Month: April 2006

This is an old post, but a goody. John McMurria of DePaul University has a very interesting article, Broadcasting is Dead, Long Live Broadcasting, published at Flow. He analyses four TV and Internet convergences:

• Case #1. Disney/ABC has teamed with Apple’s iTunes to offer episodes of 6 current television series for playback on a newly released video iPod.
• Case #2. Warner Brothers and AOL have heavily promoted their IN2TV which early next year will offer free online episodes of old TV shows that are not currently in syndication.
• Case #3. The BBC is using file-sharing technology to test a service for 5,000 users which offers BBC programs online for up to 7 days after they air.
• Case #4. PBS has been slow to make their programming available online but it has recently initiated a series of Web-exclusive one-on-one video interviews with technology gurus including Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, spreadsheet inventor Dan Bricklin and Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Good reading, and so are the comments.

Hows that for a genre mashup? The Voice is a sponteous theatre production that is being filmed at the Florida Film Festival, it debuted on March 24th. Besides the use of fantastical websites, actors, real world events and locations, the neat thing is the lead of the production has no idea she’s a character in the fiction. 

The Voice is a fully immersive, live interactive story that will take place this March as the featured NextArt project of the Florida Film Festival. Utilizing the entire city of Orlando as its stage, this story created entirely for an audience of one – a non-actor participant who becomes the lead character within a story that unfolds around her real life.

The Voice is an interactive performance and digital media experience that uses trained improvisational actors in order to create dynamic, interactive story that is enhanced and facilitated by technology. We will be using websites, props, and special effects, in order to enhance the world around the participant.

Details about the characters, the in-game websites and a blog which is relaying the events as they unfolded are here. The proejct is run by University of Central Florida spontaneous theatre instructor Jeff Wirth.

Banff World Television Festival has announced the nominees for the 27th Annual Banff World Television Awards. 101 programs from 24 countries are competing, including a TV + ARG I’m currently playing, ReGenesis II: Extended Reality Game, which has been nominated in the interactive television category. Last year, the ReGenesis won the best website at the Gemini Awards. Congrats to Xenophile Media.

Thanks Tony.