which has already spawned
separate People Powered groups in
Scotland and Australia), is now directly
involved in helping the NHS: an
immediate project was to get radios into
hospitals to allow communication
between the red and green zones, and
more projects are now underway across
13 NHS trusts. “You would not believe the
amazing people from our industry who
have come forward,” says Katharine
Williams. “And sometimes we’re doing
relatively simple things that make a huge
difference, like getting radios in so they
can communicate properly - it’s shocking
they weren’t able to do that before.” You
can track the help the group need and
offer your services via Twitter
(#PeoplePowered20) or at
//peoplepowereduk.org.Through all of this we have to look
forward, though there are questions no
one knows the answers to. When will this
be over? When will some kind of
normality return? Or, perhaps, what will
that normality be? “While the main event
will be over in, say, six months’ time, the
lasting impact is going to be vast,”
comments programmer Tom Young. “If
the rental companies have a huge period
of inactivity with equipment not
generating income, it will likely stifle
future investment.”Some of the closed shows won’t re-open,
and postponed tours will become
cancelled. History suggests, though, that
new shows will appear to take their place:
theatre owners will be crying out for
shows to fill their buildings. “I always
remember when I started, looking in that
page in the back of The Stage listing all
the venues, thinking every day or week or
month there are shows in all those towns,
all those theatres,” recalls LD Tony
Simpson. “It’s all stopped for now, but
they’re all still there.”Producers are doubtless figuring out how
to access the loans the government is
offering, a public isolated for months will
long for the experience of being part of
a crowd again, as long as they’re confidentPLASA PUSHES FOR
CLARITY AND INCLUSIONThroughout the COVID-19 outbreak, PLASA
has been working to support its members
and voice the industry’s concerns. Most
recently, the Association has published the
results of a survey drilling into the fi nancial
impact of the international lockdown.Completed by 145 PLASA members, the
study shows the early impact that various
restrictions triggered by the pandemic have
had on the industry, with a follow-up survey
planned to gain further insight into the
ongoing challenges that the sector is facing.Of those surveyed, half said that they’ve lost
at least 50% of their business for the year,
with a fi fth saying they’ve lost between 80%
to 100% of all their business.In addition, PLASA has been campaigning to
ensure the government provides the industry
with the support it needs. Whilst initiatives
such as the Job Retention Scheme for
employees, and the Self-Employment
Income Support Scheme for freelancers
have been widely welcomed, work still needs
to be done to ensure businesses and
individuals can survive the upcoming months.This includes the number of freelancers who
operate as limited companies who are not
receiving a fair amount of support in
comparison to their sole-trader colleagues,
as they cannot claim for their dividend
income.PLASA is also pushing for the Government to
include the events supply chain in the ‘retail,
hospitality and leisure business’ category in
order to qualify for Business Rates cash
grants which are already available to shops,
pubs, restaurants, theatres and music
venues.PLASA has a dedicated web page to support
businesses and individuals during
Coronavirus and where the survey results
can be viewed. There are also closed groups
on Facebook and LinkedIn where members
can seek and offer advice.P http://www.plasa.org/coronavirus