Creative innovation can take the form of new art or surprising mediums, but more and more it seems that the entertainment industry has been leaning on technology to create both. To keep current, awards shows from The Peoples’ Choice Awards to the Grammys have leveraged the keen eye of Cole Walliser and the GlamBot, a camera system taking and slowing down video to create fun and exciting moments of red-carpet celebrities. Even the Oscars saw the benefit of using a live 360 stream to place viewers squarely in the action. More specifically, this uptick can be seen in music events across the world. Much of this thanks to Covid-19 forcing concerts to be reimagined, from connecting with fans to keeping the event exciting and feeling “live.” The industry had really pulled on their creative strings and leaned heavily on some pretty exciting technology to make it happen. Here’s a few refreshing things to think about, inspired by those in the music scene.
A different you
Ever have stage regret? You know, that moment when you wish you wore different shoes (they were too shiny and distracting) or thought you could use a different hair cut? How about showing up as your younger self? Say, a few decades younger.
ABBA came back in a major way doing just this with their recent Voyage Concert in London. This concert celebrated the release of their first new album in 40 years and showcased each band member as they looked in 1979. No, this wasn’t simply an animated video. The members stood on stage in front of a live audience looking like their 1979 selves with individual expressions, movements, and mannerisms. Thanks to motion capture (mocap) and avatar technologies, industry behemoth Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) was able to record and translate ABBA’s essence to the members’ lifelike avatars. Over 160 cameras were used to accurately capture every nuanced motion. A fleet of engineers spanning four ILM studios across the world, in conjunction with 1000 artists, worked tirelessly to bring the golden age of ABBA to present day.
This idea allows for brands to amplify their message – whether it’s to add whimsy or a serious tone to their ambassador, the creative options are endless when you’re not bound by physical limitations.
A different venue
Although, there’s no point in having cool avatars and putting on a show for only a small audience. Lots of brands are demanding bigger and better venues but many haven’t explored the biggest venue of all – the internet.
Fortnite, a video game with an installed monthly active user base of 80 million, has been the venue for the likes of Marshmello, Travis Scott, and Ariana Grande, hosting them as they perform in Fortnight’s virtual world. For fans, these events are easily accessible with very few barriers to entry, both financially and logistically. There’s no flight or hotel booking needed to attend these concerts. The tickets are much lower in cost since the artist themselves don’t have to pay for overhead like venue security, staffing, elaborate sets, lighting and more. Moreover, in an environmentally conscious world, the idea of virtual venues is becoming popular…and lucrative. Take Travis Scott for example. His venture into the digital concert realm netted him $20 million for the single event. Compared to the $1.7 million per night average when he went on his Astroworld tour, it’s quick
to see that virtual venues can bring real world profits.
The venue is no longer just a group of chairs that companies try to fill, it’s a platform that conveniently targets their objective demographic. The venue itself becomes the appeal – all while keeping physical and logistical costs, as well as environmental footprint, low.
A way to be everywhere
We can’t be in two places at once, but what about shouting out to multiple fans all at once?
Global sensation BTS solved this problem with their “Map of the Soul On:e” concert during pandemic times. Not only were they challenged to connect with their fans, they needed to deliver music to them in an engaging way. BTS had a two-fold solution – bring users figurately into their venue by being online, but also showcase these same attendees literally on stage: hundreds of video boxes showing attendees made up the backdrop for the band members as they performed. This ensured their fans, or their ARMY as they’re called, were fully immersed and connected even though the event was virtual. Bringing users into a venue using remote streams was done on shows like Britain’s got Talent, The Voice, or Saturday Night Takeaway. While this isn’t fully new, it was perfected during the pandemic. What might have been mistaken as an early gimmick has now become a draw for audiences to connect and feel like they are a part of an event they love.
To step it up even more, BTS found a way to travel out to their fans during a time when travel was limited. They implemented extended reality (XR) to take the band to new locations and escape the stage itself. To make this happen, BTS members were filmed in a way that allowed surroundings to be removed. Using a specially designed XR stage gave them new virtual surroundings, and because this is not simply green screen technology, they were able to appear and interact with their surroundings more naturally. In the end, leveraging these technologies brought BTS 100 million views across just two nights of the event, considerably more than 40 shows on their “Love Yourself” tour.
The corporate applications for XR used this way are endless – brands can leverage tightly controlled studio space to allow them to record themselves as being virtually anywhere, from a made up world to one of their offices. Information, data, and graphics can be live imposed and interacted with in this virtual space making for a more engaging storytelling. Additionally, since it can all be done in a single location where your presenters are, it minimizes the carbon footprint associated with travel.
The music industry is saving time and money by finding technological solutions that are also creating better connection and viewership with their audience. They found ways to make it easy for fans to enjoy music, taking away barriers to performances.
If you’re curious about applying any of the tech we mentioned at your next event, call us up at DesignScene. We can help navigate endless options and provide right-fit solutions for you to be a scene stealer at your next event.
