The average concert is a tour de force for one’s sense of sound (and, if the bass is decent, one’s sense of their bones vibrating). But Anne McKinnon from The Boolean isn’t interested in “average” concerts. She wants to use XR to make concerts a sensation for all the senses.
Alan: Welcome to the XR for
Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is Anne
McKinnon from The Boolean. Anne is a VR and AR consultant and writer.
She is an editor and contributor to Charlie Fink’s book
“Convergence.” Charlie, as you may remember, was one of the
very first episodes we had. Her consulting bridges the gap between
entertainment and technology. As an advisor, Anne grows and curates a
community of digital artists to leverage new and emerging
technologies. Anne is actively engaged in the entertainment industry
at the intersection of music, arts, gaming, and tech. You can learn
more about the great work that Anne and her team are doing at
theboolean.io. Anne, welcome to the show.
Anne: Thank you, Alan. I’m
really excited to speak with you today, and also cannot wait to speak
to a lot of the listeners.
Alan: Yes, it’s been a while.
We’ve known each other quite some time, and you do some work with VR
Days and they’ve been on the show as well. And it feels like a
family, like a network of people that are all just kind of coming
together. So how did you get into this crazy world of technology?
Anne: Actually, VR Days was one
of the major events I went to and I started working in tech. And it
was as a blogger and just kind of looking at how can we solve
problems in VR, what can we use it for, and how can we make
improvements to every aspect of our lives? And VR Days was one of the
best conferences that bridged the gap between technology and arts,
and also brought together everyone from military to education to
healthcare, and also the creatives to drive that innovation. So that
way, I guess I met some of the teams that I work with now and we’re
looking at how to solve all these problems and to bring it to
audiences around the world.
Alan: Let’s unpack that. What
are some of the problems that you’re working on solving?
Anne: I want you talk a lot
today about one of the projects we’re working on for almost two
years, and that’s with Miro Shot. So Miro Shot is a band and we’re
touring a virtual reality live concert around the world. So to kind
of put in detail about what that looks like, is that the audience is
physically present and the band as also physically present. And when
the audience enters, they have VR headsets on and they are immersed
in dreamscape visuals, and the pass-through camera’s a big part of
what we do to connect the realities, and to experience music in a new
way. And one of the problems that a lot of VR experiences have is how
do you reach audiences around the world with live performance, and
also how do you reach a large scale audience? A lot of what we’re
focusing in business is how do you grow experiences from live to at
home. And this is something we’re doing with the band, with up to 30
people at a time for live concert.
Alan: People simultaneously in
VR?
Anne: Simultaneously in VR. So a
lot of it is based around the concepts of gaming. So we’re really
looking at VR as something that’s not contained, taking from
classical genres, from theater and cinema and gaming. So everything
starts in a gaming lobby. And they start the experience together and
depending on where they look, they’ll be able to experience different
parts of the world of the music. And they’re also because of the live
perf
