Upgrade of Production Arts IT infrastructure to enable a future Performance Industry Centre for the Research and Application of Creative Technologies

Guildhall School of Music & Drama是一所世界领先的小型专业高等教育机构，在音乐和戏剧方面拥有成熟的研究优势。但它也有几十年来建立在生产艺术（有时称为技术剧院）的培训专业知识，提供高技能的创造性劳动力，没有高质量的戏剧（在一定程度上音乐）表演无法实现。自2008年学校首次参与国家高等教育研究评估以来，我们的研究环境迅速发展;生产艺术是迄今为止缺乏技术能力阻碍我们发展的一个主要领域。在数字性能和技术增强的沉浸式体验等日益重要的领域，我们缺乏必要的基础设施。因此，我们正在申请资金，以建立一个新的生产艺术研究设施的内部。这一发展将建立在我们现有的广泛的合作伙伴关系与中小型公司在英国创意产业工作，以及与选定的高等教育研究合作伙伴。它将涉及使用我们建筑物内的现有空间来部署主要是便携式的最先进的设备，以探索视觉效果和延展实境（XR，包括各种超现实，增强现实和虚拟现实）的研究潜力。我们将利用这些设备开展一系列创造性的研究项目，探索技术在未来生产艺术中的作用。首先，这将通过为学校内部的表演者和研究人员提供世界一流的技术设施来实现，但同样重要的是，它也将促进他们获得现有和其他行业合作伙伴的技能和知识，并有机会从我们的投资中受益。我们的中期目标是通过建立一个研究和应用创新技术的性能工业中心来实现这一动态。这个研究中心不仅会巩固和发展我们的研究合作和与行业和其他高等院校的交流，它将有助于影响研究部门，市政厅现场活动（一个半分拆的教学，研究和商业服务机构）和新的电子和制作音乐部门（最近招募了新的工作人员在这个领域的边缘，特别是在游戏）之间的内部合作。第一步，也是本请求的目的，是采购两件重要的视听硬件和相关的信息技术。（第三件设备是补充性的，但更侧重于我们的劳动力培训使命，是另一个资金竞标的对象。）赠款期间将专门用于由制作艺术部门的技术人员安装，培训一小批核心研究人员，以及规划和初步实施一系列创造性技术研讨会，旨在选择一系列试点项目，以测试a）设备的潜力，B）其与学校现有研究团队的互动，既有完全内部的伙伴，也有熟悉的外部伙伴; c）来自该部门最具创新精神的小企业的新伙伴。然后，该计划将审查进展情况，并以最具成效和可持续的方式推进新研究中心的发展。

Guildhall School of Music & Drama is a world-leading small specialist higher education institution with established research strengths in Music and Drama. But it also has decades-long established training expertise in Production Arts (sometimes called Technical Theatre), providing the highly skilled creative workforce without which high-quality theatrical (and to a certain extent musical) performance cannot be realised. Our research environment has grown rapidly since the School's first participation in the national assessment of HE research in 2008; Production Arts is the one main area where lack of technological capability has so far held us back. In the increasingly important areas of digital performance and technologically enhanced immersive experience in particular, we lack the necessary infrastructure. Therefore we are applying for funding to establish a new Production Arts research facility in-house.This development will build on our existing extensive range of partnerships with small and medium-sized companies working in the UK creative industries, as well as with selected HE research partners. It will involve using existing spaces within our buildings to deploy largely portable state-of-the-art equipment in order to explore the research potential of visual effects and extended reality (XR, incorporating, variously, hyper-, augmented and virtual reality). We will use this equipment to carry out a series of creative research projects that explore technology's role in the future of production artistry. In the first place, this will be achieved by providing access for performance makers and researchers inside the School to world-class technical facilities, but-just as important-it will also facilitate their access to the skills and knowledge of existing and additional industry partners, drawn in by the opportunity to benefit from our investment. Our medium-term aim is to crystallise this dynamic by establishing a Performance Industry Centre for the Research and Application of Creative Technologies. Not only would this research centre consolidate and grow our research collaborations and exchanges with industry and other HEIs, it would help effect internal collaboration between the Research department, Guildhall Live Events (a semi-spun-out teaching, research and commercial services body), and the new Electronic and Produced Music department (which has recently recruited new staff working at the edges of this area, especially in gaming). The first step, and the object of the present request, is the procurement of two significant pieces of audio-visual hardware and associated IT for their use. (A third piece of equipment, complementary but more focused on our workforce training mission, is the object of another funding bid.) The period of the grant will be devoted to their installation by technical staff from the Production Arts department, the training of a small core of researchers, and the planning and initial implementation of a series of creative technology workshops aimed at selecting a range of pilot projects to test the potential of a) the equipment, b) its interaction with the School's existing research teams, both entirely internal and involving familiar external partners, and c) new partners from among the most innovative small businesses in the sector. The plan is then to review progress and move ahead with development of the new research centre in whatever is revealed to be the most productive and sustainable way.