Sitting in Tuttle talking to Julian Maynard Smith AHRC research fellow in telematic theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama about a project he wants to base at C4CC.

An example of previous work is HERE

Julian is looking for collaborators to work with especially people interested in realtime video and telematics, networks and other wizzy stuff.  Please get in touch if you'd like to find out more!

The proposal is for a collaboration using the expertise of people working in the areas of theatre/performance and new media/IT. The aim is to set up a system for telematic theatre based on video streaming and interactive technologies.  This would be dedicated to developing ways to bring live performance from different locations into a single production.

The question is how the core quality of theatre as being a live event witnessed by an audience in a shared space, subject to degrees of physicality, unpredictability and interaction, is modified by the use of media and where this will lead in terms of the possibilities of live theatre and performance.
The assumption of the project is that it is possible to maintain the attributes of human presence in a performance space that is highly mediatised, although in new forms.
 
The specific aims of this collaboration are:
1)  to create, as close as possible, a plug-and-play telematic system that is available to a wide range of users, inside and outside of the institution.  This implies ease of use by non-technical users and affordability.
2) to explore how the spatial, aural and physical qualities of the live theatrical experience can be maintained in modified form when performers and/or audience are distributed in space.

The project has at present one specific production scheduled, a piece designed to explore the spatial qualities of distant locations via moving cameras and projectors, to be presented at The Roundhouse on 12th and 13th December 2011.  After this further developments are anticipated, including extending the collaboration internationally.

The video-streaming system developed so far uses an axis video encoder to stream to the web, and decoding by VLC, which has the advantage of being more flexible than QT and being able to have multiple versions on one PC.   Thus a single PC is able to receive/display four channels of video.  This system allows high-quality streaming to multiple screens with low latency, allowing free-flowing interaction between performers in different locations.

In the Roundhouse project, cameras and projectors in two locations rotate at identical speeds, so that an image of the distant location is projected onto the walls as if through a moving window, scanning the world beyond.  The speed and direction of the motors are controlled from either location via Isadora.  The sound is automatically panned through four speakers, so that the sound follows the picture as it moves across the walls.  
For simplicity of use, all devices at any location are linked via a dedicated router to the available network.  One of the locations will be outdoors, in a rural or semi-rural setting, using a 3G connection.

The technical aims for the proposed collaboration are to establish:

• workable, 3G-enabled mobile set-up.
• a simple, plug-and-play network solution.  
• a system with minimal latency.
• a solution for sound that minimises the sound echo or feedback while allowing performers and audience alike to hear clearly.
• a set-up that allows for further investigation in interactivity between locations, using sensors, electro-mechanical devices, etc..