- UK company makes bold prediction

After Sting conceptualiser Isaiah Laing announced that the show will make its grand return later this year via live streaming, a UK company has confidently predicted that the show's production will be unlike anything Jamaicans have seen. Paul Richards, head of talent and production at Global Stage TV, says his company has been studying and analysing all the virtual concerts the island has staged so far, and believes Sting will be the best yet.

"We're going to be streaming like you've never seen. We are broadcasters and so naturally the quality that we produce on a normal basis is high. The tech behind our streaming will be unrivalled because it's only people like Tidal that could stand near us. We are a market leader in technology," he said. "The quality of the stream, the sound, the team, it's a brand new space that we're giving birth to in Jamaica." Richards said that they will be streaming from 10 different countries.

"We will be doing the kind of link-up that has never been done out of Jamaica before. We have been working behind the scenes on this for over a year so whether or not we were having this COVID outbreak, Sting was going to be live-streamed," he said. Richards added that although Jamaica has produced some top-notch virtual shows so far, Sting will transport the island's online events to the highest realm. Among the strategies planned for the December 26 show, Richards said they will be using drones to connect the feeds.

"We're going to have drones taking you from one venue to another. It will be revolutionary. I think they (previous virtual shows) were all very amazing but a lot of them were all stagnant, meaning they were staged in one place with just great graphics behind it," he said. "We're going to do more than that. We have watched what everybody else has done and that's how we know what we're doing will be better. We're not just streamers, we're broadcasters with more advanced tech, and so the kind of experience that we're going to give will be unrivalled."

Richards told THE STAR that although the technology has not been tested at this level before, he is certain it cannot fail.

"When you know how good something is going to be, there's no point in being quiet about it, and come December 26 when people see it, my words will match up. I'm quite confident that this will be history-making for Jamaica. People's minds are going to be blown by what we are about to do," he said.

Persons wishing to watch this year's virtual edition of Sting will have to pay a small small fee, which, according to Richards, should not exceed 5 English pounds.

He explained that persons will be asked to log in to Globalstage.tv to pay. When the streaming begins, a notification will be sent to whichever device the user prefers to access the feed.