20/10/06

“PLASA’07: Lights, Audio – Action!” (#510)

Stinger REPORT Skinny!

(29/09/06) The Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) exhibition and conference gathered the leading investment in the out-of-home scene; TSR covers a special conference session, investment of new display technology, and the latest mobile phone jukebox investment that could see the future of a new market.

Main REPORT:

While still recovering from the over-exuberance of the ATE event, the Stinger made its way to the regular attendance to the premier Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) industry gathering.

The lighting, audio, show and theming extravaganza is the equivalent in size to ATEI in the Earls Court showcase – perhaps an interesting window onto what the future holds for ATEI? The event, previously operated for the trade by Clarion-Events was handed back this year to a newly-formed trade association exhibition group looking towards future opportunities.

The growth in the outside and live performance business an example of a maturing audience looking towards a new level of entertainment, while the hospitality sector sees the big experience linked to an immersive visual and audio experience as their future.

In this atmosphere, Stinger owners KWP were invited to present at the seminar session of the exhibition, in the end given the honor of the keynote first session of the show. In the 'Out-of-Home Leisure Entertainment Technology' session, KWP executive Kevin Williams charted the convergence of leisure entertainment and amusement based attractions. A well attended and informative audience showed an appreciation of the subject.

On the extensive show floor, what the industry was developing for public space entertainment showed an innovation that was bound to touch the amusement and attraction sector.

Where amusement has just gotten used to single-user touchscreen units, on the PLASA floor at least one major advance on this was shown: desks that incorporated multi-point touchscreen. As regarding LCD application the first full walls were on show, as well as the cheaper and more ambiguous LED wall clusters -- the ability for full wall display from a video source expected by the end of the year to a level of flat-screen clarity.

New screen technology was not slouching, with the company Evolvision showing their 'Pyramid' screen, offering the Illusion of a flat screen with varied depth, giving a perceived 3D effect with four outputs on one screen. The company showed passive experiences, but was already looking at alternative visual sources.

The crossover from the public space and attraction sector was not lost on the projection companies at the event. A number of the latest 3D processes were on show with new polarized glasses systems. The application of this technology into 4D cinema systems is an expected implementation.

Beyond the conventions of video and projection, PLASA offered one of the oldest (in concept, but one of the latest (in execution), implications of technology. The exhibition, famous for its yearly indoor fireworks display, outdid itself this year. Intense color and effects, all able to be carpet-friendly, demonstrated the developments of displays that are becoming an endangered species in the theme park sector. The crossover of technology was rammed home by both the 60th anniversary of the leading speaker manufacturer JVC, well-known for their product in the parks business.

An interesting development in the marketing of product in the PLASA scene was witnessed from 5 Star Cases, who used a specially developed enclosure demonstrating their product (professional transport cases) built into a driving simulator with scoreboard, built round a Codemaster racing game. A big thanks from KWP for the generous prize awarded for one of the winning scores of the event.

One of the new developments at the event that could have the greatest impact to the amusement and entertainment industry came from Israeli corporation YCD. The ‘MuMa – Music Machine’ and their ‘SMS Jukebox’ offered the ability for a patron to use their mobile phone to text their selection on the facility’s jukebox. This virtual jukebox offers a simplistic ‘select’ – ‘text’ – and ‘play’ methodology, with a much wider ability to use Internet-based storage.

This represents the biggest technological threat, since the ‘iPod Party’, to the conventional (physical) connected and non-connected jukebox systems; the ability in a cost-effective package from YCD (and others) now available as an alternative to the limitations of an actual jukebox system. This could remove a complete element of the amusement sector and change the whole way that Public Space on-demand music is supplied. It is surprising that such a momentous system has not received greater coverage by the trade?   

Breaking Stinger News - In the explosion of 'Augmented Reality' entertainment, Walt Disney has as always been a trailblazer in the application of new technology. In a secret experiment, Disney Imagination has deployed the first cellphone-camera-augmented theme park attraction.

Based on the 'Kim Impossible' cartoon franchise, a selected group of guests are given special mobile phones, which they use to capture pictures of selected clues related to the attraction storyline, a race to capture all of the clues in this updated treasure hunt concept.

The special phones use Global Positioning and WiFi to track their movement, offering an interactive attraction element that is totally configurable to the venue, without having to redevelop the park. An invisible attraction to those not using their 3G phone, and opening the door to thinking of deploying this style of venue ‘technology-treasure hunt’ in retail and mixed-use entertainment venues, encouraging visitation and venue based competition (and the added foot traffic this would bring).

Another element that PLASA chronicled was the popularity of live-performance, the new BIG attraction to large audiences. An example of the popularity of live performance event was the Rolling Stones tour, and Madonna. Live-performance becoming bigger than music sales in the entertainment applications on display; the rock legend The Rolling Stones stated before their Chinese tour that in the future “…music would be like running water… that live-performance will be the only way to keep it real.”

As charted in the KWP presentation at the seminar section of PLASA, the drop in ticket boxes in the cinema sector of an estimated 9 per cent, coupled with a slowdown of sales in consumer games systems and content, all point to a need for new forms of entertainment to capture the migrating audience. Live-performance is part of the new Out-of-Home leisure entertainment mix that will bring new opportunities to develop.

What Could this all Mean:

The possibility looks to be that live-performances, offered in themed venues (example: House of Blues), will become a new audience attraction opportunity. The elements of which will be supplied and developed by the associates of PLASA... will there be room for us?