2020 NPAPW

[Renate Kreil <>]

Wow, Maria Isabel, 

great - perfect, I hardly can add something - just some little remarks inline. 

Am 20.12.2019 17:34, schrieb Maria Isabel Gandia:

 

Hi all,

 

It was a pleasure meeting you today. As I mentioned during the meeting, these are some of the questions I try to have answers for, before preparing dance performances (I already translated it and classified it a little bit to make it more digestible):

 

Budget:

1. Who is going to pay for what (dancers, audio/video equipment and technicians, network equipment and technicians, costumes...)? In my opinion it is always fair to pay the team. Even it is not a lot. It is really important that the dancers at least are interested in the technology. When Maria and I worked togehter the fees for the team where very equal. 
2. What is the budget we can spend, if any?
3. If we don’t have budget:
   1. Is someone willing to sponsor any part of it?
   2. Are there any students that would like to collaborate to learn from the experience? Can we involve their teachers?
   3. It has to be crystal clear for everyone. If it’s not ok, it can not be done. I agree 100 %. It is very important to have a committment, because worst case szenarío is when people are late etc. etc. I think without a budget, it is not possible. I definitly cannot remember, what our dance performance costed for the NPAPW inf 2013, Maria?  5.000 - 7.000,-- Euro? An important question is as well, if you expect audiences on both sides. If yes it is even more challenging. I is really important to create a team, I think Maria you as well did the entire IT Systems Admin.) https://www.netart.cc/past_shows/nd3/venues/barcelona/ It is as well important to say, independend how big or small the performances are, some things will not change and are a must.  

 

Space & Lighting:

1. How is the space they need?
   1. Measures: Length x Width X Height (be careful when talking to Europeans, as we use the metric system!)
   2. Do they need a special floor (wood, linoleum...)? If they do, can anyone provide a linoleum?
   3. How should the background be (black, white, dark, not stripped, chroma, special in any way...)? What measures (Length x Heigth)?
   4. If they need a Green Screen/Blue screen to do a Chroma, does it need to touch the floor? What screen you choose, it is as well important how the dancers are dressed. 
   5. Do they need tables and chairs for the technicians? And for the dancers when they are not dancing?
   6. Do they need one locker room or two? Would toilets do the function for them?
   7. Do they need a closed space to leave their stuff (in case they bring equipment, clothes, wiring...)?
2. What kind of lighting do they need?
   1. Is the room’s lighting good enough?
   2. If not, how many spotlights do they need for the floodlighting?
   3. Type of lighting needed (PAR64 LED...)

 

Audio & Video:

1. What kind of sound equipment do they need?

1. A sound equipment so that the dancer can listen to the remote music?
2. A sound equipment able to send the local music to the remote site?
3. A second channel so that technicians can communicate in the background?
4. Do they need one/several microphones? A headset?
5. Do they need Stereo equipment?

What kind of screens do they need?

1. How many (one for the background; one for the background and a smaller one to put in front of the dancer so that he/she can see the other side; many of them to surround the dancers...)?
2. What sizes for each one of them?
3. Is there any requirement to make it touch the floor (most of the roller screens stop before reaching the floor and if you need to have the feet of the dancers on both sides at the same level to make them feel they are in the same place, the roller screen needs to touch the floor)? 

Do they need a projector or just LCD screens? If they need a projector:

1. Is the projector in the room enough? Exactly and as well take care of the position of the beamer, because of shadows. 

1. Is it able to fulfil all the screen/background?
2. Do they have special requirements for it (3000 lumens, 6000 lumens...)?
3. Do they need a holder for the projector (ideally it would be in the ceiling)?

What kind of videocameras do they need?

1. HD cameras?
2. 4K?

 

Network & Technology (including technical rehearsals):

1. What is the bandwidth needed (1 Gbps, 10 Gbps,...)? Yery important for the success of the entire production. Thats the beginning...
2. Is the equipment in the venue ready for this capacity and needs end-to-end (no oversubscription, no limits in Jumbo  frames...)?
3. If not, are they able to create dedicated circuits to separate the traffic from the regular traffic and let us put our equipment there (we usually bring our routers/switches to the venues)?
4. Are there network connections in the room where the performance will be done? Internal cabling? Is it capable of supporting the bandwidth needs (for instance, CAT5 cabling is not possible for high bandwidth performances)?
5. Can we schedule some tests site-to-site weeks before the rehearsals with the artists (same space and network conditions) to see if anything needs to be changed?
6. What tools will be used (Lola, Ultragrid, Polycom...)? Will they bring the laptops or computers with the software installed? For the dance parts of the performances we used always UltraGrid. The have an interesting update.
7. What kind of computers do they need (in case they don’t bring them)?
   1. Special capture cards (Decklink...)?
   2. Special CPU requirements?
   3. Is there any link to the specifications, like http://www.ultragrid.cz/specification/ or https://conts.it/art/lola-project/old-lola-project-web-site/documents/Lola_Manual_1.4.2_rev_001.pdf ?

 

 

Rehearsals (artists):

1. Is there a conductor? What are their instructions?
2. Can the artists and the conductor talk about the performance previously via VC? Are they improvising or following a choreography?
3. How many rehearsals should be scheduled in the performance room?
4. What are the communication channels needed (chat/VC)?

 

 

I’m probably missing many things that usually arise during the preparation of a performance, but I hope it helps as a starting point to help. Feel free to improve it!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy 2020 to you all.

 

With my very best regards,

 

Maria Isabel Gandia Carriedo

Cap de Comunicacions

Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya (CSUC)

 

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