Etherlive will be exhibiting their event technology solutions at the Event Show 2009 21-22 Jan 2009 Olympia London.
We will be showing some of our new products which will make life easier for event organisers and reduce costs.
http://www.eventshow.co.uk/
The Event Show 2009 Logo
For years we have been reading about social networking, Web 2.0 and the next generation of the internet – how things would move from the static fixed content we knew to the dynamic interweaved world we would grow to love. I heard about Web 2.0 sometime in 2005 and since that points I have been looking for a seismic event; a real signal things had changed for most people. I believe that point is upon us, we are now in web 2.0 and like most changes in life – most people didn’t even notice it. What’s my big example? I’m afraid it’s our friends across the pond and their recent vote for the next tenant in Pennsylvania Ave.
Mash ups funnelling multiple data sources into one widget are common place in certain circles; I’m sure I have used them to watch the results for the last UK election and several by-elections but they are typically limited and certainly not used by the population at large. This changes with something on the scale of the US election, arguably one of few events the world looks at, around, under and over for months with the culmination of one bit data rich count. What makes me think this was the web 2.0 turning point? Simply by the volume of good examples of dynamic content within main stream sites
Google did its usual job of pulling complicated data into an effortlessly simple interface but other sites added a more community feel like the BBC who went mash up mad with a great mini site integrating voters experiences with proportional representational mapping. Away from the main sites techpresident.com interweaved blogs and social media sites. If that isn’t enough data was also available in a customised iPhone interface
What does this all mean for everyone? Well good things of course – in the modern world we have access to a huge amount of data but it’s of little use if we can digest it – web 2.0 can help with that digestion. Even better we can move on from talking about web 2.0 and enjoy it.
PS – for those of you interested it seems like Obama will not be able to keep his trusty BlackBerry as he moves into office; though he is petitioning to be the first (first!) US President with a laptop computer on his desk
PPS – A great video from YouTube explaining Web 2.0
2008. A year where events and festivals alike were plagued by poor weather, poor attendance and in some cases poor organisation. One festival in my opinion shone through above the lucky unaffected few, with its notorious line-ups and probably its historically good luck for a sunny weekend. Reading Festival 2008 not only managed to grow its attendance figures but equalled or maybe even surpassed the previous years experience as a festival goer. Above the calls of sound issues and act cancellations I believe they pulled it off… Again!
But this blog isn’t really about promoting our extracurricular activities, it is in fact to show how etherLive can make a difference, not only at the events that are struggling but also to those that are growing in success.
As much as we would love to be able to lend our hand to filling the odd vacant slot for the often disappointing line-up cancellations, it is in fact the possible sound problems that would, and have been the focus of our attention. The main stage sound (arguably the only stage there that could be effected by the elements) was a popular topic of debate in the Reading Festival and NME forums as much as it cropped up in conversation amongst friends and colleagues.
So as festival sites expand, sound systems become more powerful and with our downward spiral into a country of 365 days of torrential rain and gale force winds, you can imagine one of the fastest growing concerns for festival organisers is their compliance to noise regulations and how the weather effects it. Noise regulation is that fine balance between ensuring the neighbouring towns and villages don’t get a front room seat to the main event whilst keeping everyone else stood in-front of the bands they came to see, happy… Easy? Those that think so obviously have never tried to communicate with the person just about to launch their precious new kite skyward on a windy day whilst clinging onto the strings not quite ready to go!
With this all in mind we began to look into the ways and means in which we could help make that complex and often frustrating job a little easier. Not being specialists in sound sampling and analysis we partnered with the experts to allow us to offer real-time remote sound monitoring. Utilising etherLive’s Wi-Fi infrastructure and industry leading sound monitoring equipment, organisers can capture sound levels from multiple unmanned locations across the festival site, possibly further and monitor this data from one single console in real-time!
To read more about Our Services