On the Horizon in 2020 – Technologies for Events

By White Light

Last year was a fantastic year for White Light and The Mermaid London. We helped deliver over 150 corporate and private events, ranging from conferences and award ceremonies to wedding receptions and Christmas parties, including the Events Events in January.

In the same year that The Mermaid London won ‘Best Auditorium’ at the 2019 CHS Awards, we continued to evolve our installed production solutions and technical service provision as the venue’s in-house partner, which further benefitted events not only in the Auditorium, but across the entire venue. 

As 2020 and the new decade dawns, we have looked at our top picks for technological solutions we believe will become more widely utilised in the world of events.

Laser projection

Laser technology is ticking an increasing number of event organisers’ boxes. By virtue of its pure light source, laser illumination achieves unrivalled colour reproduction and a significantly brighter and richer visual compared to lamp-based alternatives.  Another plus is its streamlined effectiveness, as the projectors are continually reducing in size and therefore cost, without compromising on performance. It is certainly a more energy efficient tech too, as laser beams produce far less heat than lamps, so the projectors operate quietly without the need for interior cooling fans. Finally, laser projectors do not contain harmful metals such as mercury, and they do not produce a high level of wastage in the way that used lamps do.

Bearing all of these pros in mind, we chose to invest in a Christie 13k Lumens laser projector in The Mermaid London’s Auditorium. This space, which is the only 600-seated auditorium in the City of London, now comes with the world’s brightest laser projector of this specification as standard for events. 

Tension fabric systems

Clients are always looking for innovative and more sustainable ways to create scenery for their events. Single use set pieces are not only wasteful, they also incur higher personnel and production costs. 

We recently made the switch to Tension Fabric System Displays. The solution, which is widely used in the exhibitions world, utilises reusable frames and prints. This often proves more cost effective than producing physical set pieces and with designated print free areas, there is greater flexibility in size options for graphics.

High-res LED walls

LED walls are rapidly growing in popularity, as they are becoming more cost effective and offer a flexible solution for brighter and better imagery, without the restrictions of projector placement or shadowing. LED products have greatly increased in versatility too. We have seen pixel pitches becoming smaller, which allows more content to be displayed within the same size of panels. This means that even guests seated close to a display can view the content in high definition. Another tick for LED walls is the green factor, as it is a highly reusable technology, which produces minimal wastage.

When CoinGeek Week held their London conference at The Mermaid London, we saw them utilise an LED wall highly effectively.

Streaming

While not a new technology, live streaming is still growing as a solution and has become a requirement that we are now seeing with every event. In order to maximise return on investment, objectives, effort and any other measurable factors, clients are looking for innovative ways to grow their audiences. This means reaching beyond the capacity confines of a venue, and streaming content across a range of channels online makes this possible.

We have also seen a rise in the use of integrated tele-meeting tools, such as Zoom Rooms, Google Hangouts and other virtual meeting rooms. These previously disconnected tech platforms can now talk to each other, which has greatly improved tele-presence attendance for meetings and events. 

Extended Reality (XR)

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) have been buzzwords on the events scene for a few years now, and Extended Reality (XR) encompasses all of the above. As the technology behind them is ever-increasing and adapting, we are seeing new innovative opportunities for applying them in a range of sectors and applications. 

Our award-winning SmartStage is a recent example of this. For the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, we further developed a broadcast technology, initially conceived for sports analysis, to transcend the four walls of a lecture theatre and create an immersive digital learning environment. As SmartStage continues to evolve over the coming year, we are excited by the potential this technology holds in store for the events world. 

If you’re interested in hosting an event at The Mermaid London, please contact the team today on 020 7236 1919 or email us on info@the-mermaid.co.uk.