Put theatre audience in the middle of action.

AUGMENTED THEATRE APP

With this augmented theatre app, the audience will experience a theatre show as never before.

The AUGMENTED THEATRE app on the smart devices of the spectators will execute the cues from the show's media server in realtime: the OSC cues will display text, play sounds, play videos, flash screen, vibrate, turn the torch on and off etc.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

AR capabilities (iOS app version only):

Experience the AR in Augmented Theatre App (iOS version of the app) by pointing the app to one of the drawings by Nikolai Simonov here: Sun Line Sun Rises Three Sisters

SUPPORT INFORMATION:

Latest version 4.7 (iOS)

Use this iOS or Android app to produce an augmented theatre show with enhanced audience experience.

NB.

Currently the app is by default branded for a specific theatre show “Современный Концерт” (“Contemporary Concert”), which premiered at The Meyerhold Theatre Center on September 4, 2016. However, functionality–wise, there is little specificity in this app regarding the default show, and it is used in other shows as well. If you would like to have a branding done for your show, please message us at the facebook page.

The audience will use this app on their smart devices, which will IN REAL TIME execute the OSC (open sound control) cues from the show’s stage server to

• display arbitrary text sent from the server
• play sounds
• play videos
• flash screen with arbitrary color
• vibrate
• turn the torch on and off
• control audio volume

etc, as deemed necessary by the show director.

The apps will receive the commands from a show’s server which usually resides on the same network.

Please note, that in the instructions below any osc sender can be used instead of Isadora to drive the Augmented Theatre App, Isadora only happens to be the one, we think is the easiest to get started with adapting Augmented Theatre App for non-programmers.

Testing the Augmented Theatre app:

0. Connect both your smart device, running the Augmented Theatre App, and server computer to the same WIFI network.
1. Download and install a demo version of Isadora from TroikaTronix. Windows and OS X versions are supported.
2. Download the Isadora patch here and accompanying text file, open isadora patch in Isadora.
3. Open the scenes in Isadora from left to right in turn, and read the comments in each scene, which will specify the keyboard actions to be executed to send the commands to the Augmented Theatre app. Execute the suggested action by pressing corresponding keys on your keyboard.

OSC addresses and corresponding cues (in case you would like to set up your own OSC command server)

• OSC addresses and value semantics:
• /start/1 + show id string value will set the app for a given cloud-supported show, displayed on the top bar*. It will also disable the pre-show teaser mode
• /heartbeat/1 will make sure the devices of the late audience, or the apps that have been restarted during the show are in the “show mode” (the pre-show media is not accessible)
• /title/1 with a string value will set the app title, displayed on the top bar
• /text/1 with a string value will display the string value as a text in the middle of the screen. Second optional parameter will set the font size
• /fontsize/1 with a numerical value will change the text font size
• /audio/1 with an integer value will play the sound file embedded into the app, identified by the integer value.
• /video/1 with an integer value will play the video file embedded into the app, identified by the integer value.
• /video/0 with any integer value will stop currently playing video file, if any
• /color/1 with three r,g,b values (0..255), will fill the screen with the correspondent color
• /vibrate/1 will vibrate the device, if the vibrate function is available
• /torch/1 will turn the device torch on, if it is available
• /torch/0 will turn the device torch off, if it is available
• /volume/1 + float value (0..10.0 for example) will control the volume of the audio output
• /rain3d/1 + will start a VR 360 degree rain
• /stop/1 will enable the “compass”
• /heat/1 + will display camera feed with “heat” effect
• /rain/1 + will display camera feed with “rain” effect
• /dziga/1 + will display camera feed with “Dziga Vertov” effect
• /cloudvideo/1 + cloud video file name will play the video file downloaded from google cloud*
• /cloudpicture/1 + cloud picture file name will display the picture file downloaded from google cloud*
• /cloudaudio/1 + cloud audio file name will play the audio file downloaded from google cloud*
• /cloudanimatedgif/1 + cloud animated file name will play the gif animation downloaded from google cloud*

*The media files downloaded by the app on the background from the cloud. This makes new media deployment (during the rehearsal, for example) almost instanteneous. If you would like your show to use this feature, please get in touch.

The OSC broadcast to all devices from the server on a given WiFi network is done via UDP port 3000, which can be changed in the Settings of the App. Changing default port 3000 to something else is done, for example, by the technicians running the show, to create a technical communication channel, which is separate from the audience’s channel.

The Augmented Theatre apps in the audience will broadcast their state and IP address on port 3001 (can be changed in the app’s settings). Once received on the show server, this information can be used, for example, to address the individual devices by their IPs or observe the anonymous audience behavior using their devices during the performance. There are two OSC addresses (topics) this information is sent at

• /location/1 : this signal will be sent approximately once per second, if the bluetooth is on on the device; the values sent are
  • a name of the bluetooth proximity beacon the device is near to (NONE if no beacon is near)
  • a unique string device identifier
  • an IP of the device
• /devicestate/1 : this signal will be sent on app’s state change; the values are
  • a device state (enumeration: startup, foreground, background, shutdown)
  • a unique string device identifier
  • an IP of the device

Inquiries: please email vladimir.gusev.us@gmail.com

The AUGMENTED THEATRE app has premiered at the Contemporary Concert theatre show in 2016. Contemporary Concert is a first Russian experience in Augmented Theatre, produced at the Meyerhold Theatre Center (director Victor Ryzhakov, music director Tatyana Pykhonina, video artist and interactive media programmer Vladimir Gusev).

VLADIMIR GUSEV is a NYC based, critically acclaimed theatre and art videographer and media director with innovative interactive productions in the US, Europe and Russia, which, blending video, sound, light, generative graphics and audio, audience interaction, extend the traditional notion of theatre.

The MEYERHOLD THEATRE CENTER is an innovative theatre laboratory, a leading Russian theatrical production, experiment and education organization.

PRIVACY POLICY: The Augmented Theatre App uses device’s microphone and camera in some regimes during the theatre show. No recording or transmission of video and audio data is executed by the app. No private data are accessed or used in any way by this app.