Summary

During the 24 hour SXSW Hackathon we worked with a SXSW Artist in Residence, Helen Sartory and Ben Williams of Androdes to create something that would deepen the fan immersion during shows and actively connect the fans and artist together.

After brain storming we came up with an MVP and proof of concept to enable the artist to play the crowd as if they we part of the instrument on stage and CrowdPlay was born. CrowdPlay is a mobile application that connects phones of the fans during a concert to the digital instruments on stage. This allows the artist to play sound sample from the crowds phones during performances in unison or by dividing the crowd into groups.

First Iteration

Core Features

• Integration into Ableton Live through a python application
• Simultaneous sound playback on fan phone, scaling up to thousands
• Option to trigger phone flashbulbs on phone to accent the light show

Initial Tech Stack

• Python program utilizing the Pubnub SDK that interfaces with Ableton Live to process and transmit midi data to phones
• Cordova framework to build native IOS and Android applications in Javascript (JQuery, Midi.js, Howler.js)

Github Repo

Web Version

Github Repo

Next: Production-grade Iteration

Core Features

• Integration into Ableton Live through a python application
• Simultaneous sound playback on fan phone, scaling up to thousands
  • Ability to subdivide the crowd into groups and play differing samples
  • Generate Sound dynamically directly on phones
  • Reduction in lag to below 200 ms
• Additional desktop application that allows the artist to better customize...
  • Sounds; samples, notes, pads, loops, timing, etc.

Future Tech Stack

• Replace Pubnub with broadcasting over local wireless network to improve response times

Built With

• ableton-live
• apache
• css
• howler.js
• html5
• javascript
• jquery.js
• midi.js
• pubnub-api's
• python