Page 132 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

132that can arise spontaneously, and can help bring them into contact with new people with similar tastes.beacons.50 Their app was simpler, in that it was merely used to provide real-time information about upcoming activities in the particular area where festival goers who had enabled the option were located. These geolocated noti cations generated by beacons disappeared when the person moved out of their range.Given the nature of the Tribeca lm festival,one of whose main activities is screening lms, the organisers ensured that the strategyof noti cations issued by beacons was not invasive. The beacons in the theatres were automatically deactivated when screening began and reactivated after it ended, between lm screenings.What the festivals that have made use of beacons so far have in common (as stated earlier, there are not many cases as beacons are so new) is their large size, especially in termsof attendees, who number more than 50,000. SXSW had in the region of 75,000 visitors in 2015, nearly 200,000 people attended Coachella Festival and more than 138,000 (evidently not including the users who enjoyed only the online activities) attended the screenings, presentations and lectures o ered by Tribeca festival.When dealing with such very large numbersof people and a whole host of activities that often take place simultaneously, real-time management is an absolute necessity. In these cases beacons can be sources of information that enable the organisation to make instant decisions and carry out automated, geolocated and signi cant management tasks centred on the festival goer.These beacons can no doubt be applied to comparatively smaller festivals, for example in areas where actors and people tend to congregate. Indeed, their price, which is progressively decreasing, and the fact they are relatively easy to install could allow them to be used in very di erent types of contexts regardless of the festival’s size.If users have enabled Bluetooth, communication with beacons and the Networking option as well as specifying their interests and tastes together with their professional pro le, the combination of beacons and app can put people in touch with other users with similar tastes who are located in the same room or area and can help introduce them to each other through a noti cation. This type of geolocation does not rely at all on GPS.There is also an option for interacting with the audience at presentations or roundtables, for example.49 When someone enters an area where an activity is going on, they receive a requestto Join the Conversation. This option, as well as enabling the function commented on above, allows the user to access a small real-time forum for discussion (digital, through the app) or to take part in any surveys or votes.The interesting point here is that the developers of the technical strategy and beacon placement design are also the developers of the app – a key factor that ensures that the app and the beacons can function correctly, in harmony.Lastly, Tribeca Film Festival is another of the pioneering festivals in the installation of2. NT BEFORE AND DURING THE FESTIVALFocus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals