Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/799350
BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 5 POST MARCH 2017 NEW YORK — Joel Beckerman's Man Made Music (www.manmademusic. com) in New York City has been ex- panding its custom music and sound design business with services in the VR/AR space. The bulk of Man Made Music's work is still what has been its traditional business, "strategic music and sound," though virtual reality and soundscapes for large-scale spaces now represents as much as 25 percent of its workload. Beckerman says the studio has worked on a number of these projects in recent months, and points to a soundscape they created for Turner in Dubai. IMG Worlds of Adventure is one of the world's largest in- door amusement parks. Within it lies The Cartoon Network zone, a 230,000-square-foot brand experi- ence. Man Made Music performed a complete spatial audit of the theme park, and then adjusted position, volume and direction of all speakers in the Cartoon Network zone to create a cohesive listening experience regard- less of the visitor's location. "The idea was to create sound- scape that made you feel as if you were inside their universe," Beckerman explains. "It was both functional and emotional. There are hours and hours of ambiences that are constantly shifting." The soundscape includes whimsical elements, as well as snippets of Cartoon Network characters and shows. "[We wanted to create] the illusion that you are somewhere else," notes Beckerman. Music was created to reinforce the sense of altered reality within the Cartoonisphere. Projects like this, Beckerman be- lieves, are a good starting point for evolving the company's services into VR audio. "Most VR, if you turn your head, the soundtrack follows with you," he notes. "When it's done right, if you flip your head around, the soundtrack stays where it is. "The VR soundtrack, in its current iteration, is a solitary experience," he continues. "The next generation [could be] more like themed enter- tainment, with multiple people in- volved — larger scale VR spaces with no headphones." Man Made Music already has configured its facility for soundscape work. The company has 7,000-square feet of prototyping space with a 22-channel sound system that allows team members to experiment and mock up different solutions. "The whole facility is a prototyp- ing lab," says Beckerman, noting that space is one of the investments the company made that has helped in taking on new business. Another is software development. These large scale soundscape projects — for en- tertainment or corporate clients — of- ten need custom software for trigger sounds. He's found the investment in software development quite valuable for certain installations. "There's a lot of (VR) work we are doing outside of entertainment," Beckerman notes, pointing to an experimental project that's being tried out at two hospitals in California. Working with a visual partner, the teams together are creating a VR ex- perience for patients who experience chronic pain. The VR experience is designed to help the patients tempo- rarily "escape" the hospital environ- ment for an hour each day. Studies, he says, have shown that this often helps relieve pain by as much as 40 percent. — By Marc Loftus LOUISVILLE, KY — Switcher (https:// switcherstudio.com) offers a number of affordable solutions for creating, streaming and recording Webcasts using iOS devices. The company's SwitcherStudio vid- eo creation platform allows users to connect Apple iPhone or iPad devices via a wireless network to create a multi-camera production environment — one in which users can easily switch between cameras, insert photos and stream video and audio live, or archive their material. At press time, the company was offering SwitcherStudio in a sub- scription model of $25 per month or for $299 per year. They are also offering seven days of free access. WSON is a Kentucky radio station (860AM/96.5FM) that was an early adopter of SwitcherStudio. The station, which only employs five full-time workers, covers local news, weather, sports and events. According to WSON's Bill Stephens, the station was looking to enhance its Web presence (http:// wsonradio.com) with video content that complemented radio broad- casts it was already producing. "It's been solid from day one," says Stephens of the production tool. "It's very simple. Anybody with a small investment can start streaming." Stephens says WSON began with a $500 investment in an iPad and a microphone interface. Most of their shoots use natural lighting. "We started streaming ball games," says Stephens. "People enjoyed the radio play-by-play, and could now watch the live (video) stream." The station has also used SwitcherStudio for their coverage of local Memorial Day and Veterans Day parades. And last Christmas, used the production tool to stream a holiday parade. Typically, they shoot with two cameras, but have used as many as three at times. The station is planning three Webcasts for each quarter in 2017. "I give credit to Nick (Mattingly, CEO/co-founder) and Dan (Petrik, co-founder). They put a lot of thought into it. Every update is that much better. There's one about every six months." Stephens says the set-up time takes less than an hour. "It's so forgiving. There's no need for white balance, and they added sound bars to see the audio stream." In addition to the live stream, the station archives the content on its Website. Stephens says the mate- rial is helping to create a recorded history of the area's local events and can be enjoyed by those who no longer live in the area but want to be kept up to date on the local happenings. — By Marc Loftus RADIO STATION WSON ADDS VIDEO STREAMING MAN MADE MUSIC LOOKS TO VIRTUAL REALITY Beckerman Cartoon Network