Below we will discuss critical context and suggestions for all activities and all parties. --- #### Contents - [[#General points of context|General points of context]] - [[#General points of context#Standards|Standards]] - [[#General points of context#Assets|Assets]] - [[#General points of context#Practices|Practices]] - [[#General points of context#Quality of Life|Quality of Life]] - [[#General points of context#Accelerated Digital Work|Accelerated Digital Work]] - [[#Actions for different production areas|Actions for different production areas]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Audio|Audio]] - [[#Audio#General awareness|General awareness]] - [[#Audio#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Recommendations#For Audio Vendors and Developers|For Audio Vendors and Developers]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Design for Stage|Design for Stage]] - [[#Design for Stage#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Design for Stage#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#For Professionals#Costume:|Costume:]] - [[#Recommendations#For Organizations|For Organizations]] - [[#For Organizations#Props & Costume:|Props & Costume:]] - [[#Recommendations#For Vendors and Developers|For Vendors and Developers]] - [[#For Vendors and Developers#Prop & Costume|Prop & Costume]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#For Researchers/Institutions#Costumes|Costumes]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Lighting|Lighting]] - [[#Lighting#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Lighting#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Recommendations#For Organizations|For Organizations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Vendors and Developers|For Vendors and Developers]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Directing and Creative Leadership|Directing and Creative Leadership]] - [[#Directing and Creative Leadership#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Directing and Creative Leadership#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Recommendations#For Organizations|For Organizations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Vendors and Developers|For Vendors and Developers]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Automation Specialists|Automation Specialists]] - [[#Automation Specialists#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Automation Specialists#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Recommendations#For Organizations|For Organizations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Vendors and Developers|For Vendors and Developers]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#AV Design|AV Design]] - [[#AV Design#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#AV Design#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Production Management|Production Management]] - [[#Production Management#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Specialists/SMs/Movement|Specialists/SMs/Movement]] - [[#Specialists/SMs/Movement#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Technical Rehearsal Specialists/Technicians|Technical Rehearsal Specialists/Technicians]] - [[#Technical Rehearsal Specialists/Technicians#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Technical Rehearsal Specialists/Technicians#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Recommendations#For Organizations|For Organizations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Vendors and Developers|For Vendors and Developers]] - [[#Recommendations#For Researchers/Institutions|For Researchers/Institutions]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Production Visualisation|Production Visualisation]] - [[#Production Visualisation#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Production Visualisation#Recommendations|Recommendations]] - [[#Recommendations#For Professionals|For Professionals]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Associates and Consistency|Associates and Consistency]] - [[#Associates and Consistency#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Actions for different production areas#Remounting and Transfers|Remounting and Transfers]] - [[#Remounting and Transfers#General Awareness|General Awareness]] - [[#Final message to sectors|Final message to sectors]] - [[#Final message to sectors#Vendors|Vendors]] - [[#Final message to sectors#Practitioners and working professionals in general|Practitioners and working professionals in general]] - [[#Final message to sectors#All parties|All parties]] --- ## General points of context ### Standards Existing service providers are beginning to do very well. Mass adoption and a technological leap is only possible with significant progress in interchange standards - the invention of Bluetooth and its effects is a great benchmark here. There is possibility of a 'standards war' along the road here. ### Assets Significant ground is to be made in digital asset library management. Profit may be possible in short term but ultimately the industry will be made stronger with less gatekeeping to 'kitbash' resources, this requires big players to bet significantly on their users - great example here is Epic's acquisition and sharing and Quixel Megascans. Who doesn't charge for their bottom rung will dictate future market leaders. ### Practices From all parties, attention should be paid to cross-comparison of best practices from other industries. Research and academia should pay particular mind here, due to a potential advantage of access and objectivity. ### Quality of Life If managed properly, interoperability and automation will clear the slate of busy work for genuine creative decisions. Esteemed creatives who become early adopters of next-gen tools will win. ### Accelerated Digital Work MCP and AI co-piloting tools are not detailed in this study- but have the potential to accelerate learning of CAD and other technical tools by non-technical creatives. We will see an acceleration of learning and accessibility, of software and ecosystem development, and competition for main players out of left field. AI-generated imagery will see a surge of novelty uptake and inappropriate use in professional settings. That surge - caused by a bad-faith search for where human ingenuity can be replaced - will ultimately run out of steam, and those who are firmly rooted in their creative professions will be more in-demand than ever before: talent and competence is the signal in the noise. Nevertheless, current methods of production - even digital production - are enormously labour intensive. There is a lot less of an interest for our own industry to optimise efficiencies- but it will help cost saving in a time of uncertainty. ## Actions for different production areas ### Audio #### General awareness - Some of the organisations we referred to in our Case Studies have seen to be working on open standards for Spatial Audio, which is wonderful. - Standardisation for Spatial or Object Based audio would be a key step towards democratisation, as Dolby Atmos and d&b soundscape are great but they are locked to specific circumstances. - Keep an eye on research and tools surrounding Ambisonics, Object-based Mixing, Room Convolution, Remote Mixing Solutions. - While commercial standards exists, common standards are the only way of achieving large, more all-encompassing tools moving forward, unless a vendor takes the entire stack upon themselves to develop and deliver. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Familiarity with spatial audio if possible, whether binaural mixing, live Spatial Audio solutions. - Familiarise yourself with research from institutions like University of York, IAMF, keep an eye and see if any industry players are building interoperability tools or standards - Experiment with using Ambisonic Convolution to build a library of binaural convolution impulses for your favourite spaces, practice, and make notes of what is reflected well and what isn't - Experiment with headphone calibration, in combination - take notes on accuracy, share your results with your community ##### For Audio Vendors and Developers - Utilise open standards to direct R&D towards an integrated, virtualised virtual space mixing tool. Collect feedback from live audio professionals. - Explore compatibility or endpoint plug & play with Dante ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Developing of virtualisation or compatibility layers between industry standard tools, combined convolution and speaker measurement simulation tools - Virtualisation of existing licensed vendor standards e.g. using licensed Dante network in a fully virtual, spatial set of speakers using proprietary network protocol and software ### Design for Stage #### General Awareness - Creative designers must continue to be catered for with deep, user friendly software that manifests accurate visual ideas without technical barriers. - Large, online libraries of real stored props and set pieces benefit designers as termed 'kitbash', or 'digital building blocks' in coming years. - We want to remove barriers and enable easier cross-conversion behind-the-scenes of tool use, including between physical and digital, between technical and creative, low and high resolution rendering, realtime vs cinematic, and different specialised software packages, offline and cloud. - AI **conversion** tools, rather than creation tools, will enhance creative workflows rather than producing undesirable results. Ex: enhancing paper sketches into 3D assets, using diffusion models or MCP. - Open standards promise to unify Spline and Polygon-based modelling - Goal is to have technology outpace physical craft and allow designers shorter paths to expressing their work #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Explore user-friendly 3D tools beyond SketchUp, explore emerging AI cross-conversion between sketch and render, 2D and 3D. - Share and document what works and doesn't work for you - what methods give you joy, traditional vs modern. - Engage with Maker communities for news in fabricating miniatures, 3D printing. - Keep an eye out for AI co-piloting of more complex CAD and 3D tools ###### Costume: - Experiment with image diffusion models like Gemini 2.0 Flash for virtual try-ons. ##### For Organizations - Virtual, scanned asset libraries of set pieces, props, and costumes could help to monetise through accessible hiring, and enrich designers' source material while working remote. - Very large theatrical institutions or partnerships: consider joining the OpenUSD Alliance. Large bets are being placed on this standard now - become part of the discussion. This will help optimise the standard for building for theatre and live in the long term, and vendors will respond, too. ###### Props & Costume: - Start digitizing your physical asset libraries with photogrammetry or LiDAR scans to support designers.[^7] - Invest in accessible scanning tools to make 3D costume data feasible for smaller productions. ##### For Vendors and Developers - Create intuitive tools for qualified, non-technical creative professionals. - Look to lower barrier of entry to emerging next-gen tools (like AutoDesk Flow) - Offer affordable visualization kits for small troupes and pilot schemes, to create more evidential proof of future product launches. - Low barriers to entry of high-end photorealism - like [Lumion](https://lumion.com) for archviz. - Explore easy AR/VR/XR features for design tools - iOS/Android is a great start. - Simplify creation and access to large asset libraries. Every industry should have a generous 'Unreal Marketplace' portal and community. - AI-assisted LiDAR/Splatting/Photogrammetry tools could create itemised digital twins of cardboard model boxes, creating parts and layers from source photos, digitising simple models easily- perhaps matching to the source graphics used in creating them. ###### Prop & Costume - Fashion Industry: potential business to open up to costume design archiving for theatre, television and film - Create user-friendly tools for 3D prop scanning and visualization. Take advantage of new developments like AI retopology. - Build platforms for shareable catalogues of 3D assets. ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Investigate bridging proprietary tools and standards using conversion, copiloting and MCP. - Test digital asset libraries for troupes to remix (kitbash) props, sets, and costumes across productions. This will enrich future, next-gen immersive tools. - Explore volumetric video (or hi-res stereoscopic) streaming for virtual “visits” to workshops or large areas, live. - Behavioural research on creatives and 'tech barriers' - when does the creative professional turn and reject a tool? Is it a high skill floor, poor UX, lack of familiarity, or something else? ###### Costumes - Research photogrammetry tools and techniques for efficiently capturing costume textures and shapes. Consider initiating open forum discussion with fashion industry and digital costume leaders.[^6] - Test prop asset sharing previs tech in-field. - Explore photogrammetry advancements to make 3D scanning easier for creatives. ### Lighting #### General Awareness - Lighting previsualization tools, with digital twins of fixtures and materials, are advancing and becoming embedded in workflows. Vendor lock and compatibility at scale will become an unavoidable issue if trends continue. There is no likely model where a single vendor controls the entire ecosystem. - Fixture libraries are bound to move past simple metadata, into full calibrated digital twins for all lighting products. This kind of work, and easy access to these libraries, will benefit the market as a whole. Customers should be able to experiment and trial different vendors' lights in a mix-and-match fashion, before making hiring decisions. [^2] - Advancing HDR display standards, and raytraced lighting engines, will raise the bar for lighting simulation professionals can trust. - Lighting is, in some way, the benchmark for any previs simulation to become transformative to the industry. - Overall goal: Reasonably accurate simulation tools, well-furnished with CRI-accurate, digital twins of vendor lights and common materials, with a long term interoperability plan for a complete picture of interdepartmental previs. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Keep an eye out for the latest in wide-gamut and HDR. - Check out realtime rendering occurring in UE5, other Nvidia RTX, or even cinematic engines like Blender Cycles. - Experiment and look out for digital twin technology from lighting hardware vendors. - Stay informed about open standards (e.g., GDTF, potential OpenUSD). - Share needs and feedback with your community. ##### For Organizations - Explore existing digital cataloguing tools. - Strengthen relationships and dialogue with vendors. ##### For Vendors and Developers - Build digital twins libraries of all on-sale fixtures. - Experiment with high-fidelity rendering, interoperability standards, and AR/VR features, to enhance lighting preview platforms. Explore 3rd party rendering integrations for your previsualisation tools. - Explore creating virtualised control desks, deepen app control or other cross-control protocols. - Become familiar with modern cloud sharing capabilities. Three.js and others support fully baked lighting from a web browser. Tools in this area could be of immense value to creative teams as compute power increases. ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Engage with ESTA/TSP on future of standards[^3] - Engage with Artistic License corporation on future of virtualisation and previs control[^4] - Engage with practicioner organisations e.g. ILP[^5] - Develop open cue-based formats (e.g., these exist for film editors like OpenTimelineIO) for exchanging cue stacks across vendor tools, integrating protocols like Art-Net, DMX, OSC. - Test virtual libraries of fixtures and materials for troupes to reuse across shows. - Explore AI for optimizing fixture placement or predicting lighting looks, ensuring human oversight. - Align with open standard initiatives (e.g., OpenUSD) to bridge lighting tools with other departments. - Develop AI tools to create digital twins of cardboard model boxes, identifying parts and layers from source photos. ### Directing and Creative Leadership #### General Awareness - Testing tech with directors will be very valuable, but technologists bust keep in mind the director's core responsibilities, and how much they must trust their four senses. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Experiment with immersive storytelling tools, like VR experiences or spatial video apps, and make note of what interests you. - Observe and study how directors and creative leads in other sectors are working. The mentality needed to manage a large production is becoming more like film with lots of specialists and moving parts - big jobs can be of a completely different nature. Tech whispering directors will succeed - Educate yourself on these trends, and make your voice heard. ##### For Organizations - Involve directors deeply in testing immersive tools, ensuring they support creative vision and streamline collaboration. ##### For Vendors and Developers - Develop intuitive VR/AR tools that respect directors’ sensory focus, making tech feel like a creative ally. - Become experts in creative process - as tools become more advanced, they will serve this directly rather than through proxies. ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Engage directors in research on immersive tools, ensuring tech enhances their creative process. Take particular note of negative feedback and sensory/intuition blockers. ### Automation Specialists #### General Awareness - Current automation protocols are often vendor-locked or lack scale; open standards could streamline file handovers. - Abstraction layers in pre/post-visualization could unify workflows. Businesses with leverage have the opportunity for greater market share if they lead in this direction #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Explore 3D tools to visualize automation in context, seeing the “big picture” without lengthy explanations. - Stay informed about open standards like OpenUSD; share workflow needs at industry forums to shape tools. - Test virtual previews of automation setups to ensure smooth integration with other departments. ##### For Organizations - Invest in accessible visualization tools to support automation teams in planning and collaboration. - Encourage participation in standards discussions to align automation with theater-wide workflows. ##### For Vendors and Developers - Develop intuitive visualization tools for automation, supporting open standards like OpenUSD for interoperability. - Create abstraction layers to simplify file handovers across proprietary systems. - Join initiatives like the OpenUSD Alliance to influence future automation control protocols. ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Explore open-standard formats for automation data exchange, integrating with protocols like DMX or OSC. - Test visualization tools that unify automation with design and lighting previews. - Research abstraction layers to bridge vendor-locked systems, enhancing cross-department workflows. ### AV Design #### General Awareness - Next gen spatial tech and simulation will unlock a new level of preparation and simulation possible for the AV or Projection Designer; you will be able to design 'for the space' from day one. - AV Designers are already technologically minded, and relatively isolated in production - yet their work's high visibility in the show, product engenders a high cost of failure. This all indicates a stronger proclivity and motive to embrace this technology. - Leading platforms dominate industry standards, but high cost-of-entry leads mid-and-small-size productions to cut them out entirely (e.g. disguise, Pixera, Notch), leading to sub-optimal workflows and compromises. - There is no serious solution catered to solo AV designers at present, that would also empower teams, forcing borrowed tech and practices from other industries which is not conducive to the workflow of theatre production. - Solving this will be key to progressing a comprehensive previsualisation tool (or the fabled e-tech), as the same technology - realtime rendering, quick iterations - will be utilised. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Realtime AV creation tools are likely to fit this market need. - Experiment with cutting edge realtime rendering design tools like UE5 Avalanche. ### Production Management #### General Awareness - Autodesk Flow is a compelling example of a production management tool, that is integrated with spatial data oversight and AI insights. - Production managers are an important voice in the conversation as spatial tech develops, as their ease will be the benchmark of the tools' efficiency. 'It's nice, but does it get the job done? ### Specialists/SMs/Movement #### General Awareness - Rehearsal rooms are sacred; tech like VR headsets may disrupt the director’s and actors’ creative flow. - Volumetric video and markerless, non-invasive motion tracking could capture rehearsals non-intrusively, like a Zoom feed would today. - Simple, unobtrusive tools are key to respecting the rehearsal process while enhancing visibility. ### Technical Rehearsal Specialists/Technicians #### General Awareness - Interoperability standards (e.g., OpenUSD) could prevent duplicated work and streamline cross-department tech integration. - E-tech hopes to enables early testing (e.g., sound, AV, lighting interactions) in virtual setups, saving time before tech rehearsals, but is many years away from being a reality. - Unified platforms could let technicians preview projector output or light interactions weeks in advance, boosting efficiency. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Understand previs long-term goals, make your voice heard as to benefits and drawback of current approach, to shape future practices and tools ##### For Organizations - Adopt a forward-thinking, data-driven approach to technical production. Listen and record opinions of current practices. ##### For Vendors and Developers - Move forward to develop integrated platforms for virtual tech rehearsals, being mindful of current moves in industry. ##### For Researchers/Institutions - Gather detailed systems, ops and cultural data on current tech practices. ### Production Visualisation #### General Awareness - Professional production visualisers exist as a rarity in the industry today, but their sharing and communication of their skills in production environments will be very valuable to develop best practices moving forward. - It is the current thesis that previs ultimately sits as a **communications** focused role - rather than tech focused, or arts focused. The job of the previsualiser is to communicate creative visions through imagery and simulation, to facilitate earlier decision making. #### Recommendations ##### For Professionals - Deepen expertise in interoperability standards, simulation, tools and standards from other industries. - Create communities for theatre & live previsualisation to establish a network of peers - Share your work and methods to shed light on best practices and raise awareness of this new skillset, to evidence and drive momentum for new studies and products *Further data and guidance is shared in the body of this study, and in our conclusion ahead.* ### Associates and Consistency #### General Awareness - Non-intrusive data collection (e.g., video, motion tracking) will be able to help associates monitor performance consistency. - Deep learning technology could offer insights (e.g., variations in cue timing) without disrupting the show. This could be monitored remotely, or enable data gathering between associate visits. - Virtualization and interoperability layers could log cues or hardware issues, simplifying maintenance tasks. ### Remounting and Transfers - huge value has been shown for this being used for transfers. metcalfe/preevue are run off their feet and are finally seeing the fruition of their project. this will only expand as technology gets easier to operate. #### General Awareness - Virtual tools (e.g., 3D simulations, e-tech) are proving valuable for remounting and transferring shows, saving time. - Interoperability standards (e.g., OpenUSD) could streamline data sharing across venues and productions. - Simplified tech (e.g., user-friendly platforms) will expand access to these tools for transfers. --- ## Final message to sectors ### Vendors - Cutting edge organisations and groups would be open to startups pitching custom portals for asset sharing and cataloguing. This is straightforward to achieve MVP using lovable or v0. - Practitioners are sold on utility, and audiences are sold on story. ### Practitioners and working professionals in general - It may seem like this is all going on over your head - but there are definite signs where if you are passionate about this future arriving, that simply sharing your cooperation, willingness to learn and observe how it can help, this can make a huge difference. ### All parties - Cooperation from all parties at all levels will result in the best possible scenario for our industry. - Two scenarios we do not want to happen: - AI being pushed to make key creative decisions, e.g. scripts - Tools evolving in such a way outside of our industry that our practicioners end up with compounded complexity and duplication. This is happening right now. - Innovation is not just a luxury: this is ultimately for resilience of our industry - as has been evidenced to be essential in recent years. By increasing process efficiency we can expand creative potential per show, increasing quality and decreasing turnaround time. - Real theatre, the core offering, must maintain priority. Practicioners must be mindful of technology increasing distance to the subject of work, rather than decreasing it. This is critical information which must be shared, as it could affect output quality in the long term. The medium is the message, but the method can influence the message, unwittingly, as well - which might not be the intended one. We now move to explore different scenarios of process integration for previs. [^1]: This is already happening https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167739X24000359 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361005543_Digital_Twins_for_Lighting_Analysis_Literature_Review_Challenges_and_Research_Opportunities https://pure.tudelft.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/177092106/1-s2.0-S0167739X24000359-main.pdf https://www.arri.com/en/lighting/led-panel-lights/skypanel-x/innovation#digital-twin [^2]: https://open-fixture-library.org [^3]: "The **ESTA Technical Standards Program** is the only ANSI-accredited standards program dedicated to the needs of the entertainment technology industry." https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/index.html [^4]: Artistic License owns the Art-Net protocol https://artisticlicence.com [^5]: the Institution for Lighting Design in the UK and Ireland https://theilp.org.uk [^6]: Solidwords, CLO [^7]: This process can range from incredibly simple (iphone lidar scan) to complicated (using polarised light to capture normal maps.), to immense detaiil (1:1 artist modelling of cloth fibres)