CoSTAR National Lab is the central hub of the CoSTAR Network delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Led by the StoryFutures team at Royal Holloway, University of London, the Lab combines state-of-the-art technology with industry and academic partners to help creative businesses develop, test and commercialize new ideas.

Its most recent research project, CoSTAR Futures: Grassroots Venues, explores how technological innovation can support grassroots venues at the heart of the UK’s live music industry. Four creative companies were given access to CoSTAR infrastructure and research expertise to develop a series of new technology-led live experiences. One of these events was MASS, a live, stage-free performance developed by Bluman Associates. Presented at The Bath House in Hackney Wick, the goal of MASS is to blur the line between audience and performer, using Stage Precision’s SP Grid at the center of the audience-interaction and live experience.

“MASS brings together live music, visuals, and interactive technology, inviting audience members to engage with the venue as they become part of the performance,” said Branden Faulls, creative technologist at CoSTAR National Lab. Rather than watching an artist from a fixed position, audiences are encouraged to actively explore the environment, triggering audio and visual effects that ensure no two performances are ever the same. “During preproduction, Pod Bluman, Founder of Bluman Associates, outlined the potential uses of Stage Precision’s SP Grid platform.”

The company said that the intention was to explore how audiences move and interact with immersive spaces.

“Whether it’s a performer who wants to learn how to respond to audience engagement, or venue owners planning an event based on these behaviors, we wanted to explore the possibilities of audience interaction,” Faulls said. “SP Grid proved to be an excellent way to collect and contextualize this data.”

The system is powered by d&b audiotechnik spatial audio and real-time generative graphics created in Notch and delivered to screens via Disguise media servers. Disguise controlled the visual and lighting elements in real time, while a separate audio system delivered the artists’ performances and sound effects. SP Grid served as the central middleware layer and collected and processed data generated by these interactions before distributing it to a custom dashboard.

“I’ve been working with some variation of Stage Precision for the last five years,” said Pod Bluman. “Whatever project I’m working on, I always think of it as a potential tool. It wasn’t a case of whether we should use Stage Precision, but how much of the project we could implement through the platform.”

RoboSense Airy LiDAR devices were employed to create a detailed map that could be aligned with a virtual model and the AV elements. Faulls was responsible for designing a customizable real-time dashboard within SP Grid’s Grid Studio. The dashboard received and visualized tracking data from LiDAR devices.

The Bath House presented an environment shaped by visitors’ movement and interaction. Since the project, CoSTAR National Lab has continued to use SP Grid for its research around LiDAR.

“In recent conversations, Pod and I have started looking at ‘SP-shaped problems’ – considering from the outset all the different ways that SP Grid could provide a solution,” said Faulls. “When it comes to centralizing data collection, distribution, processing and logic, SP Grid is the only tool I would turn to.”