Captive Audience

This project was born and raised right here in our R&D Program. The idea was to create a unique audio-visual-mobile-social experience. With a major live music event in mind, we set out to build a platform that would let the audience participate in the show. One of our Senior Developers, Chris Ross, brought the concept to life.

Chris created a Captive Portal, which gives any event space the ability to control the LWAN, divvy out IPs, and offer up reactionary content through web sockets. Here are the prototypes and use-cases he came up with:

All of the Lights

• The audience appears on screen and is prompted to hold up cellphones
• The band controls the timing and colors of the lights with a master “controller”
• The audience cellphones change colors: some are green, some are blue, some red, etc.
• Finally all cellphones go red and then the lights behind the band go red and so on...
• “Social Engineering” will help keep the screens lit

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The Encore

• For the encore, the band selects a few options for the audience to vote on
• The audience votes by selecting the song they want to hear on their phones
• The vote tally updates in real-time on their phones and on venue screens

We tried out the concept at our CG Holiday Party last year. Instead of a light show, each person’s phone became part of the “snow globe” by having a unique flake pattern pushed to their phones. Our guests were also able to send greetings that would appear in the flurry of flakes.