Things To Come

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have close to 40,000 children and young people visit them every year as part of their schools’ programme. Preparation for their trip has traditionally been via swathes of printed material but the Liverpool Phil decided they wanted something a little more dynamic, something a little more, Liverpool Phil…

After meeting at the legendary Big Chip Awards, Stardotstar and the Phil soon met up to discuss how we could turn traditional lesson plans into a truly engaging experience allowing the audience to get more out of their trip when they visit the Phil.

Things to Come is an application that introduces the audience to the Phil, how an orchestra works, and the eponymous piece of music by Sir Arthur Bliss.

Split into three sections, the first outlines some of the principle musicians within the orchestra, creating a human relationship between the participator and a few of the people that make it happen. The next is an effortlessly simple interface that allows you to seamlessly cut the audio and video of the full orchestra, to a close-up and solo of one of the principle players. The result is wonderful experience that enriches the listening involvement. The final element of the pilot is possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of visualisation we’ve ever created. By splitting the audio into the four sections of strings, brass, percussion and woodwind we’ve created a graphical equaliser based around the layout of the orchestra. This makes for a delightful half passive, half interactive adventure that lets the audience experience the pace of the piece of music.

Things to Come captivates everyone who uses it, but we’re also delighted to have won 2 national BIMA awards. As always, engaging our end users to deliver our client’s objective is the most important part of any project, but winning national awards comes a very close second!

This pilot project was funded by the Technology Strategy Board. Stardotstar and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic are now in the process of devising plans to scale the scope and delivery of this successful pilot.