Digital Sprocket

I know theater sounds like a “soft” topic, but there’s a lot of technology employed in theater today, and it’s only going to get more tech-heavy as time progresses. Most theatrical performances employ strictly pre-planned lighting and sound cues, and static sets, but what if all of that could be changed on the fly, in the middle of a performance?

During the day, our concert hall is used by the Edutainers to perform plays and musicals for the general public, so it is fully equipped with modern technical theater equipment. At night, we use the space for a quiz game show for our students, as well as weekly opening and closing ceremonies. During these events, the booth operators are often called upon to change things without warning. The MC’s for the quiz game may throw in an arm wrestling or hoola-hoop competition on a whim. When that happens the booth person changes the lighting appropriately. If he has an ipod, he can also rapidly select audio tracks and pipe them out over the sound system.

We also make heavy use of the video projector to show PowerPoint slides during these events. What if you used a few projectors to create backdrops for theater? With appropriately structured libraries, it would be trivial to change the scenery at the same pace as improv artists make up their lines. Digital audio allows for rapid selection of soundtracks or even sound effects ranging from doorbells to explosions. Most professional theaters already employ digital lighting systems, so they are already prepared for dynamic theater.

I witnessed something today that presages the future of hand-held video communications. My wife and I were shopping for yarn in Seoul’s famous Domdaemun market. This is a mammoth textile wholesale and retail building with thousands of small vendors. While my wife picked out yarn for her next knitting projects I watched the pair of Korean women next to her. They were having a lively three-way conversation while poring over yarn swatches in the merchant’s product binder.

I did mention that these two women were having a three-way conversation, right? The third member of the group was on the other end of a video cell phone connection. The two women did not point the camera on the phone at themselves, but rather at the swatch book. Obviously their third, invisible partner was selecting the correct color and style of yarn with their help.

From this little tableau we can glimpse the future role these digital device will likely have. Anyone who does purchasing for a business will be able to use the video link to shorten their purchase approval cycle by showing samples to his boss while still out in the field. Speaking of out in the field, can you imagine a junior electrician who spots an oddity on while working on an electrical connection at the top of a telephone pole. He whips out his phone and calls up a senior electrician with 40 years of experience. He shows his senior partner the oddity and asks for advice before he blacks out the entire neighborhood.

Taking a photo and sending it to a friend or coworker is fine, but it is far more cumbersome than live video, even of poor quality, for real time conversations. This will allow us to share some visual information as easily as we share audio information. Personally I look forward to the day when I’m in the grocery store, and I point the camera at the shelves while asking my wife, “they have three varieties of soy sauce. Which one of these do you want?”