Pivoting is the big buzzword during this pandemic. In a near feverish rush, companies and individuals researched and retooled to provide products and solutions to aid in the Covid-19 crisis. This month’s Designer Watch provides a round-up of those efforts. We also checked the temperature of a few to see how they’re faring in this life-changing event.
All Access Staging & Productions: All Access co-founded the Entertainment Industry Relief (EIR) with Silent House Productions, Go For Site Management, Joe Lewis Company and Gallagher Staging & Productions to help the Covid-19 front lines. The idea was to partner their equipment and design skills toward creating emergency relief facilities such as temporary medical and testing facilities, hospitals as well as cold rooms for makeshift morgues.
The idea came about when Silent House designer Tamlyn Wright contacted Bob Hughes, VP of All Access, wanting to “do something.” Hughes helped bring people together, turning it over to All Access’ Founders Clive Forrester and Erik Eastland for the heavy lifting.
Hughes calls it “a brain trust.” They’ve created template kits for the structures, a database of volunteers for “boots on the ground,” and are collaborating with the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) and others on guidelines for bringing the industry back to work safely in the new age of Covid-19.
Recently, All Access sent a truckload of gear and a couple of skilled workers to help make the New Orleans convention center temporary hospital setup ADA-compliant, while the EIR is now focused more on entry screening and lab testing.
“Hopefully some thermal cameras and testing will come with a fast enough turnaround for people to start congregating — on sound stages for starters — so we can get a quarter of the population of Los Angeles back to work as soon as possible,” Hughes says.
All Access has kept all its employees paid and on staff through this pandemic — currently busy with demand for drive-in worship services — and Hughes says it will enable the company to get back up to speed quickly when the industry starts opening up again. plsn.me/aa-covid
Astera: LED lighting manufacturer Astera was planning to temporarily scale back operations in its China factory, when PPE changed the plan. CEO Norbert Ernst says, “It offered a path to keeping many staff employed full-time, and also helps contribute positively to the ongoing global demand for face masks, which are vital to help meet the unique challenges of containing Covid-19.”
Two types of mask are being safely and cleanly packed at the factory: disposable face masks and KN95 respirator masks. Currently, 100 Astera staffers are working on the project, while another 100 may be hired temporarily to assist with face masks alone, depending on demand. astera-led.com
Bandit Lites: All Bandit Lites offices have made available its power and IT data distribution systems, portable structures and lighting to local governments and hospitals free of charge. In addition, its Venue One Nashville rehearsal facility is also available free to any artist needing a place to perform a live stream event.
Says Bandit Lites chair and founder, Michael T. Strickland, “While all Bandit offices are under Safer-At-Home Orders, the entire staff is on full payroll. No one has been laid off. When individuals are needed to accomplish a task, they are covered by the legal exemptions and the Bandit team jumps in and performs the task at hand.” banditlites.com
Blizzard: Blizzard has bought more than 300,000 KN95 masks from an FDA-registered facility in China, now for sale on its website. To help meet local medical demand for PPE, they’ve partnered with The United Way of Greater Milwaukee, who will receive large numbers of purchased masks — along with 10,000 masks donated by Blizzard — for distribution to places in need. blizzardpro.com
ETC: Recognizing the need for PPE, ETC gathered materials to start production in one day in its Middleton, WI headquarters. They’ve currently produced 50,000 face shields with sales staff joining the assembly line.
VP operations/business development Jake Dunnum says requests from healthcare workers have led to other new developments, such as the need to disinfect N95 masks for reuse.
“We talked with a local engineer who was repurposing equipment from the baking industry and were able to create a germicidal UV chamber that uses a conveyor to run masks through,” Dunnum explains. They’ve donated a few chambers locally to medical facilities, ERs, clinics and fire departments, who are testing the units to determine its safety for other community businesses. ETC is also experimenting with Ultraviolet room disinfectant,” he adds.
“There is FDA approval and safety work to take into account for open air room disinfectant and UV solutions,” he notes. “ETC is cautious in those areas. We want to make sure what we’re doing provides a high level of safety.
“This experience is teaching us in to think and to act differently,” Dunnum continues. “The focus is doing the right thing for community, for front line workers fighting the virus. But we are doing research toward broader solutions, and adapting some of our products.” etcconnect.com/faceshields
Gallagher Staging: A co-founder in the Covid-19 EIR (Entertainment Industry Response), Gallagher Staging is providing at-cost disaster relief structures for health professionals and government officials.
CEO Joey Gallagher says they’re fabricating plastic face shields for SewWhat? Ear Saver caps (For more information on this, see SewWhat? Info below). They’ve also just started venue disinfecting services using an EPA registered hospital disinfectant, Vital Oxide. Gallagher says their quality labor force is well trained to handle any size of venue. gallagherstaging.com/covid19
Mega Systems Inc: “We wanted to do something early on in this pandemic,” says CEO Guillermo Cabada. “But this is a whole other field for us; this is medical.” Their newly-developed Ultrabot GUV is a Germicidal Ultraviolet (GUV) LED single-axis moving fixture designed to disinfect environments. The fixture can sweep a room or focus on specific areas to cover different angles. It uses GUV radiant energy to damage nucleic acids, which kills bacteria and inactivates viruses.
“This is not a light and needs to handled by trained professionals,” Cabada adds, saying they will have approved trained integrators to sell, install and maintain the units. As UV-C can be dangerous to humans, the units can be controlled externally — in completely empty spaces — with no exposure to staff. mega.lighting
Mickey Curbishley and Jo Little: While companies turned to making PPE, Mickey Curbishley, Solotech president, live production division, knew that manufacturing wasn’t an option, but he wanted to help. “It was a couple of weeks into lockdown, and things were starting to get real,” he says.
An internet search of Hollywood’s homeless shelters and food banks stunned him with how many pinpoints filled the map. His first phone call to Angel Food Services was answered by a grateful worker who expressed desperation for face masks for food servers and the homeless. PPE for front-line volunteers became a personal project for him and his wife, Jo Little.
He phoned an LED manufacturer in China, who sourced a non-medical mask factory, “and within a day, my wife and I bought 200,000 masks,” Curbishley explains. “And then I realized I couldn’t afford to buy them myself.”
He reached out to Live Nation, Concerts West, the Bronfman family and the makers of Frassers beverages, and each made a substantial pledge toward the cause. His GoFundMe page also drew in dollars. “When the factory called saying the masks were ready for pick up, I called Rock-it Cargo, and David Bernstein stepped up. Within a week, we had them in Los Angeles and started delivering them in our cars to homeless shelters and food banks.”
His next project is to raise funds for hand sanitizer for Arizona’s Navajo Nation — an at-risk community lacking running water — and for Los Angeles’ homeless. To help, contact Mickey Curbishley at mcurbishley@me.com
Mountain Productions: Mountain Productions has teamed up with other organizations and restructured to manufacture and supply protective equipment. Products manufactured include anti-microbial vinyl protective gowns, 3-ply face masks, 4-Ply KN95 masks, anti-fog protective face shields, and FDA-compliant hand sanitizer with Aloe Vera.
“We are continuing to manufacture at full capacity to keep up with the rapid requests of the healthcare community and to help meet a deep need during these turbulent times,” says Ron Rose, Mountain Productions’ global managing director. mountainproductions.com
PixMob: Known for their LED wristbands and eye-opening effects for audience experiences, Montreal-based PixMob has created new SafeWatch smart wearable technology which tracks hand washing with LED light signals. It’s also supplying surgical masks and a smart wireless nurse call system. pixmob.com
PRG Scenic Technologies: “In mid-March we were faced with the reality that our industry was going to have to adapt to a changing landscape,” says PRG Scenic Technologies general manager Mark Peterson. “Project manager Alvin DeLeon and I started researching emergency medical supply products that we could fabricate quickly, safely and easily without a tremendous amount of re-fitting of the shop to keep our people employed.
“As the industry began to come to a halt, I was contacted by a friend from another scenic fabricator. He was helping NYU put together shops to build face shields for the medical community. We committed to supplying 132,000 face shields to NYC,” he says.
Their design, vetted by the NYC Department of Health, is a modification to the open source design circulated by Uriel Eisen. “Materials are the hardest part of the process,” Peterson explains. “What sets us apart is that our plastics meet FDA guidelines, and our foam pads and elastic banding meet ANSI requirements for medical splash guards and clothing.”
He adds, “We’re now looking at more solutions for our event industry: how to keep people safe when they start convening in large groups. My goals have always been: to help the state of New York in the fight against Covid-19; to get our employees back to work so they can better support their families, and to assist PRG through these challenging times.” prg.com
Rose Brand: Rose Brand is creating masks, banners, posters, bumper stickers and clothing to promote the social distancing message: “Join The Resistance, Keep Your Distance.” A portion of the sales benefits healthcare workers.
“If we can make a vital contribution to the war against Covid-19 and bring back our furloughed employees more quickly, then I’ll feel that we’ve done the best that we can do given the present situation,” says president Josh Jacobstein.
The company has created kits for portable medical cubicles using standard pipe and base structures, engaged with textile mills to bring out fabrics that have anti-microbial finishes for curtain dividers, and supplied fabrics to the crafters building face masks for their communities. DistanceIsResistance.com
SewWhat? Rent What?: “It was a massive learning curve to go from stage drapery to masks, other than using a sewing machine there was very little in common between the products or processes,” says Megan Duckett. When Sew What? switched from concert draperies to making personal cloth face masks, she had to learn a new industry. “It was certainly not a slam-dunk simple transition,” she says. “This is apparel, this is not drapery or upholstery. Traditional drapery fabric is not appropriate for mask making. There’s a difference in the way you cut, the sewing allowances, even the thread and needles are different.”
The fabric mask designs range from comic monsters to tattoo-inspired art. Her “Ear Saver System” (Patent Pending) beanies and baseball caps with fasteners attached act as ear loops for masks. She’s also created face shield headgear, which attaches to the Ear Saver System baseball caps. Many items are sold at cost.
“It’s not a time for profiteering,” Duckett explains. “It feels like a time to be useful in and among the community. Eighty percent of our staff is back from furlough,” she adds, “so that’s a success.” c19response.sewwhatinc.com
Upstaging: Tweets from U2, Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor, Miley Cyrus, Sting and more are touting the services of Upstaging. Not about their concert services this time, but their Covid-19 efforts.
The Upstaging team pivoted its resources to manufacture face shields, privacy divider walls and counter shields for retail. “We started a whole other business in five weeks,” says John Huddleston. “It’s nuts but it’s going well. And it keeps my mind off the news.”
Getting into retail is “a whole other animal,” Huddleston adds, but their face shields are now sold in all Ace Hardware stores nationwide, and are a permanent solution for splash protection and other future needs.
Medical offices are their new clientele, and feedback from dentists has also resulted in a new magnification shield, which allows for a lighting attachment. “We got into niche products now,” Huddleston says. “We sold thousands of these.”
Its 100-truck team is transporting food for grocery chains and medical supplies. “It’s wholesale trucking, freight and a different dynamic. It’s not a big profitable venture for any trucking outfit, and we have a new appreciation for people who hustle freight out there in the world, and for what our drivers been doing for the past 45 years.”
Huddleston adds, “We’re not making a lot of profit, but we’re keeping people working, and that’s our main goal. We’ll pivot quickly when the concert industry comes back, because most of our staff is still here and ready to get back to work on events.” upstaging.com
Debi Moen, who normally chronicles all the different shows LDs are doing, did some pivoting herself for this column. You can reach her at dmoen@plsn.com.
