Upstaging and Mountain Productions Shift to Provide COVID-19 Relief
Two NAMM Members, Upstaging and Mountain Productions, are both determined to turn their live entertainment companies into beacons of hope for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies have worked in partnership on various projects for the better part of three decades and when the COVID-19 outbreak began, both parties assessed their capabilities and realized what they were capable of doing to help and the efforts began. Voluntarily shifting operations, the companies have altered their normal day-to-day procedures to provide crisis management and relief services for a variety of sectors involved in the battle against this deadly disease.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started to sweep the world, NAMM Members Upstaging and Mountain Productions immediately jumped into action. Upstaging, a lighting and transportation service for live entertainment voluntarily re-purposed their lighting, trucking, and fabrication operations to serve the medical field as well as started manufacturing floor decals and emergency signage while also partnering with a power company to provide temporary power solutions. In addition, Upstaging has taken on the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the form of face shields, room dividers, and intubation boxes. All of this happened while keeping their trucks moving, bringing food and medical essentials to communities that were in need. Pushing boundaries even further, much like they do in live entertainment, Upstaging also took a face shield design from concept to a deliverable product in just four days. Robin Shaw, from Upstaging, spoke regarding the voluntary shift in operations sharing, “It’s the right thing to do, for both our country and our staff. Sitting idle is not in our DNA at Upstaging.”
At the same time, Mountain Productions, the largest temporary structure and staging company in North America, recommitted themselves to their MTN Emergency Services division which provides “turn-key, temporary and mobile large-scale emergency infectious disease and medical center structures” that can serve both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. These structures are being utilized for emergency response, quarantine and testing centers, and infrastructure support. In addition to this, Mountain Productions has also answered the call to start manufacturing PPE in the form of anti-microbial protective vinyl gowns, anti-microbial mattress covers, and a variety of face masks. Ron Rose, Global Managing Director for Mountain Productions said, “We are proud that many of these gowns are already deployed and are in use. We continue to manufacture at full capacity to keep up with the rapid requests from the healthcare community to meet the deep need during these turbulent times.”
Shaw attributes their ability to pivot operations so easily to their experience in the industry. “We work in an industry that changes on an hour by hour basis, every day, and still ‘the show must go on.’ The pressure of pulling off very technically challenging feats has conditioned our staff to easily pivot to crisis support. We have always thrived under pressure and been able to deliver. Our nature is to anticipate potential problems and solve them before they become actual problems.”
Both Mountain Productions and Upstaging are looking to provide their services to those in need. If you know of a sector of the fight against COVID-19 that needs their services, both NAMM Members encourage you to share their efforts on the local, state, and federal levels. Upstaging emphasizes the importance of reaching the appropriate contacts to get these newly manufactured products into facilities, if you know of people who need PPE, room dividers, or intubation boxes please contact them at sales@upstaging.com. For more information on the efforts of both Upstaging and Mountain Production Services, please visit them at http://www.upstaging.com/ and at mtnemergencyservices.com.