ProSoundWeb: In adapting to the pace of technological change in the production industry, much of the conversation centers on what’s out front – audience-facing technology like lighting, video screens, and loudspeaker systems that provide detail and clarity. Fair enough, that’s what the audience will see and hear – that’s core to the experience.
4 comments:
I’ve seen this a lot, different industries focusing on making high-end technology adaptable for future upgrades. This is evident in the computer industry with companies making choices to build computers compatible with graphics drivers only in the early stages of production. I can’t wait to see the new changes that are speculated in this article. The consideration for other venus in the same area is an interesting thing to think about. This consideration could potentially hold back the theater’s system from being as new and high-tech as it could be. I think that the educated guesswork done to make the space ready for future changes will help when any changes, even with the same technology used today, need to be made. This is even more evident in their work to fully document and label the systems the team at Aligned Vision Group installs. I hope that as more theaters are built or renovated they each take a moment to think about how to scale the light and sound arrays to allow for future growth and change.
The ever changing technology present within theater will always be a problem because people love to praise the past. Every broadway theater is finding space limitation an ever growing problem with the new technology present in the industry. Creating a modern theater under the assumption that technology will develop but then you stumble on the question of how. Nobody really predicted the effect that AI would have on our current technology and any other possible innovations because they haven't happened yet. You can look back on any science fiction books before the time of the internet and nobody predicted the level of communication that was possible. Theater being so centralized around the idea of communication could develop into many forms of art that nobody could predict. I think that keeping in mind the idea of expansion when designing a theater will help in the long run but not guarantee the annoying outcome of jerry rigging a new technology into a space that doesn't necessarily suit its needs.
Transitioning quickly from one show or production to another is already a large-scale endeavor, and with the continued introduction of new and more advanced technology the transition seems to become more and more complicated. For someone who is not as fascinated with technology as most people are, this article was definitely a bit too in depth, but I do feel that it was informative. The advance of technology is inevitable in any field, and my future concentration will definitely feel the effects of innovation. The section in this article about educated guesswork stuck out to me, because I think it’s a good idea not just in someone’s work life, but in daily life. The release of new technology is speeding up at an exponential rate, and staying up to date with and understanding the direction the tech industry is going is crucial to understanding the future. Falling behind would leave someone at a disadvantage.
The points on keeping up with updating technology (and the literal and figurative holes that outdated technology leaves behind) really resonated with me. The Theatre at Great Canadian Casino Report in Toronto was interesting to read about, particularly the adaptability needs of the space: over time and for each artist and event, the flexibility of the infrastructure was meant to be a help, not a hindrance. Most technological change is somewhat incremental and somewhat predictable - so for the venue to be able to form itself around change is a huge competitive advantage to other venues. To have ‘bandwidth, connectivity, and power’ to spare and available for use is nothing but a good thing in an ever-changing world. I can appreciate the Aligned Vision Group’s goals of facilitating that change in the form of seamless electrical management. The versatility that the article mentions is crucial, and something that new construction has to prioritize.
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