Discovering the need for "liveness" in virtual and digital theatre experiences

铜蜡烛，一个虚拟剧院和现场活动领域的先驱技术公司，与罗斯布鲁福德学院的专家支持，Golant Innovation和Playwerks正在提出一项大胆的研究实验，以了解虚拟表演的“活跃度”的必要性，该实验将试图衡量观众对现场表演者作为数字化身的参与度。生产增加成本，降低质量，这项研究的挑衅是，“值得吗？“.通过多种媒介，如动作捕捉，实时流，游戏中，VR和AR，我们打算了解媒介中的活力的必要性，以便我们可以为剧院和现场活动创建一个“工具箱”。它将建立现场表演的最佳实践，以帮助制片人决定什么时候应该包括额外的费用。由于NT Live的广播和传输成本是现场制作拍摄成本的73%（Nesta），戏剧行业了解观众对现场表演者的需求是有价值的。如果我们想从诸如Fortnight这样的平台上日益增长的虚拟现场表演中获益，这一点就很重要。据报道，Travis Scott在Fortnight的9分钟演出中赚了2000万美元，比2小时的实体音乐会增加了10倍。我们的实验将通过比较两个相同的作品来帮助测试虚拟体验中现场表演的必要性，一个是现场表演，另一个是预先录制的。我们将这样做的一部分，铜蜡烛的获奖和创新的新技术，流实时动作捕捉数据和照明控制数据到虚幻引擎的测试。这是我们的希望，现场娱乐市场可以使用这个项目作为未来的事件和经验的基准，使用铜蜡烛的技术和研究，可以在虚拟产品，更清楚地了解通过包括现场与预先录制的性能数据对其项目的好处。随着行业转向虚拟事件的制作，例如Abba的回归，使用预先录制的动作捕捉和预先动画的移动灯光，拥有正确活性配方的生产商的潜力可以大大增加其收入和利润。如何在这种情况下应用活性的发现是表演行业进入虚拟世界的一个巨大创新。

Copper Candle, a pioneering technology company for the virtual theatre and live events sector, working with expert support from Rose Bruford College, Golant Innovation and Playwerks are proposing a bold research experiment to understand the necessity of "liveness" for virtual performance which will attempt to measure an audience's engagement with live performers as digital avatars.When bringing entertainment to your home "live" production increases costs and reduces quality, the provocation of this research is, "is it worth it?".Working across several mediums such as motion capture, live streams, in-game, VR and AR, we intend to understand the necessity of liveness within the mediums so that we can create a "toolbox" for theatre and live events. It will establish best practices for live performance, to help producers decide when something should include the extra expense.With broadcast and transmission costs for NT Live being 73% (Nesta) of the costs for filming a live production, there is value to the theatre industry to understand an audience's desire for live performers. This is relevant if we want to benefit from the growing virtual, live performances in platforms such as Fortnight where Travis Scott reportedly made $20m for a 9-minute set, a 10 fold increase over a 2-hour physical concert.Our experiment will help to test the necessity of live performance in virtual experiences by comparing two identical productions, one performed live, the other pre-recorded. We will do this as part of a test of Copper Candle's award-winning and innovative new technology for streaming live motion capture data and lighting control data into Unreal Engine.It is our hope, that the live entertainment market can use this project as a benchmark for future events and experiences, using Copper Candles technology and research, that can be produced inside virtual products, with a clearer idea of what the benefit is for their projects by including live vs pre-recorded performance data.With the industry moving towards the production of virtual events, such as Abba's comeback, using pre-recorded motion capture and pre-animated moving lights, the potential for producers who have the right formula for liveness could greatly increase their revenues and profits. The discovery of how to apply liveness in this context is a huge innovation for the performance industry as it moves into the virtual world.