On the 20th June, we joined forces with Destination Florida to help them host and broadcast their very first Virtual Event to over 400 households; making for a fantastic night of celebrity appearances, quiz rounds hosted by some familiar faces, and a concert worthy collection of electrifying musical performances. With the current climate meaning their annual summer ball could no longer go ahead in its live form; and with donation and monies raised via these live events being the only way they are able to continue doing their amazing work, they were not prepared to let this hinder their ability to enable children with life limiting and threatening illnesses to have their holiday of a lifetime. Instead they adopted the attitude that if people could not get to the ball, they would bring the ball to them.

Live from Sterling Studio we provided full technical production management, pre-production support via video editing and the creation of onscreen graphics; and also developed a bespoke website platform for us to both live stream the event in HD and then provide the ability for viewers to watch the Summer Ball on demand.

With the Summer Ball hosted by Greatest Hits Radio Presenter Darren Proctor live from the Studio, the evening was a combination of live studio guest performances, pre-recorded video content and that all-important additional production value and flair that we always strive to deliver. The result was an amazing night of entertainment and fundraising; with donation opportunities aplenty: a silent auction, sponsorship, text to donate and pledge donations were all ways in which the viewers could contribute to the amazing cause which Destination Florida works so hard to support.

Check out the event highlights below, or watch the full evening of entertainment here!

If you are considering making your event virtual then make sure to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you! We have solutions available at all levels ranging from remote technical support for your video conference to give it that extra professional edge to creating a multi room virtual experience with audience interaction tools.

With the ever-changing climate and increasing uncertainty as to when we might be able to resume ‘business as usual’ we are all having to adjust the ways we work to organise and execute live events. Whether it be a company ‘meeting’ or a full-scale event with key note speakers; now more than ever we are seeking out alternative ways to deliver events without compromising on quality, creativity and those wow moments.

Whilst the rise in use of Webex and Zoom has enabled us to continue to conduct meetings and smaller scale presentations from the comfort of our own homes, we understand that this may not quite achieve the audience engagement and production quality as desired.

With this in mind we have drawn upon our 20 years of expertise and knowledge and carefully curated a portfolio of new virtual event solutions to ensure that the show can still go on. Our star of the show is a project we started before lockdown where we combined our very best technology with our industry expertise to craft a high spec studio space. We are now very proud and excited to open the doors and welcome you all to Sterling Studio!

“Our offering includes three levels of studio so should suit most requirements and budgets and there are many ways in which we can customise to meet a client’s requirement. This combined with our customisable web platforms allows us to provide a really strong, comprehensive virtual offering and we are really excited to be supporting a range of events in the coming months” Richard Bowden, Founder and MD.

Our most comprehensive offering, The Sterling Studio+ is kitted out with an impressive 16m x 3m Absen Polaris 2.5mm LED screen as a curved digital backdrop; allowing for unique and engaging combinations of live streaming, creative graphics and pre-recorded content simultaneously. The setup is further enhanced by the Panasonic 65” presenter comfort monitors, Panasonic PTZ remote cameras, a sophisticated Barco E2 screen management system, Yamaha QL1 digital mixer and lighting delivered via the Avolites Tiger Touch II.

The Studios can be customized and designed to suit any event; with the spaces large enough to host awards ceremonies, festivals and key note speakers, to company conferences and charity nights.

Furthermore, not only have we been busy creating Sterling Studio, but we have also been consolidating our virtual event solutions to ensure you can continue to run your events (albeit virtually) with as much style and creativity as your audience would demand from any live event. We can assist in virtual event production from alternative venues, provide support and guidance on how to infuse ingenuity and engagement into your virtual event and even add new dimensions that may not have been previously considered. We understand that adding anything from live streaming and additional content creation to audience engagement tools and pre-recorded content to your event can dramatically improve the engagement and audience experience, and so are poised and ready to help.

We also appreciate that during these times health, safety and wellbeing are of utmost importance and so we have taken all appropriate safety measures to ensure that hosting an event at Sterling Studio does not compromise this.

If you are interested in hosting your next event at Sterling Studio, or simply exploring the ways in which you can virtualise your event, make sure to get in touch with our friendly team of experts today! Or visit our Sterling Studio website to learn more about how it can work for your next event.

We look forward to welcoming you to Sterling Studio!

Sterling provided technical support once again to the amazing charity Forever Manchester. An amazing night was had by all at Forever Manchester’s 30th Birthday Party, with £78,689 being raised for Forever Manchester to fund and support community activity across Greater Manchester.

Over 400 delegates came together at the Principal Manchester to celebrate 30 years of Forever Manchester helping local people doing extraordinary things in their local communities.

Hosted by Tony Walsh and Captain Manchester, the Birthday Party, featured first class entertainment and Clint Boon finished the night with a DJ set which got everyone up and dancing until the early hours.

Check out the event highlights below!

Sterling Event Group have announced a new partnership agreement with one of Manchester’s leading event venues, Victoria Warehouse.

As part of the supplier agreement, which commenced on 31^st January 2020, Sterling Event Group will be the venue’s preferred technical production supplier and will provide exclusive in-house rigging services for corporate clients across the venue’s wide array of unique spaces.

The technical production company, who celebrated their 20-year anniversary last year, work in partnership with many event venues and clients across the North West & the UK and are thrilled to be supporting Victoria Warehouse and their clients. Victoria Warehouse has numerous event spaces catering for intimate gatherings to large scale conferences and exhibitions all with an authentic industrial vibe.

Richard Bowden, Managing Director of Sterling commented on the partnership “We are really excited to be back working with the team at Victoria Warehouse, a venue with their strap line ‘We are what you make us’, which for our projects team opens up a world of options for creativity.”

James Cohen, Managing Director of Victoria Warehouse commented; “We are thrilled to be partnering again with Sterling Event Group for production and rigging, their team have a genuine passion for exceeding client expectations. This combined with their array of in-house services means we can be sure our clients receive the very best experience.”

This partnership comes at an exciting time at Sterling, with a recent expansion adding a further two warehouses to their Manchester based headquarters creating 8 additional jobs. The company plans to continue this growth throughout 2020 with investment, innovation and development to further improve its offering.

Sterling Event Group will be exhibiting at the upcoming International Confex 2020 exhibition due to be held on the 25th & 26th February 2020 at ExCel London.

The event is set to be one of the largest gathering of event professionals, service providers, thought leaders and buyers in the UK, with the sole purpose of creating an environment of convenience to help support, inspire and drive the events industry forward.

Register to attend by clicking here.

The team look forward to hosting you on our stand! Find us on stand F04C.

Sterling once again delivered the Boohoo Group plc annual Christmas Party. Held at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate Hotel in December, the event was styled around a New York theme with headline act Skepta providing the entertainment alongside a number of acts and DJ’s.

Check out the event highlights below!

Technical production supplier Sterling Event Group, has invested in six Allen & Heath SQ-5 Mixing Consoles. 

Sterling Event Group have purchased six Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixing consoles to add to our audio fleet. The console features 16 local XLR inputs and 12 XLR outputs. It is an extremely powerful and capable compact mixer. Other features include;

• 48 input channels – 17 faders on 6 Layers
• Automatic microphone mixer on all channels
• 12 Mixes – can be 12 mono / 12 stereo configured as groups or auxes
• 3 Matrix – can be 3 mono or 3 stereo
• 8 Stereo FX Engines
• Record / Playback to USB
• Flexible routing options

To accompany this investment, Sterling have also purchased four stage boxes – the AB1608.  The AB1608 feature 16 inputs and 8 outputs. These units simply connect to the SQ via 1 Cat5/6 cable and can easily be patched to any input or mix bus via the SQ5. Multiple stage boxes can then be daisy chained for higher channel counts up to 48 inputs making this a very efficient easily configurable stage box solution.

Please contact our hire team for competitive quotations and to discuss how this equipment could benefit your next event or production. Alternatively see more info on our equipment hire page.

We are pleased to be supporting Production Futures – This event gives young people, students and freelancers the opportunity to come face to face with some of the most well-known companies and individuals in the industry. The event also features the TPi Breakthrough Talent Awards, offering a chance to highlight the work of those still relatively new to the industry but who are making waves within the live events bracket.

The event will be hosted at Fly by Nite Studios in Redditch, a state-of-the-art, arena sized, purpose-built production rehearsal studio located just south of Birmingham, where some of the biggest artists on the planet make their final preparations before heading out on tour.

If your heading to this event we look forward to seeing you there!

Click here for further info on the event.

As part of our expansion tripling our warehouse space, we have a number of new opportunities for talented people to join our team, based full time within our offices & warehouse by Manchester Airport.

• Audio Prep Technician
• Hire Co-ordinator
• Lighting and Rigging Prep Technician

Please visit our Careers part of the website for full job descriptions.

If you think you have got what it takes then we would love to hear from you!

The whole Sterling team were invited to a Sterling Family BBQ at the end of August to celebrate 20 years of business, as a celebration and a thank you to the team for all the hard work they put in for Sterling’s fabulous clients and events.

Check out the highlights here!

Here’s to the next 20 years!