There’s no doubt that the audio visual industry has proven its ability to survive and thrive in trying times. Global events have facilitated the rapid evolution of audio visual technologies, and these only continue to advance. Here are some audio visual trends for 2022 collected from many sources (click the link colored to text to get to the information source):
Growing consumer demand for audio content: People are listening to all forms of audio content: news, music, podcasts and books. Nielsen reports 75 per cent of people working from home are streaming music every week, with 40 per cent tuning in daily.
Rapid smart speaker adoption: Smart speakers and voice assistants are becoming common home appliances. One-third of U.S. households are equipped with smart speakers and 44 per cent of U.S. adults use voice assistants. Smart speakers let listeners to respond to ads using voice commands. Consumers are rapidly embracing voice to access information, entertain themselves and shop. The ability to instantly answer consumers’ questions and help them solve problems is becoming a key advantage for marketers who lean into audio.
Digital Audio is becoming multi-devices: Historically, digital audio has been widely consumed via mobile devices; it can now also be launched from a variety of new technologies including tablets, connected speakers, TVs and even smart watches.
Prosumer audio: Prosumer audio gear has remained on a steady upward curve over the last few years. With podcasting, live streaming, and at-home work solutions more popular than ever, it’s been a fantastic few years for prosumer audio sales. Their need for reliable, slightly elevated gear to take their content to the next level is proving highly profitable for certain companies.
Content Still Rules: Audiophiles are fiercely loyal to their favorite DJs, hosts, podcasters, artists and stations. As a result, they’re spending more time than ever listening to audio daily. Listeners consume programming on their own terms.
TikTok has caused a seismic shift in the world of content creation, skewing it ever further into a mobile-first industry. To capitalise on the market, more and more mobile-friendly gear is being created, forgoing the need for hundreds of adaptors and plugging straight into AUX, USB-C, or iPhone ports (or working wirelessly).
Many amplifier technologies in use: While classic class AB amplifiers are more and more often replaced with class D amplifier technology, there is still special audiophile markets for class A amplifiers and tube based amplifiers. New technology just coming to the class D amplifiers are GaN-based audio amplifier powered with switch mode power supply. They promise premium audio systems with good sound quality in a small and light format.
Vinyl records: Vinyl is here to stay, it seems, despite all technological advances that would have seemed to threaten it. Vinyl records (and coincidentally, cassette tapes) are selling like hot cakes again. Vinyl sales have been steadily rising for some time, but in 2020 for the first time in 34 years, vinyl has surpassed CD sales.
Streaming has killed CD: CDs sales are continuously and quickly declining thanks to streaming and music flash drives.
The race to wireless zero latency: Companies around the world are racing to find a solution that all but eliminates latency from wireless audio, removing the need for cables in an increasingly space, waste, and aesthetically-conscious world.
Green screens: As events become more hybrid, green screens will play a significant role, enabling speakers to be placed directly in the content becoming part of the message. Green screens are a great cost-effective way to insert branding and infographics, which works perfectly for online events and we will see them become adopted further for conferences. There are also cameras with depth sense features and software that can use pretty many background for green screen type effects without building a real green screen.
Hybrid events: Events have had to embrace the constant mix of who can attend, who can possibly attend and who is not afraid to attend and as such have flipped to hybrid. Although not necessarily an AV trend, hybrid events are unsurprisingly on the increase as people work from home and corporate travel is halted. In those events content needs to be clear and targeted to get the information across efficiently. There is demand for standalone apps that can enhance hybrid events such as Slack, Slido and Survey Monkey.
Touchless Environments: COVID-19 has accelerated the desire for automation and touchless environments from a nice-to-have to a must-have. They minimize the amount that people come into contact with shared surfaces. Following the throes of COVID-19, it appears that touchless building controls are here to stay.
Remote Control And Remote Management: We’re seeing an increase in demand for remote management software that allows one person, or a small group of people, to log into a remote system and review the status of a set of classrooms or meeting spaces. Increasingly in 2022, companies can implement remote monitoring and maintenance for audio visual systems to support the advancement of technology. Whether your organization is expansive or small, remote audio visual support teams can significantly reduce operating costs for your business.
Live Streaming: As more people look to tune into events from home, we’re seeing an increased need for equipment that supports live streaming.
Video Walls: In many commercial spaces, there’s often a need for a large video display. In past years, many spaces have opted for projection screens as opposed to large LCD displays or video walls, solely because the cost was much lower. The price of video walls getting close to similar to a projection screen, and the benefits almost always outweigh the slightly higher cost.
Service And Maintenance: As more commercial spaces look for ways to save, there’s been an increasing demand for AV integrators to handle service and maintenance in order to maximize the lifespan of AV products. Businesses are focussing on reducing the overhead costs associated with maintaining and installing the equipment. Companies having expertise in sectors other than AV cannot have a dedicated team to manage and monitor their AV equipment.
Snake oil: Many audiophiles are infected by the snake oil curse, which causes them to chase endlessly after what is supposedly better sound reproduction. Audio interconnect and speaker cables have become a profitable business built on imaginative marketing and misinformation. This market now extends into power cords, HDMI, and optical cables. Untold sums of money have been wasted on the fanciful claims of cable vendors. There is lots of ridiculous pieces of pseudo-audiophile nonsense out there. Try to avoid this bullshit in 2022. Try to to restore peace of mind, and the enjoyment of music.
Hybrid environment: Although some employees are returning to the office, it is doubtful that society will return to an entirely on-site work environment. Remote workspaces from 2020-21 on will now be ‘Hybrid’ (home and office). AV technologies are playing a crucial role in creating a modern working environment. Hybrid technologies are changing their form, we had just a Skype call before the pandemic and now we have Zoom, Microsoft Team Rooms, Google Meet, etc with more advanced features allowing space for seamless collaboration and communication. Hybrid environments are expected to go beyond that with continuous innovation and development. Remote employees, distant customers, healthcare providers, and educational institutions can utilize unified communication solutions. It is now increasingly important to adopt technologies that make collaboration easier. At one time, frequent video communications, online learning, and compact hardware design were ambitious audio visual innovations that were hard for people to imagine. Today, they’re top priorities for business, educational, and religious spaces of all types, and are critical to how people interact in those spaces.
Silent Video Gains Momentum: It’s estimated that 85% of short videos viewed on Facebook are watched without sound. Yet as much as 41% of video would be incomprehensible to viewers without sound. Video marketers are using captions, context and other “no-audio” tactics to convey information.
Social Media Goes Video-First: video content is one of the internet’s main attractions. Users are being drawn to video-first platforms. One of the most common reasons people use social media is to view video. But with video streaming set to be as much as 82% of total web traffic by 2022, the importance of video content to marketing strategy is massive and still growing.
Digital audio: Digital audio consumption accelerated in 2021 and commercial engagement followed the audiences. In 2022 we foresee three key commercial trends in the digital audio space: Data-led targeting capabilities provide a powerful way to get advertising cut through, Creativity is a constant rather than a ‘trend’ in advertising and Audience Growth is attracting new advertisers. Programmatic audio is divided into three main supply sources – music streaming (through suppliers like Spotify), podcasts (the biggest opportunity for brands), and online broadcast radio (now more attractive with the addition of data overlay opportunities). Amongst these audio heavyweights we can see emerging innovation in the form of conversational and actionable audio ads.
Virtual and Augmented Reality: Although virtual and augmented reality first entered the public consciousness via video games or social media filters, they are now infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Given the rapid evolution of technology, it is inevitable that these advancements will impact the audio visual industry. Companies specializing in the development of VR and AR technologies are noticing an increase in interest from educational institutions wishing to create an enhanced learning experience. Within the healthcare sector, VR solutions are assisting healthcare professionals with socializing medically isolated patients. Virtual reality has been in development within the audio visual industry for many years. In 2022, virtual reality is becoming mainstream. Or at least tries.
Shift from linear TV to streaming: Video streaming goes beyond traditional TV viewing for people under 45. The lion’s share of viewing by those over 45 is still grabbed by linear television.
891 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taking (Good) Pictures Of PCBs
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/01/taking-good-pictures-of-pcbs/
https://blog.brixit.nl/taking-a-good-picture-from-a-pcb/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://basrihayran.com/blog/f/speakers-pt-2—some-speaker-concepts?blogcategory=EN%20%2F%2F%205.%20Speakers
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.microcontrollertips.com/teardown-why-the-kinect-v2-doesnt-show-ghosts-faq/
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Pixel Sensors Bring Their Own Compute Atomically thin devices that combine sensing and computation also save power
https://spectrum.ieee.org/active-pixel-sensor
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/bluetooth-le-transceiver-delivers-multiple-audio-streams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-song-with-over-1-billion-spotify-streams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maailman nopein näyttö on 10 kertaa ihmissilmää nopeampi
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14337-maailman-nopein-naeyttoe-on-10-kertaa-ihmissilmaeae-nopeampi
Kiinalainen BOE (Beijing Oriental Electronics) on esitellyt näytön, joka virkistyy 600 kertaa sekunnissa. Lukema on uusi maailmanennätys. Toisaalta voidaan kysyä, onko näytössä mitään järkeä, jos ihmissilmä ei pysty prosessoimaan visuaalista dataa yli 60 ruudun sekuntinopeudella.
Itse asiassa yleisin käsitys on, että silmän erottelukyky on tyypillisesti 30-60 ruutua sekunnissa. Tämä tarkoittaa, että esimerkiksi e-pelaajien suosimat näytöt, jotka virkistyvät esimerkiksi 240 kertaa sekunnissa, ovat selvästi silmää nopeampia.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A global shutter image sensor from Omnivision, the OG0VE is 26% smaller and at least 50% more power-efficient than its predecessor, the OV7251….
Omnivision shrinks image sensor for AR/VR/MR
https://www.edn.com/omnivision-shrinks-image-sensor-for-ar-vr-mr/
A global shutter image sensor from Omnivision, the OG0VE is 26% smaller and at least 50% more power-efficient than its predecessor, the OV7251. The CMOS image sensor is well-suited for small, low-power cameras used in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) devices, as well as metaverse, drone, robot, and machine vision applications.
The company’s global shutter technology, OmniPixel 3-GS, enables the OG0VE sensor to capture moving objects, even at high speeds, without creating spatial distortion. OG0VE is based on a 3-µm pixel size and delivers VGA resolution of 640×480 pixels. It features a 1/7.5-in. optical format and comes in a chip scale package that is just 3.6×2.7 mm. Power consumption is less than 34 mW when operating at 60 frames/s at full VGA resolution.
The sensor’s global shutter pixel architecture and low-light sensitivity allow it to be used for any application requiring simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), gesture detection, head and eye tracking, and depth and motion detection.
https://www.ovt.com/products/og0ve/
Tomi Engdahl says:
VHS Tapes That Are Worth A Small Fortune Today
https://social.digitaltrends.com/s/vhs-tape-value?as=6dap%7B%7Bad.id%7D%7D&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=z020573&utm_content=%7B%7Badset.id%7D%7D&utm_campaign=6dap%7B%7Bad.id%7D%7D&bdk=0
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/hyvasti-spotify/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1670644837
Tomi Engdahl says:
The story of how FireWire came to market and ultimately fell out of favor serves today as a fine reminder that no technology, however promising, well-engineered, or well-liked, is immune to inter- and intra-company politics or to our reluctance to step outside our comfort zone. (From the archives)
The tragedy of FireWire: Collaborative tech torpedoed by corporations
“Show us that it’s being adopted in the industry, and we’ll put it in.”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/06/the-rise-and-fall-of-firewire-the-standard-everyone-couldnt-quite-agree-on/?utm_social-type=owned&utm_brand=ars&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
The rise and fall of FireWire—IEEE 1394, an interface standard boasting high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer—is one of the most tragic tales in the history of computer technology. The standard was forged in the fires of collaboration. A joint effort from several competitors including Apple, IBM, and Sony, FireWire was a triumph of design for the greater good. It represented a unified standard across the whole industry, one serial bus to rule them all. Realized to the fullest, FireWire could replace SCSI and the unwieldy mess of ports and cables at the back of a desktop computer.
Yet FireWire’s principal creator, Apple, nearly killed it before it could appear in a single device. And eventually the Cupertino company effectively did kill FireWire, just as it seemed poised to dominate the industry.
The story of how FireWire came to market and ultimately fell out of favor serves today as a fine reminder that no technology, however promising, well-engineered, or well-liked, is immune to inter- and intra-company politics or to our reluctance to step outside our comfort zone.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oikealla hetkellä painettu kaukosäätimen punainen nappi avaa telkkarissa valikon, josta voi olla paljon iloa https://www.is.fi/digitoday/art-2000009250240.html
Punaisen napin HybridiTV-valikko sallii ohjelmien aloittamisen alusta myös Ylen kanavilla.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HDMI Distribution over your Home Network? Low-Cost HDMI Matrix using IP-Based Hardware
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PxmQn8Xr8
So, you want to send HDMI video around your house? Maybe you want to use your office computer on your living room TV without a proprietary streaming solution like AirPlay or Chromecast? Share a cable or satellite box between your living room and bedroom? Or you’re crazy like me and you want to put all of your computers into the basement, and connect to any of them from any desk in the house?
Traditional video distribution methods which support many-to-many configurations usually require expensive matrix switches, either for HDMI or HDBaseT. With lower cost IP-based equipment, we can use the network infrastructure we already have in our home networks to send HDMI video across the network, at the cost of video compression. If you can tolerate 1080P/60 video for your application, this is far cheaper than other alternatives in a many-to-many configuration.
I’ve tried running a thicc HDMI cable through the wall at my house. This will work, but over a limited distance (and the workable distance gets shorter with the higher bitrates of each HDMI spec). You can’t repair an HDMI cable realistically, so if you break it you’re going back in the wall or attic. I have a few places in my house with floating TVs (I absolutely hate cable cluttter) and running HDMI from the TV down to a media cabinet is as far as I’d go with a physical cable.
There are also solutions like active optical cables and HDBaseT which are suitable for higher bitrate uncompressed applications like home theaters, but I’m primarily concerned with workstation tasks which aren’t as demanding of the video stream. These are also point to point solutions, not many-to-many matrices. However, these solutions might be right for you in your application.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interesting Optical Journey Results In Hybrid Viewfinder For Smartphones
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/12/interesting-optical-journey-results-in-hybrid-viewfinder-for-smartphones/
Fair warning: if you ever thought there was nothing particularly interesting with optical viewfinders, prepare to have your misconception corrected by [volzo] with this deep-dive into camera-aiming aids that leads to an interesting hybrid smartphone viewfinder.
For most of us, the traditional optical viewfinder is very much a thing of the past, having been supplanted by digital cameras and LCD displays. But some people still want to frame a photograph the old-fashioned way, and the optical principles that make that possible are actually a lot more complicated than they seem. [volzo]’s blog post and video go into a great deal of detail on viewfinder optics, so feel free to fall down that rabbit hole — it’s worth the trip. But if you’d rather cut to the chase, the actual viewfinder build starts at about the 23:00 mark in the video.
Making a Hybrid Viewfinder
https://volzo.de/thing/hybridviewfinder/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/12/cga-competitors-from-the-1980s/
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU torppaa 8K-televisioiden myynnin
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14369-eu-torppaa-8k-televisioiden-myynnin
Elektroniikkamyymälöissä monen katse kiinnittyy uusiin 8K-resoluutiota tarjoaviin televisioihin. Laitteet ovat vielä kalliita, mutta vievät toki viihteen ja urheilun aivan uudelle tasolle. EU:n lainsäädäntö näyttää kuitenkin kieltävän 8K-televisioiden myynnin ensi vuonna.
EU:n komissio ilmoittaa, että uuteen energiatehokkuuslakiin (EEI, energy efficiency index) ei tule korjauksia. Näin alkuperäinen tiukempi direktiivi tulee voimaan maaliskuussa. Tällä hetkellä kaikkien markkinoilla myytävien 8K-televisioiden energiankulutus on liian suuri.
Tällä hetkellä OLED-televisiot voivat kuluttaa hieman enemmän virtaa kuin LCD-televisiot. Poikkeuksia ei kuitenkaan sallita maaliskuun alusta lähtien. Tällöin esimerkiksi 55 tuuman television tehonkulutus saa olla enimmillään 84 wattia, 65-tuumaisen 112 wattia ja 75-tuumaisen 141 wattia.
Edistyneimmillä 4K-televisioilla, joissa käytetään esimerkiksi kuvan osapintojen himmennystä, on vaikeuksia täyttää uudet vaatimukset. 8K-televisioissa kaikki nykyiset mallit kuluttavat uusia vaatimuksia enemmän virtaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VHS-Decode Project Could Help Archival Efforts
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/13/vhs-decode-project-could-help-archival-efforts/
Archiving data from old storage media can be a highly complex process. It can be as simple as putting a disk in an old drive and reading out the contents. These days, though, the state of the art is more complex, with advanced techniques helping to recover the most data possible. The VHS-Decode project is an effort to improve the archiving of old analog video tapes.
The project is a fork of the LaserDisc-focused ld-decode, started by [Chad Page] back in 2013, which readers may recall was used for the Domesday Duplicator — a device aimed to recover data from the BBC’s ancient Domesday LaserDiscs. VHS-Decode is designed to capture the raw RF signals straight out of a tape head, which are the most direct representation of the signals on the physical media. From there, these signals can be processed in various ways to best recover the original audio and video tracks. It’s much the same technique as is used by floppy disk recovery tools like the FluxEngine.
Despite the VHS name, the code currently works with several tape formats. VHS, S-VHS and U-Matic are supported in PAL and NTSC formats, while Betamax, Video8 and High8 tape capture remains a work in progress. Using the code requires a video tape player with test points or traces that make signals from the head accessible.
https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok is testing a new horizontal full screen mode with select users globally, available via a “full screen” button on square or rectangle videos in their feed
https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/13/tiktok-inches-further-youtubes-territory-horizontal-full-screen-mode/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Spotter and Jellysmack, two companies offering YouTubers cash in exchange for up to five year of ad sales generated by licensing their old videos — Investors bet the back catalogs of top YouTubers will increase in value — TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts: Who Will Win the Short-Video Race?
YouTube Stars Cash In Video Rights for Millions of Dollars
Investors bet the back catalogs of top YouTubers will increase in value
https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-stars-cash-in-video-rights-for-millions-of-dollars-11670883441?mod=djemalertNEWS
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
YouTube expands its tools to reduce toxic comments, sending users a notification when their comment is removed and banning them from commenting for 24 hours
YouTube will send a notification to users if their comment is abusive
https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/13/youtube-will-send-a-notification-to-users-if-their-comment-is-abusive/
oxic and hateful comments on YouTube have been a constant headache for the company, creators and users. The company has previously attempted to curtail this by introducing features such as showing an alert to individuals at the time of posting so that they could be more considerate. Now, the streaming service is introducing a new feature that will more aggressively nudge such individuals of their abusive comments and take broader actions.
YouTube says it will send a notification to people whose abusive comments have been removed for violating the platform’s rules. If despite receiving the notification a user continues to post abusive comments, the service will ban them from posting any more comments for 24 hours. The company said it tested the feature before the rollout today and found that notifications and timeouts proved materially successful.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is the IKEA record player any good? FULL REVIEW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwlwRhrcgQE
In this video I unbox and test the new OBEGRÄNSAD manual record player from IKEA, Is it any good? I will say, it wasn’t what I expected…
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/15/supercon-2022-sam-mulvey-shows-you-how-to-fm-radio/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/15/sonos-speakers-free-to-sing-again/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple Music will offer adjustable vocal volume to millions of songs
https://www.thefader.com/2022/12/06/apple-music-sing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Check out James Bruton’s robotic camera operator
https://blog.arduino.cc/2022/12/16/check-out-james-brutons-robotic-camera-operator/
We’re ages past the time when a YouTuber could get away with sloppy camera work. If someone wants to achieve any level of success making videos today, they need near-professional camera equipment. But even that equipment isn’t enough if it’s still used for static shots. Many makers build sliders and other rigs, but James Bruton skipped those small steps and jumped straight to a versatile robotic camera operator.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uusi näyttöliitäntästandardi sulautettuihin laitteisiin
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14390-uusi-naeyttoeliitaentaestandardi-sulautettuihin-laitteisiin
DISCON on nimeltään Mikroen kehittämä uusi avoin sulautettujen laitteiden näyttöliitännän standardi. Neljä vuotta työn alla ollut standardi määrittää liitännät sekä näyttökortin kannalle (socket) että liittimelle. Liitäntään voidaan liittää TFT-, OLED-, eInk- tai mikä tahansa näyttö.
DISCON on fyysisesti 2 x 20 -nastainen liitin, jossa on kaksi I2C-linjaa, 8 nastaa GPIO-linjoille, datanastoja aina 24-bittistä liitäntää varten sekä kaksi nastaa tehon syöttämiselle näyttökortille (Display Card). Nastat ovat normaalit jännite ja maa.
https://cdn.mikroe.com/cms/discon/discon-standard-guidelines-2022-final.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
OPPO lupaa Bluetoothiin kaapelitasoisen äänen
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14388-oppo-lupaa-bluetoothiin-kaapelitasoisen-aeaenen
OPPO lupaa Bluetoothiin kaapelitasoisen äänen
Julkaistu: 16.12.2022
Devices Embedded
Älypuhelimissa on yhä vaikeampaa erottautua kilpailussa. Joskus etua voi hakea omasta iirisuunnittelusta. Kiinalainen OPPO on tehnyt niin uuden Bluetooth-piirisarjansa kanssa. Sen myötä yhtiö lupaa tuoda kaapelitasoisen audion Bluetoothin kautta.
Bluetooth-äänentoisto on aina aiheuttanut kinaa ja keskustelua. Vuonna 2004 Bluetoothilla siirrettiin musiikkia ensimmäisen kerran, mutta silloinen 328 kilobitin striimi ei yltänyt edes MP3-musiikin laatuun.Qualcommin aptX-koodekki kykeni siirtämään 16-bittistä 44,1 kilohertsin signaalia Bluetooth-linkin yli, jolloin puhuttiin jo CD-tasoisesta musiikista.
OPPO vie kehityksen uudelle tasolle. Omassa Inno Day 2022 -tapahtumassa se esitteli MariSillicon Y -audiopiirin, joka nostaa Bluetooth-linkin kaistan 12 megabittiin sekunnissa. TSMC:n 6 nanometrin RF-piireille optimoitu prosessi siirtää siis 50 prosenttia enemmän bittejä kuin tähän asti tehokkain Bluetooth-audiopiiri.
Linkin yli voidaan siirtää 24-bittistä 192 kilohertsillä näytteistettyä audiostriimiä. Tämä ei onnistu vanhoilla koodekeilla, joten MariSilicon Y -piirillä ajetaan OPPOn kehittämää uutta URLC-koodekkia. Kyseessä on häviötön audiosignaali, ensimmäistä kertaa maailmassa, kuten OPPO hehkuttaa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
Netflix, HBO Max, and other streaming services scale back on experimental content that caters to smaller audiences, amid rising costs and increased competition — For a few years, there was a boon of content, and we were all wonderfully spoiled. And now that’s over. — It’s over.
The golden age of the streaming wars has ended
https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/14/23507793/streaming-wars-hbo-max-netflix-ads-residuals-warrior-nun
For a few years, there was a boon of content, and we were all wonderfully spoiled. And now that’s over.
It’s over. For the last half-decade, we’ve enjoyed a golden age in entertainment. The rise of the streaming service has brought more TV and film into our homes than ever before. It’s been a joy — and sometimes a chore — to keep up with every new offering Netflix, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and the rest put before us. But over the last few months, we’ve seen a reorientation of how many of these services do business, and it’s clear that this glut of content we’ve enjoyed, for the mere cost of a monthly subscription, is about to end. Some of us are going to keenly feel the pain of that more than others.
Before streaming changed the landscape of Hollywood, it was a very different place. It could take writers years to become showrunners, and the number of plum roles for a new star was few and far between. There was a lot of reality TV — particularly on cable — but scripted television was limited to just a handful of channels. The owners of those channels were in a brutal competition for your eyeballs, crafting prestige show after prestige show to arrest our attention. From 1999, with the premiere of The Sopranos, to somewhere in the mid-2010s, there was a Golden Age of TV.
Then the streaming wars came, and let’s be real: it was a blast. It was another golden age. Netflix started pouring money into Hollywood in an effort to build a cache of big hits so it could compete with the likes of Disney and Warner Brothers and MGM who owned most of the biggest franchises. But while Netflix has struggled to build big franchises outside of Stranger Things, Bridgerton, and The Witcher (the latter two are based on hugely popular book series), it was churning out a lot of content, effectively throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
And it felt like everyone else followed suit. The rival streamers all clearly had their own content strategies
That experimentation was a particular boon for marginalized communities. Because when the distribution channels for TV and film were limited to a number of timeslots on cable and in the theaters, Hollywood was cautious — only putting money into films and TV that would appeal to the widest audience, which meant film and TV was very male-oriented, very white, and very, very straight.
The streaming wars opened up more avenues of distribution, which meant more action shows with women as the leads, comedies that didn’t need a white dude or a big-time comedian to anchor them, and dramas with a happy ending and a title character that was queer. We often like to measure diversity in entertainment by “firsts,” and in the last few years, we’ve racked up more firsts than in a dozen preceding years.
But these unprecedented times, where we had so much scripted content available that Hollywood faced a showrunner shortage, are coming to a close.
Last month, Netflix’s co-CEO Reed Hastings appeared at The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit to talk about the platform and streaming in general. He was candid about the need for Netflix to make money and made it clear that he’d take the successes where he would get them regardless of the cultural costs
TV shows suddenly being canceled with entire episodes shelved was relatively common pre-streaming. There were limited slots to air stuff on TV, and TV channels would rather air an old rerun than the final episode of a little-watched show if it meant it could sell pricier ads against that rerun.
In the streaming world, there’s infinite shelf space, which theoretically means it doesn’t matter how many people watch a thing already commissioned and produced as long as someone watches it. This is why a pre-Zaslav HBO Max had no problem showcasing abruptly ended shows like Swamp Thing and that Flash series from the ’90s.
But you still have to pay creators residuals, and Zaslav is going to avoid doing that if he thinks the audience on a specific show is too small compared to the money he has to pay to keep that content on his service. And the price of keeping those shows in perpetuity on a streaming service is probably going to get more expensive soon, too. In 2023, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild will all negotiate new contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and streaming residuals are going to be a major point of discussion.
And to keep up with the rising costs of creating and maintaining content on these services (and, to be clear, I am all for paying creators appropriately for their content), streamers won’t just be looking to secure your subscriptions — they’re gonna want to sell your viewership against ads, which now every major streamer offers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Inside A Super-Cheap Projector? Not A Lot!
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/18/whats-inside-a-super-cheap-projector-not-a-lot/
[Raymond Ma] has a penchant for browsing Aliexpress and purchasing curious pieces of hardware that are as high on promises as they are low on cost. This is a process he aptly sums up with his opening line of “I should have known better, but…” Luckily, these devices all get torn down and analyzed so we can each enjoy and share a little slice of disappointment.
One such item is the $30 USD YT200 mini projector, which at 320×180 is almost as low on pixels as it is on cost. Still, [Raymond] looks inside to find out if there is perhaps more hacking potential than there is image resolution.
The YT200 lacks any kind of normal video input, and the anemic 15 lumen output is brazenly branded as a feature to protect children’s eyes from excessive brightness.
Light from the single LED is collimated with some Fresnel lenses. That light passes through an LCD panel, and from there the image bounces off a mirror and through a focusing lens housed in a spiral guide. Focal adjustments are made with a small lever, and the whole assembly provides just enough friction to prevent the lens from moving out of focus on its own.
http://167.172.222.165/teardown-yt200-mini-projector-pixels-so-big-and-so-few/
Tomi Engdahl says:
35mm Film Restoration Process Explained
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/19/35mm-film-restoration-process-explained/
For a large part of the 20th century, motion pictures were distributed on nitrate film. Although cheaper for the studios, this film was highly flammable and prone to decay. On top of that, most film prints were simply discarded once they had been through their run at the cinema, so a lot of film history has been lost.
Sometimes, the rolls of projected film would be kept by the projectionist and eventually found by a collector. If the film was too badly damaged to project again, it might still get tossed. Pushing against this tide of decay and destruction are small groups of experts who scan and restore these films for the digital age.
The process is quite involved – starting with checking every single frame of film by hand and repairing any damaged perforations or splices that could come apart in the scanner. Each frame is then automatically scanned at up to 10K resolution to future-proof the process before being painstakingly digitally cleaned.
How a 100-Year-Old Animated Film Is Restored!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOgaMnwRrQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D-Printed Film Scanner Brings Family Memories Back To Life
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/04/3d-printed-film-scanner-brings-family-memories-back-to-life/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Photography, The Stereo Way
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/19/photography-the-stereo-way/
Most consumer-grade audio equipment has been in stereo since at least the 1960s, allowing the listener to experience sounds with a three-dimensional perspective as if they were present when the sound was originally made. Stereo photography has lagged a little behind the stereo audio trend, though, with most of the technology existing as passing fads or requiring clumsy hardware to experience fully. Not so with the DIY stereoscopic cameras like this one produced by this group of 3D photography enthusiasts, who have also some methods to view the photos in 3D without any extra hardware.
D.I.Y. Stereo Macro Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcuBFhz_7H8
https://photo-3d.groups.io/g/main
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a 100-Year-Old Animated Film Is Restored!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOgaMnwRrQ
In a century of animated cinema, the importance of animator Max Flesicher cannot be overstated. Fleischer created Betty Boop, produced the original Popeye and Superman cartoons, and also invented the Rotoscope. Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored is on a mission to restore the films of Max Fleischer from original prints and negatives. We visited the team and restoration expert Steve Stanchfield at Blackhawk Films, a film scanning facility in Southern California to learn about the restoration process and watch a classic Koko the Clown short brought back to life.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We Bought HD Movies on Cassette Tape and They’re AMAZING! – D-VHS and D-Theater
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papQ8xQxizA
DVHS was a flash in the pan in the early 2000s, bringing 1080i content to tape. Why did it fail, who bought these things, and most importantly was it even any good?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Indiana Jones Without FX – Things You Didn’t Notice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFRcmZ4d2SU
Nowadays, with computer generated imagery, it’s a lot easier to achieve supernatural FX in movies. But, back in the day when computers were still figuring out how to CGI, moviemakers would often have to come up with many weird and wonderful techniques in order to achieve the desired effect while still looking halfway decent.
And I can’t think of a better example to demonstrate some of these ingenious techniques than the Indiana Jones movies.
So, in this video we’re going to answer these questions and also discover just why the original Indiana Jones films turned out to be as good as they are!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/ijoys-chase-face-and-object-tracking-widget-a-robot-or-tripod-it-isnt/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter Blue users can now upload 60-minute long videos
https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/22/twitter-blue-users-can-now-upload-60-minute-long-videos/?tpcc=tcplusfacebook
After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk had long promised that the company is working toward making the platform more appealing to video creators. Today, Twitter updated the Twitter Blue page declaring that subscribers can now upload 60-minute-long videos from the web at 1080p resolution and 2GB in file size.
Tomi Engdahl says:
20 of the Most Viewed YouTube Videos of all Time [Updated Daily]
https://influencermarketinghub.com/most-viewed-youtube-videos/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Avatar 2 Just Dealt A Devastating Blow To Movie Theaters
Avatar 2′s paltry movie theater opening left AMC, Cinemark, IMAX, and Disney dropping in prices per share in the stock market.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/avatar-2-devastation-blow-theaters.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why do we hate the sound of our own voices?
Does the voice in your head castigate the voice coming out of a recording device?
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/why-we-hate-the-sound-of-our-own-voices/#Echobox=1671411974-1
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/27/lo-fi-fun-beer-can-microphones/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/22/bbc-world-service-turns-90/
It is amazing both because it started so simply and when you think how far communications have progressed in just a scant 100 years.
Today, the BBC World Service broadcasts in over 40 languages distributing content via radio, TV, satellite, and the Internet. Hard to imagine it started with four people who were authorized to spend 10 pounds a week.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing Bluetooth LE Audio
March 22, 2022
The Bluetooth SIG’s new Bluetooth LE Audio set of standards consists of a comprehensive set of specifications designed to support the next 20 years of audio development.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/communications/article/21236893/bluetooth-sig-introducing-bluetooth-le-audio?utm_source=EG+ED+Connected+Solutions&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS221222033&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
Benefits derived from the new Bluetooth LE Audio standards and specs.
The arrival of Bluetooth broadcast audio.
A look at how the broadcast streams work.
Over the last 20 years, Bluetooth wireless technology has become the standard for personal audio. From its initial use in headsets for hands-free mobile calls, it has encompassed high-quality music streaming, growing in popularity with the increasing availability of smartphones and streaming applications. The arrival of Apple’s AirPods and the subsequent enthusiasm for earbuds has resulted in this becoming the fastest-growing consumer product sector we’ve ever seen.
Requirements from the hearing-aid industry prompted Bluetooth LE Audio development. Although separate from the consumer audio market, hearing aids have had to solve many problems that are still challenging for consumer earbuds.
Updating the Basics
At the heart of the new specifications is the move to use Bluetooth Low Energy, released in 2010 as a much lower power option, intended for devices like wearables and health sensors. It has now extended to support multiple audio streams.
The standard has introduced a new audio codec—the LC3—to make audio even lower power. The LC3 has been optimized to support both voice and music applications, providing the same subjective quality as current audio codecs at around half the bit rate. This means that smaller amounts of information need to be transmitted, lowering the power consumption and reducing the likelihood of interference from other radio sources.
Designers can use such new flexibility to reduce power and increase battery life. Alternatively, they can transmit multiple streams for spatial audio, support multiple languages, or use the extra resources they have gained for more efficient audio algorithms, like noise cancellation.
Broadcast Audio: A New User Experience
Those features improve today’s wireless audio experience, but the real game-changer introduces a broadcast capability. At its simplest, this allows a transmitter to send the same audio streams to multiple devices. Since the arrival of Sony’s Walkman, back in 1979, friends have shared earbuds to listen to music. With Bluetooth LE Audio, you really can cut the cables, allowing any number of people to listen to the same audio stream.
However, this isn’t just about sharing personal music from your phone.
Broadcast audio can be used for public announcements, such as travel information. That’s a use case similar to what hearing-aid wearers can experience today with the inductive loop telecoil system. With Bluetooth LE Audio, this capability can extend to high-quality music received by any LE Audio earbud or hearing aid.
These broadcast transmitters will be low cost and easy to install. Therefore, any venue, such as a gym, bar, or coffee shop, can provide multiple audio streams for their customers, either as background music or to provide audio to accompany multiple TVs.
Finding and connecting to these streams is simple and doesn’t require pairing. These broadcast streams include metadata that describes their content, allowing users to select what they want to hear if there are multiple different broadcasters.
In the same way that phones can detect Wi-Fi access points, a similar scan can provide a list of broadcast audio streams within range
Clicking on any broadcast sources would switch your earbuds to receiving the selected audio stream. The audio would go directly from the broadcast source to your earbuds—the phone only acts as a controller, essentially becoming a remote control.
The broadcast streams also can be encrypted and authenticated, making them prime for ad-hoc, private conversations, such as talking to someone at a ticket desk or hotel reception. It means that you’re likely to wear an earbud for longer, much like a hearing-aid user; thus, the lower power consumption of LE Audio is particularly beneficial.
Because broadcasts are one way, they take advantage of the higher link budget from an infrastructure transmitter to the earbud (the reverse link budget is limited by power constraints and antenna size within an earbud or hearing aid). The range is therefore significantly greater than conventional Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Hence, a single broadcast transmitter can cover large rooms and venues.
Wide-Ranging Support
The new Bluetooth LE specifications support an extensive range of applications. The industry support has been excellent, with multiple silicon vendors offering compliant chips for transmitters (typically phones, TVs, and independent broadcast devices) as well as for earbuds, headphones, and speakers.
The underlying Core features were introduced in the 5.2 release, which means that many devices are already hardware-capable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Film Is Dead. Long Live Film, Say Pentax
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/29/film-is-dead-long-live-film-say-pentax/
If your answer to the question “When did you last shoot a roll of film” is “Less than two decades ago”, the chances are that you’re a camera enthusiast, and that the camera you used was quite old. Such has been the switch from film to digital, that the new film camera is a rarity. Pentax think there may be an opening in the older format though, as they’ve announced in the videos below the break that they’re working on a fresh range of film cameras to serve the enthusiast market.
PENTAX Film Project Story #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXUmpqY3nWQ
Perhaps more interesting in the revival of interest in film is that it comes at a point when designing and making your own camera has almost never been easier. If you’re bored waiting for the new Pentax, make your own!
Shutter Bug Goes Extreme With Scratch-Built Film Camera
https://hackaday.com/2018/04/15/shutter-bug-goes-extreme-with-scratch-built-film-camera/
https://imgur.com/gallery/QZ0cj
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.laptopmag.com/features/five-ways-to-enhance-audio-on-your-android-phone
Tomi Engdahl says:
Erkki Rantalainen loi autotallissa keksinnön, joka näkyy nyt kaikissa NHL-peleissä
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000009289589.html
Erkki Rantalainen, 74, on ylpeä keksinnöstään, jonka avulla tuotetaan NHL:n virtuaaliset laitamainokset. Rikastumiseen Rantalaisen älynväläys ei kuitenkaan ole johtanut.
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000009289589.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
My Android TV went bust this year and I won’t buy another one anytime soon
The terrible software update experience has put me off Android TVs, possibly forever.
https://www.androidauthority.com/android-tv-update-problem-3241842/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robot Rebellion Brings Back BBC Camera Operators
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/30/robot-rebellion-brings-back-bbc-camera-operators/
The modern TV news studio is a masterpiece of live video and CGI, as networks vie for the flashiest presentation. BBC News in London is no exception, and embraced the future in 2013 to the extent of replacing its flesh-and-blood camera operators with robotic cameras. On the face of it this made sense; it was cheaper, and newsroom cameras are most likely to record as set range of very similar shots. A decade later they’re to be retired in a victory for humans, as the corporation tires of the stream of viral fails leaving presenters scrambling to catch up.
Given that a modern TV studio is a tightly controlled space and that detecting the location of the presenter plus whether they are in shot or not should not have been out of reach in 2013, so we’re left curious as to why they haven’t taken this route. Perhaps OpenCV to detect a human, or simply detecting the audio levels on the microphones before committing to a move could do the job. Either way we welcome the camera operators back even if we never see them, though we’ll miss the viral funnies. EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is set to replace the robot cameras in its news channel studio after a string of viral tech fails over the past decade.
The British broadcaster has begun the process of acquiring new automated cameras as it looks to reboot its news channel next year.
The BBC is merging its domestic and international rolling news channels into a single station, resulting in 70 job cuts.
Sources at the BBC said existing robot cameras were showing their age in Studio E, situated in the corporation’s New Broadcasting House headquarters.
Clips of the cameras going rogue often generate interest on social media, as they cut to empty chairs, spin away from presenters, or zoom in and out of shot as the autocue is being read.
The robotic cameras were introduced in 2013 as a way of saving money. Shots can be pre-programmed, meaning camera operators are not required.
“They are driven by automation codes,” said a source. “If a human being fails to remove the wrong automation code or fails to insert the correct automation code in the running order then cameras will do the correct thing, which is actually the unintended thing.”
A second person pointed out, however, that the glitches represent a “tiny proportion” of air time and that the 24-hour news channel is mostly gremlin free.
BBC Replacing Robot News Studio Cameras In Hope Of Consigning Viral Tech Fails To History
https://deadline.com/2022/12/bbc-replacing-robot-news-studio-cameras-1235207592/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Forget Elon Musk and Twitter. One of the biggest tech scandals of 2022 involved vinyl records…
Your expensive analog vinyl record reissue is actually…digital
By Al Griffin last updated August 25, 2022
An audiophile scandal leads to a lawsuit
https://www.techradar.com/features/your-expensive-analog-vinyl-record-reissue-is-actuallydigital?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=techradar&utm_medium=social
Do you know what’s really etched in the grooves of your vinyl record collection? As reported by Billboard (via Pitchfork), a class-action lawsuit has been filed against record reissue label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (Mofi) by a North Carolina resident who claims that the label misrepresented the process used to create its Original Master Recording and Ultradisc One Step releases.
What about those records was misrepresented? According to the lawsuit, the audiophile owners of the best turntables who are buyers of those discs – in this specific case a reissue of the Pretenders’ 1979 debut LP – were expecting them to be produced using a fully analog process, with an original master tape retrieved from a vault used to directly cut a master that would then be sourced to create a very limited run of accordingly high-priced vinyl records.
Instead, Mofi tapped a digital format called DSD (Direct Stream Digital) to create the master used for that Pretenders re-issue, along with many more releases extending back to at least 2011.
The origin of the situation that got Mofi in hot water – a YouTube record reviewer landed a visit to the company’s California mastering facility and was able to get the engineers to admit to using a digital step as part of their process during an otherwise casual interview – along with the social media fallout that followed is well explained in this post by Canadian audiophile journal SoundStage!
As a result of that intense public scrutiny, Mofi issued a statement and interview on its website addressing the controversy. In the interview, company president Jim Davis makes a completely reasonable case for making the switch from analog to digital mastering
The quest for audio truth
As a casual record collector myself, I learned quickly when the recent vinyl revival kicked in and LP releases became standard again that there wasn’t much of a difference to be heard between the LP version of a new recording by bands that I liked and the CD release of the same. The likely reason: identical digital files had been sourced to create both the vinyl and the CD release.
That’s not to say there’s no difference between CD and vinyl mastering.
he told me that less dynamic compression is typically employed for vinyl than for CD. Also, the effects of that should be audible, especially for catalogue re-issues where a vintage vinyl version is available to reference during re-mastering.
I ultimately stopped buying new records but kept on collecting old vinyl that had been issued in the pre-digital audio era. Some of those 1970s analog-era recordings
have no quarrel with them when it comes to sound quality. But, like the complainant in the class-action lawsuit, I too thought these were created using an end-to-end analog process. That was mainly due to Mofi’s marketing on each record’s packaging, which speaks of the company’s Gain 2 Ultra Analog system, and how they strive to “ensure optimum sound quality by strictly limiting the number of pressings for each release.”
To me that’s the language of analog mastering of off-the-master tape, limited batch releases, and at Mofi for the last few years at least, that hasn’t exactly been the case. I won’t be lining up for the class-action suit, but I am glad to see that Mofi has started accurately listing when a digital step is used to produce a specific release on its website – something they should have started doing years ago.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jenni Reid / CNBC:
A look at ABBA Voyage, the hit London concert performed by 3D digital avatars of the band created from motion capture, as its producers plan a global expansion
ABBA’s successful avatar show in London offers a glimpse at a daring new direction for live music
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/29/abba-voyage-avatar-show-in-london-offers-glimpse-of-future-for-live-music.html
ABBA Voyage, which sees digital avatars of the four-piece Swedish band ‘perform’ a 90-minute concert created from motion capture, has proven a hit with critics and fans since launching in May.
Its producers want to take the show around the world and believe it will be replicated in big venues in places like Las Vegas, something industry professionals told CNBC they agreed with.
Questions remain over whether its success could be recreated with another band, and the ethical implications of using it for performances with deceased artists.
Before the launch of “ABBA Voyage,” the London concert performed by 3D digital avatars of the iconic Swedish band, member Björn Ulvaeus said they hoped audiences would “feel that they’ve gone through something that they’ve never seen before.”
Demand has been strong — the show’s run has been extended to November 2023 and could well go beyond that.
And the team has confirmed it aims to take the show around the world.
“Our ambition is to do another ABBA Voyage, let’s say in North America, Australasia, we could do another one in Europe. We can duplicate the arena and the show,” producer Svana Gisla told a U.K. government committee session in November.
It also expects other shows to begin following the same model.
“The tech itself isn’t new but the way in which we’ve used it and scale and barriers we’ve broken down are new. I’m sure others will follow and are planning to follow,” Gisla said.
That could “absolutely” be the case somewhere like Las Vegas, where some shows run round the clock with rotating crews, she added.
“We have live musicians, so we keep our band and do seven shows over five days a week. But you could roll round the clock. Vegas will quickly adopt this style of entertainment and do Elvis or the Beatles.”
Voyage’s venue, dubbed the ABBA Arena, was built specifically for the show on a site in Stratford in east London, with its 3,000 capacity comprising a standing pit, tiered seats along three sides with no restricted view, and higher-priced private “dance booths,″ as well as space for the extensive kit positioned in the roof and what creators White Void say is the largest permanent kinetic lighting installation in the world.
It was also designed for flexibility. It was constructed on a one meter raised platform without breaking ground, and could be disassembled and reconstructed elsewhere — or stay in place and host another show in future.
But emulating Voyage’s model — which sees digital replicas of the four band members perform classic hits and newer numbers for 90 minutes, while also interacting with each other and speaking to the audience between songs — will be no easy task.
The show was in the works for five years and had a £141 million ($174.9 million) budget funded by global investors. It needs to get around 3 million people through its doors to break even, according to Gisla, and the average ticket price is £75.
The Voyage team is tight-lipped about exactly how their show works, but previously confirmed it is not a laser-based hologram either. It involves 65-million pixel screens which give the impression of the band performing life-size on stage in 3D in real time, with traditional-style concert screens showing close-ups and different views on either side.
Its servers are being pushed to the “absolute extreme” to render the images without lag,
But, she added, with real-time render speeds becoming quicker, “Benny and Bjorn could be sitting in a chair at home connected to their avatar, updating them to talk about last night’s football result to the audience. That will come.”
onsultant Sarah Cox said the kind of processing and motion capture technology used by Voyage is still prohibitively expensive for most productions, but believes it is a “brand-new format that will be replicated time and time again,” particularly somewhere like Las Vegas.
There is also the question of finding suitable artists for shows. ABBA is a rare proposition as a band with a large catalogue of hits, a multi-generational worldwide fanbase, and a full set of members who are on-board with the show — but who have not toured together for 40 years.
For an artist like Elvis with an extensive visual and audio archive you could create an accurate replica, but without the input that makes this show feel so tangible, she said.
For Cox, live shows that provide a “shared experience” like ABBA Voyage hold a greater appeal than headset-based virtual experiences, though there will certainly be more of those available in future.
And both AR and VR are spreading in the worlds of gaming, events, sports, theater and beyond.
Digital avatar experiments have included musician Travis Scott premiering a song within the wildly popular game Fortnite in 202
Lil Nas X performed the same year in the game Roblox.
Jo Twist, chief executive of trade body UK Interactive Entertainment, said she was noticing growing opportunities in the intersections between games, music and entertainment experiences.
“AR has permitted us to create a full show for broadcast events that would be impossible with traditional projection and LED setups, like creating huge 10-meter flying numbers and flames around the arena,” she said.
“We see this developing into a full experience for people to watch live and, as the word says, augmenting the reality around us, gamifying, interacting and seeing impossible things happen.”