Peeling off the onion skin of multi-layered realities
In a few days Treet.TV will be broadcasting another mixed reality event using two planes of reality and creating another two.
The first layer is real world video captured live from the Engage Conference in San Jose and streamed to a screen on stage in Second Life to be viewed by a live audience of approximately 60 avatars. The video will show panelist Tom Hale, together with moderator Professor Robert Bloomfield.
The second layer is Second Life where the avatars of the three inworld participants (including Philip Rosedale) will be positioned on stage next the avatar of Professor Bloomfield, who will be acting as the bridge between the two worlds. The scene from his computer will be projected up on the screen at the San Jose event so panel attendees can view the scene in Second Life.
The third layer is created when Treet blends the real life video and the scene in Second Life to produce the popular Metanomics TV show and broadcast it live to multiple locations inside of Second Life as well as out onto the web (the fourth layer!).
Bloomfield is adept at this type of event, having hosted a mixed reality event from Emory University in February 2008 and in September 2007 when IBM’s Sandra Kearney was streaming a live video feed, as well as being in Active Worlds while Bloomfield was in Second Life.
The potential for things to go wrong is considerable. We have minimized the risk by working with a professional AV company in San Jose who will send the live video feed to us. Once we receive the feed we will capture the stream and rebroadcast it on our streaming servers so all the avatars attending in Second Life can view the live video on stage on Metanomics Island.
Sound is one of the biggest challenges in this kind of set-up. A lot of people make the mistake of having the voices of the inworld participants fed to the conference PA via the computer output. Meanwhile, the microphone on the computer is also the input device for the inworld participants to hear the real world panelists.
To overcome the high probability of feedback a phone conference bridge and Gentner phone interface will be used to connect the inworld participants via phone to the PA system where Rosedale, Hale and Bloomfield are all heard via microphones.
The inworld participants will need to have their inworld voice active so we have lip sync on their avatars, however, the phone bridge will be the audio source used to synchronize with the Treet broadcast.
Dusan Writer will be on location at the San Jose Convention Center, ensuring all runs smoothly from the venue. Thanks go to Linden Lab and Remedy Communications for sponsoring the conference center technical set-up and video stream.
Post Script
Here is the result….
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[…] and Tom Hale on a panel in San Jose (RL). Starr Sonic at Treet TV gives some background with Peeling off the onion skin of multi-layered realities in her blog. The event will be on Wednesday at 4pm SLT rather than it’s normal slot and […]