Shared_Studios

Founded in Brooklyn, New York, and with installations on every inhabited continent, Shared_Studios™ was created with the goal of helping people forge connections and discover their similarities.

Shared_Studios was seeking a method of facilitating real-time conversations between people located in different places, whether participants were across town or across the globe from one another. Participants soon discovered what the Shared_Studios founders already knew: regardless of location or background or any other distinguishing factor, we humans are far more alike than most of us realize. Effective communication plays a vital role in bringing people to this conclusion.

SOLUTION

Shared_Studios selected Devio with Parlé as the superior audio solution, providing the most life-like audio experience, delivering clear audio whether portal visitors were having a conversation or collaborating on a musical performance. Devio and Parlé were installed in the first 12 portals throughout 2017. These units are located in portals all over the world, from an internally displaced persons camp in Erbil, Iraq, to permanent installations in Nairobi, Kenya and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Portals are typically centered around LCD or LED projectors, with LED lights illuminating participants. They have one or more cameras embedded in the display surface, creating lineof-sight contact, and enabling participants to interact live and full-body, as if in the same room. Each portal features a single Devio connected to a Parlé microphone located in the ceiling, and an Ethernet patch cable runs through the ceiling to connect to a computer hidden behind the wall. The computer, amplifier, and all other pieces of equipment are out of sight, and two loudspeakers are camouflaged and embedded in the wall so they are as close to the participants’ ears as logistically possible. While these devices are hidden from view, they remain easily accessible for technicians to make any necessary adjustments. Parlé’s Beamtracking microphones are small and unobtrusive, but still capable of picking up the natural sound of participants’ voices on both ends of the session, creating a lifelike interaction for people located hundreds or thousands of miles apart.

CONCLUSION

Portal participants report ongoing positive impacts, even weeks and months later, from interacting with people via the portals. Because the portals come in multiple form factors including temporary installations in repurposed shipping containers and a mobile portal housed in a retrofitted school bus-Devio’s flexibility makes it an ideal choice for a highquality, affordable, and repeatable audio solution.

One of the primary purposes of the portals project is bridging gaps between people-whether those gaps are geographical, cultural, or any number of other reasons. That’s why audio clarity as well as minimizing latency were key factors. Shared_ Studios was committed to reducing latency as much as possible to support effective collaboration. Devio’s software allows it to adjust automatically whenever a participant is talking, laughing, or singing, resulting in crisp, clean natural sounding audio no matter the geographical distance between participants. With Biamp solutions in place, Shared_Studios’ founders, curators, and participants are free to focus on building human connections across the world.