Projects

As part of this project on the creation of high-fidelity immersive sound experiences, SAT’s R&D team collaborated with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) to develop and implement new methods for capturing, processing and broadcasting pre-recorded symphonic in a virtual environment, enabling listeners to move around in a sonic representation of the orchestra, changing their listening perspective.

As part of the OpéRA de poche project, the Chaire de recherche en création d’opéra of Université de Montréal created a mobile immersive installation. SAT’s research team was consulted to integrate a sound spatialization element into the experience. The implementation of the Audiodice spatialized sound device enabled the audience to move around between the sound sources to amplify the sensory immersion.

LivePose is a technology that uses artificial intelligence to recognize and detect poses. Developed at the SAT, this technology is the centrepiece of an interactive museum project developed by Montreal studio Creo. MegaCeta is an educative immersive experience that invites visitors to interact with whales in order to encourage these marine mammals to learn via gestures. For example, by training LivePose’s algorithms to detect certain actions (jumping, raising your arm, etc.) specific to the museum context, visitors can feed a whale or get it to come closer to them.

SAT collaborated with the Faculté de Médecine of Université de Montréal to present the immersive conference “The poetry of bacteria.” This project is the fruit of a long collaboration with microbiologist Yves Brun, who was keen to popularize his research. Several members of the SAT team supported him to develop the immersive scenography and bacterial visualizations projected in the dome. The conference focuses on the infinitely small, revealing the unsuspected world of bacteria. The event was a major success with the public and the media.

Scenic, the telepresence solution device developed by the Society for Arts and Technology, enabled an interactive scenography between three actors and three audiences. The three locations are interdependent but driven by the same storyline. The scenes captured in one and simultaneously projected in the others gives a sense of co-presence.

SAT accompanied the Vision Diversité team to design and broadcast a musical show between three locations simultaneously. The Scenic telepresence was used to set up creative residencies enabling artists from across Quebec to meet and work together remotely. In each venue, screens allowed them to see each other face to face, offering a sense of proximity to create musical dialogues. The result of this work was then presented on three stages in Montreal, Rimouski and St-Camille, making it possible for the artists to perform from their respective region, in a unique atmosphere connecting the three local audiences.

Artist Louis-Robert Bouchard developed aerosol-style cans, equipped with sensors that reproduce the effect of ink in video projection to create ephemeral murals. The use of the Scenic telepresence technology augmented this experience, enabling participants to co-create murals from remote locations. Each city’s graffiti artists use complementary colour palettes, and the projected mural is the superimposition of their contributions. This is complemented by a dedicated screen representing the remote participant on a human scale to maximize the sense of connection and facilitate collective creation.

Dome Fest West is a Los Angeles-based immersive film festival. During the 2023 edition, SAT was commissioned to design a virtual dome in its metaverse Satellite in which was screened the selection of full-dome films. SAT accompanied the festival in the design of this customized virtual space, notably in the creation of avatars adapted to the theme of the event, and the integration of advanced audio features.

Presented in the Satellite virtual gallery as part of MUTEK 2022, this creation by Nancy Lee & Kiran Bhumber is a Web VR experience set in a dystopian world. During the residency, SAT collaborated with the artists to make the experience more playful and interactive. It developed customized functions, e.g. teleportation between the scenes, isolated audio zones, and the appearance of texts according to avatar positioning.