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The Twelfth
Annual Interactive Music Conference
PROJECT BAR-B-Q 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
by The Fat Man, George A. Sanger
Larry the O set the group’s momentum going in a highly practical and high-minded direction for this year’s BBQ with his Thursday evening preacher-style presentation, largely centered on the value of emphasizing honesty rather than on blind optimism. Hank Coleman, Keith McMillen and Steve Turnidge graced us with one of the best suites of Friday Morning Brainbusting talks we’ve yet had.
Per the workgroups:
The Ear Pods offered up a vision of a near-future system of personal audio networks. Using hardware ultra-wide-band mic/speaker units (“hub caps”) by means of which each individual acts as his own hub. Suggested applications include networking, discussions, hearing enhancement, and advertising. The concept came off as remarkably sensible and almost inevitable, especially considering the futuristic-seeming projections with which they were dealing....
The Audio AI Experience approached some unfortunately common and critical game audio issues. Looking at the question of available tools, and digging into past BBQ reports, they focused on defining desirable functionality they would like to see in audio-related AI, something that had not been adequately addressed in previous reports. An interactive audio case study, intended to be the first of many, was defined and explored.
Mister Miagi’s Little trees discovered that the beat-up boat they rented was a perfect metaphor for the trouble in which PC audio currently finds itself. To the amusement of all, their presentation was recorded in the windy environment of that boat, and as their PC mic lacked a windscreen. The audio was impossible to understand, and my summary of the group’s work will have to wait until I have read their report.
The Reveal Group focused on user interface issues. In the first day they worked on identifying the primary problem with user interface, and landed on the fact that ultimately it is the computer that you have to deal with, and computers were not designed with heart-to-machine communication in mind. They designed a remarkable modification to ordinary computer keyboards, coining the name “IOUI.” (Input/Output User Interface) Not limited to any particular audience or discipline, this system, featuring a software-reconfigurable touch screen keyboard, would apply particularly well to the creation of and experiencing of creative content
The Reveal Group also spun off a Rogue Group that called itself Hand-aid, who tasked themselves with creating the next gen hand/glove controller, which would use thin, flexible adhesive pieces rather than the clunkier glove designs of the past.
The rogue group Metadaters faced the remarkable number and extent of deficiencies that exist in the way in which we handle the metadata that exists and could exist in audio files. They proposed a promising solution called Highly Distributed Metadata, which would include a standardized list of attributes (tags), and a decentralized, limitless system by which that could be efficiently utilized updated and proliferated. Benefits were identified that would apply to many areas, including commerce, production and entertainment. A lot of business opportunities seemed to appear out of nowhere as they unveiled their vision.
Game Audio for Producers took steps toward creating and distributing an “audio style guide” for game producers who might not currently have the vocabulary and/or knowledge at their fingertips to enable them to have, like, a clue about audio. Scott sang a song which was good for listening to.
The group was well-balanced, tight and fun, aware, responsive, and brilliant. THANK YOU, BBQ 2007. I am deeply happy, impressed, and proud. Well Done.
Love,
Fat
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