RE: [-empyre-] interactive video software

["Jim Andrews" <jim@vispo.com>]

There is quite a bit of good VJ (video jockey) software. An excellent hub
concerning information about VJ software (and hardware and venues and
practictioners...) is http://vjcentral.com . Under 'softwares' i see 39
programs listed under 'live performance'. Many of these offer trial
downloadable versions.

Typically, the VJ situation is live performance in a club or gallery or
whatnot. Not over the Net, where bandwidth constraints are major
considerations given  the 'heavy media' VJ's work with. In VJ software,
typically, a performer causes videos to be displayed and processed using the
computer keyboard as interface into the software (ie, pressing the 'a' key
triggers one video, 'b' may trigger some synthesis of videos, 'c' may
trigger a visual effect on whatever is being displayed at the mo, etc.).

This is the main 'interactive video' global scene, I believe. Not
interactive video for the Web/Net, but for live performance where the
interactivity is not typically controlled by the audience but by the
performers.

Quite a bit of VJ software lets musicians set up a situation where, rather
than using a computer keyboard to trigger video processing, MIDI instruments
trigger both the audio and the video. The MIDI instruments send messages to
audio sequencing/processing software and also to the VJ video
sequencing/processing software. General multimedia tools such as MAX and
Director can also be set up to receive MIDI messages.

The video sequencing/processing abilities of VJ software are significantly
advanced over the sequencing/processing abilities of interactive video for
the Web. Interactive video for the Web/Net is strongly related to VJ
software for live performance but, as noted above, the situations are quite
different. The main differences are that VJ software is
a) for live performance, not the Web/net
b) has basically no bandwidth constraints
c) interfaces with MIDI instruments etc
d) is set up on a local system rather than delivered to remote clients.

The interesting things about interactive video for the Web/Net, compared
with the typical VJ situations, are that the interactivity and pace are in
the hands of the audience; the audience is globally distributed; as we see
in Barbara's C-SPAN X 4 piece, work can draw on resources from the Net;
given that the pace is controlled mainly by the individual audience member,
things like text can be more prominent and extended than in live
performance...

ja