EVENT FOCUS
UNITY Creative Technology joins forces with Christie Lites and Bryte Design to create a studio space for artists to livestream content to a global audience. TPi finds out more.
With the present state of play across the globe, musicians, promotors and crew alike are all hypothesising and theorising about the future of live events. One common idea is that artists will turn to streaming performances as a way to connect with their fans. Already we have seen the power of these style of events with incentives such as One World: Together at Home, where artists including Lady Gaga and The Rolling Stones all gathered around their makeshift broadcast setups to perform to a global audience of millions. But soon enough, artists will look for a greater level of production for these types of performances. This is where UNITY comes in. The brainchild of Creative Technology and Christie Lites, with the creative lead from Bryte Design, UNITY offers performers a customisable performance space to stream a live performance. The studio has been created to adhere to the strictest of social distancing measures, allowing both artists and crew to remain isolated throughout the time in the space. The studio is an 11m by 11m performance area in Creative Technology’s offices close to Gatwick Airport, with a full audio rig comprising a fully
operational monitor and FOH audio setup, three sides of LED video surfaces and a completed lighting rig, courtesy of Christie Lites. “We started working on UNITY before the lockdown was in place in UK,” began CT’s Head of Music and Entertainment, Graham Miller. “We could see what was happening in Europe and knew restrictions and lockdowns were coming, so we wanted to get started before restrictions came in.” The original plan was to have UNITY situated in central London but as restrictions became tighter, the CT team opted to create the space from its own HQ. “Honestly, we feel that being out of central London is a positive,” commented Miller. “As it was in our building, we could work safely and responsibly and take the necessary time to do this right. It is amazing how long things can take when you can only have two people at a time working together!” Social distancing guidelines have also been taken into consideration now that UNITY is up and running, so not only are artists able to keep a safe distance from each other, but so are all the crew. Miller continued by describing the vibe that the CT team wanted to create for the space. “As the act of going to live music shows will be out of 12