Welcome To The Digital World

WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL WORLD

With more artists then ever exploring the possibilities of virtual gigs, TPi’s Stew Hume and Jacob Waite explore the opportunities for those looking to replace line arrays and lighting rigs with lines of code and avatars – as live music and the gaming industry joins forces for a whole new breed of live event…

During this unpredictable time for the music industry, artists still hoping to perform have been faced with two options: livestreaming or socially distant outdoor events. The former has taken many guises over the past three months, ranging from intimate acoustic shows in artists’ front rooms, to more high-tech solutions filmed from bespoke studio spaces. The latter option has seen several drive-in shows take place which, in a few short months, have already seen an upswing in popularity within Europe and the UK.

While both solutions have produced their fair share of success stories, there is now a third option that is gaining ground – one we had certainly not predicted that we’d be covering in our pages any time soon: Virtual events, which have made headlines across the globe, with artists entering the gaming sphere and performing for a virtual crowd.

In M ay, we looked back on one of the most unique tours of the year: Hatsune Miku’s EXPO 2020 EUROPE. The Yamaha Vocaloid 2’s Character Vocal Series software was considered the first truly crowd-created virtual talent on the circuit. “The live entertainment industry has changed massively, with bans on public gatherings and the surge of virtual gigs online,” SFX Technician, Natalie Frew explained. “Shows are going to change, and everyone is looking for something unique to promote.”

And how right she was. Since lockdown, there has been a proliferation of instances where the music and gaming worlds have collided. Perhaps the most notable example is Travis Scott’s performance in Fortnite to an audience of 12 million players.

A ga rgantuan feat, the TPi team was keen to explore the concept further – and we’re not the only ones. It seems that a number of people on our side of the aisle have already shown interest in this new form of live events, and many show designers, LDs and content creators who often feature in the pages of TPi are starting to look at the virtual world as a viable – not to mention profitable – alternative under the current circumstance. What’s

more, it seems that this style of live event is not simply a stopgap while the world is still in lockdown, but a genuine option for the future live landscape.

In many ways, the conjoining of gaming and live events has been in the pipeline for several years – for example, the development of previsualisation software and CAD solutions similar to video games.

“The gaming world is currently the only platform that has cracked the latency issue of streaming an event,” Fireplay CEO, Nick Whitehouse commented. “Players from all over the world can play Call of Duty online and everybody is completely in sync – there’s no delay between interaction with users from across the world.”

Wh itehouse explained how the TPi Award-winning creative design and production outfit has been depending heavily on the technology gamifying live events. “Using gaming-like sync techniques and next-generation customised visualisation software, we can offer a virtual audience to anything, from sitcoms and awards shows, to sports, gigs, conferences, and product launches.”

Indeed, Syncronorm’s Depence² inbuilt 3D engine allows end users to simulate and visualise fountains, stage lighting, lasers, video and special effects in real time, with its environmental rendering capabilities – such as changing the location, time and the positioning of the sun – allowing users to integrate a multimedia show into a natural environment.

“I r ecently presented visuals to a client of a big urban show, and the visualisation included animated rappers on stage through Depence². To a client, that was staggering,” TPi Awards Lighting Designer of the Year, Tim Routledge, told TPi. “As soon as you show clients realistic special effects and pyrotechnics, they’re impressed immediately.”

During these unprecedented times, it is difficult to foresee the upcoming changes and challenges that the touring industry may face and, with the lockdown of live events in full effect, more production teams and artists are turning to livestreams as an alternative revenue stream. However, according to Whitehouse, broadcasting live music over video conferencing software successfully in real time from multiple locations is simply not an option for most artists. “There is very little on the market to do so, affordably, because it’s never really been a problem the industry has encountered before.”

Wi th that in mind, Fireplay set out to try and find out a way to remedy the issue, which has led the company to work closely with a number of

live events specialists in PRG’s 35LIVE!, Blink TV and Total VU. “We were all interested in trying to make this concept work,” Whitehouse explained.

With the collective expertise, financial backing and leads into other sectors that are pioneering technology in this field, Fireplay has managed to bridge the gap – delving deeper into the vortex of virtual concert solutions. “It ultimately led us to uncover how to get the band in harmony, but now we must conquer the challenge of getting artists to perform to a centrally distributed click track or a monitor mix in harmony, which is something we’ve been developing steadily since March.”

VR/AR As an enthusiastic proponent of virtual reality, MelodyVR was founded with the vision of providing fans with a new and exciting way of experiencing the live music they love, regardless of their location, age or financial means, and with a view that the company or content would never seek to replace the thrill of attending concerts, festivals or tours in person.

Sp eaking ahead of the launch of Wireless Connect, Wireless’ answer to a summer festival in a COVID-19 world, was Melody VR Production Director, Mike Darling. “The company’s capabilities are pushed by every new project,” he commented. “The teams across the company adapt to the new challenge – the equipment has to meet new demands and new capacity, and the app has to be able to handle and deliver on the new demands we place on it, so that any new viewer’s experience of it will be as positive as possible. We know we might have one chance to impress and win over a new audience.”

In VR, Darling explained, the environment is more intimate, and the artist can perform with more subtlety. “The audience are stood in the room, or on the stage with the artist, which is a treat you wouldn’t get even with the best kind of VIP pass,” he stated. “We also give our audience the freedom to look around and move positions like you might at an actual event. Fans appreciate this hugely and it sets our experience apart from a 2D TV-style broadcast where a director decides what you look at.”

It is said that creativity thrives under constraint and the lockdown is no different. “There’s been a lot of rethinking generally, and artists and labels have been looking for a creative outlet, whereby they can connect with their audience in a fresh way and with a quality production,” Darling stated. “It also gives them ideas of what they can do without being able to travel

Fireplay CEO, Nick Whitehouse; Satore Studio’s Creative Director, Tupac Martir.

to their audience. They might start to think of what’s possible in VR, and benefits of this for them and their audience. It will create a different playing field where we are thinking in new ways that might prove more sustainable for artists, promoters, suppliers and the environment long term.”

As a company that has deep-rooted experience with virtual events and immersive content, MelodyVR is well positioned to benefit the music industry, including promoters, artists, managers and record labels – many of whom are unable to conduct their business operations as usual.

“Our studio facility in LA and the production we have created for Wireless Connect in London are custom designed to maintain stringent safety standards while creating the highest possible quality content, leveraging our unique skillset of broadcasting immersive performances digitally via the MelodyVR platform,” Darling furthered. “Many more people are now aware of VR and open to using it, and the barriers to it are low, given anyone can download the app for free onto a phone or tablet and begin using it with ease. This has fast-forwarded artist and audience engagement with the tech, format and platform.”

Satore Studio’s Creative Director, Tupac Martir is a stalwart of the virtual production realm. Having spent the past 12 weeks of lockdown in his London studio, often assuming the unofficial IT role, he sat down with TPi – remotely – to reflect on the digital landscape.

“This isn’t a fad or a spur-of-the-moment thing; VR/AR is a part of the creativity that exists within the studio, which we have been working with since 2015 – it is part of our DNA,” Martir explained. “A lot of what we’ve been working on is understanding shows as performative art and experiencing them in different realities; by understanding how to do things in different realities, we’re able to explore innovative ways and present new possibilities for how a show could work.”

He s aid despite the growing enthusiasm and buzz around the concept, not much is being spent on it just yet – understandable, given the uncertain landscape. “Artists would much prefer to get involved in drive-in shows,” Martir acknowledged. “The industry has had to adapt. Suddenly, media servers are more prevalent than ever – commissioning content months in advance, and three days of rehearsals in order to sync everything. It’s more than cutting cameras – there are all sorts of creative avenues to explore.”

Wh en COVID-19 rocked the industry, the response from Satore’s virtual production studio was to act creatively, positively and quickly – sharing its signature blend of architecture, light, magic, and storytelling to create a unique and eye-catching live music collaboration with electronic musician and producer, VAAL.

Giving his views on the digital event, Martir commented: “The idea to work on this project came from a love of creativity and a joy in sharing new visual experiences made possible by cutting-edge virtual production techniques. The set provides an array of stunning, dynamic visuals enabling fans, producers and creatives to have fresh conversations about what they have experienced whilst also creating a valuable platform for Satore to support Music Venues Trust and Black Lives Matter charities, who are striving for a fairer future.”

Given the widespread lockdown of live events, production teams and artists are now presented with a landscape where any mass-gatherings or public events are prohibited, which is extremely damaging to both artists and to the music industry. Is there another way of touring? Martir thinks so.

“The concept of going on the road for nine months and not eating or sleeping well isn’t for everyone,” he commented. “We’re looking at ways of finding the correct balance, which is important. We need to support all facets of the industry, from caterers to technicians. I can’t wait to do shows again, but we need to understand the humanity of touring and find ways of bringing very capable human beings into other parts of the industry.”

While a virtual audience can never replace the energy and excitement of ‘traditional’ live events, if such a term exists, new interactive experiences

are becoming increasingly available. In May, XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime US television, when Katy Perry performed her latest single, Daisies, on the season finale of American Idol.

Th e project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the production vendor.

In J une, French musician Jean-Michel Jarre performed live in a specially designed virtual world, broadcast in real time across digital platforms, in 3D and 2D. “Everyone could share the experience via PC, tablets, smartphones, or in total immersion on interactive VR headsets,” Matir said. “Even though they had headsets, it was immersive, and they could experience this organic moment with people across the world.”

Wh itehouse referred to recent advancements in virtual audiences in the sporting world – thanks to a virtual stand, fans of the Danish Superliga side AGF Aarhus were able to watch their club’s season opener against Randers in May despite COVID-19 restrictions. The screens allowed fans to show their support – and let the players hear them. Visions of the legendary, sheepskin-clad Match of the Day commentator, John Motson harking back to the age-old adage of football fans being 12th player on the pitch, seemingly now more relevant than ever.

Ho wever, despite the ingenuity of sports clubs, it’s video conferencing software that needs to be revamped to become a worthy challenger in the battle for digital audience solutions. “Everything that currently exists has latency in it,” Whitehouse explained. “You don’t want someone scoring a goal and the crowd reacting 30 seconds later, so what we’ve been working on at Fireplay applies across the spectrum of live events.”

Te levision channels have also begun dubbing behind-closed-doors games with pre-existing video game crowd noise. “I don’t think we’ll ever fully replace the live experience,” Whitehouse commented. “Nowadays, you can tune into a sports match and follow the action much closer than you would in person. However, people still choose to attend these matches in their thousands for the live experience; there’s something about the live experience you simply cannot replicate – the emotion and feeling closely associated with music, which simply doesn’t always translate on the big screen.”

Ma rtir signalled the emergence of eSports as a contributing factor to the gamification of live events. “At a certain point, our industry started serving eSports, so it was a matter of time for the gaming engines to infiltrate the live touring and events industry. I don’t even like to call them gaming engines anymore – I just call them engines, because they are multifaceted and have given us the opportunity to create all sorts of things,” he commented.

“I f you think about the reach of Travis Scott’s Fortnite gig, for example, millions of people tuned in to watch and experience that moment live, in a matter of minutes,” he said. “Imagine how long it would take him to go on tour and be seen by that number of people. It’s a scary time for artists who must shell out more for production, having no income other than streaming services.”

De spite making significant strides over the past few years, Whitehouse was aware that emerging technologies still had a long way to go, in-order to bring ‘real-life’ gig experiences to people’s homes. “As virtual events come to the forefront, they will require more incentives and interactivity to keep audiences engaged,” he continued. “The virtual space is new for all of us, but it’s great for the music industry – especially because it’s forcing us to think outside the box. While the XR world doesn’t necessarily require the same audio, lighting and video specialists as live, it does require creatives to develop and produce a unique visual world, which is also our world...”

EVENTS ALREADY IN THE PIPELINE In a few months, there have already been some interesting collaborations taking place from Zoom calls across the globe. One such project is Lost Horizon. Brought to life by the team behind Shangri-La, in partnership with VRJAM and Sansar, Lost Horizon was a two-day event, in which gig-goers were able to create a virtual avatar – either via a VR interface or simply from their computer – and interact with the largest ever virtual music and arts festival.

Wi th four virtual stages, including a replica of the iconic ShangriLa Gas Tower, gig-goers were promised a truly immersive experience where they could not only enjoy sets from the likes of Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and Pete Tong to name but a few, but also interact in real time with fellow attendees – all from the comfort of their own homes. Prior to the

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weekend’s festival, TPi got a chance to speak to Robin Collings – Producer of Shangri-La, as well as Head of Production at Boomtown – about the experience of swapping his usual summer of muddy boots and festival fields for the novel world of virtual gigs.

“L ike the entire industry, the reality began to dawn on us earlier in the year that most of our work would be postponed and – as is our nature in the Shangri-La camp – we began to look at other options to keep some essence of this year’s event alive.”

Wh ile coming up with ideas, the team was approached by VRJAM – specifically its CEO, Sam Speaight. “When Sam came to us and explained the idea of a completely virtual show, I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were more than a bit sceptical,” admitted Collings. However, when they were taken on a virtual tour of the Sansar platform and began to see what could be achieved, the metaphorical cogs began to turn.

Sansar, for the uninitiated, has been under development for over five years, built on the trend that live culture and the gaming worlds were starting to get closer together and looking to develop a virtual space where people could enjoy live events.

“W hat really attracted us to the platform was its ability to really show off the work of our visual artist,” explained Collings – commenting on the level of detail that the platform offered all the artists and collaborators that help to make Shangri-La the visual feast it is known as. “Kate Dunnings, our Creative Director, has spent hours upon hours in the past few weeks with her VR headset doing what she usually does on any festival site – walking around and ensuring all the commissioned structures and art pieces are in the correct space – but instead of nuts and bolts, it’s lines of code.”

In a press release prior to the event, Dunnings commented: “We need unity more than ever right now, in an industry that is falling away in front of us. By creating a digital platform to experience art and music in a new way, we are at the forefront of defining the next generation of live entertainment and creative communities as we know them.”

When it came to the performances, there was a mixture of live footage and pre-recorded sets – with artists from across the globe being filmed in specialist green-screen studios that had cropped up in cities around the world. “We already had performances submitted from Manchester, London, New York, LA and Seoul,” stated Collings

But despite working under all these new parameters, Collings asserted that one thing that was of the utmost importance was keeping the core Shangri-La family in place to pull the pieces of this event together. “Having the same team for this project has been really beneficial,” he stated. “We all know how each member of the team works and understand each other’s aesthetic and visual language. Also, the reason for this was to create opportunities and work where it’s fallen away so it felt like the right thing to do to use the same team.” Some of the team were put on a few training courses so they could work out how to optimise their designs for the Sansar Platform – “so as well as creating work, the team will come out of lockdown with a new set of skills,” enthused Collings.

Despite being built on ground-breaking technology, incredibly, Lost Horizons was a free event with no paywall. Collings explained: “It’s all free but there is a donate button and we are raising money for Amnesty International and The Big Issue; there is a lot of heavy stuff going on in the world right now and both organisations need all the help they can get – we are hoping that this event will help to raise a lot of money for both organisations.”

Looking to the future, Collings explained how he expected such technology would be used in the years to come. “We are already looking at another event later in the year. What we are looking at is a future where both a virtual event and a true live event would be able to take place simultaneously. So, in the virtual space, there would be an IMAG screen showing footage of the actual event in the real world and vice versa. We don’t think this will replace live events, but what we do see is an opportunity to expand the reach of the events.”

If y ou want to hear more about Lost Horizon and Wireless Connect, stay tuned for the next issue of TPi, where we will have coverage of the event.

YOU’VE BEEN LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD The more we hear about the ability of these new platforms, the more compelling the idea of a virtual gig seems to be. One thing that all individuals we spoke to for this article seemed to hammer home was that this was not a replacement for live events – but an alternative. As we have seen in the past few months, the ability of streaming has already proved lucrative – see Laura Marling coverage on p26 – but the virtual platforms cropping up seem to be going a set beyond. Who knows, this might not be the last issue of TPi to have a virtual stage grace the cover. Either way, whether you are designing a stage show for a concert or for a simulated experience, it’s the same creatively – just a different paint brush. TPi Photos: Shangri-La, Fireplay, Luke Dyson and Satore Studios. www.fireplay.com www.melodyvr.com www.satorestudio.com www.losthorizonfestival.com