Page 140 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 20142.2 The commercial exploitat ion of performances as an audiovisual productNew high definition techniques and high quality sound have meant that recordings of auditorium and theatre performances can be marketed through the technologies, such as platforms that enable high quality streaming, as new audiovisual products.Theatres and auditoria have therefore become audiovisual producers and this means that, in addition to the public in attendance, they have a complementary and additional commercial resource available. The real challenge consists of not converting these two products in substitutes for each other but as complementary to each other. A recent study in the United Kingdom about theatre productions that can be seen via streaming through chains of cinemas concludes that the public attending do not feel dissuaded from attending the theatre but, on the contrary, feel much more motivated to buy a theatre ticket and see the work live the next time. (http://www.nesta.org.uk/ publications/beyond-live).In his work The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin says, “That which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art”. In a theatrical work, in an opera or dance performance there is nothing to substitute the experience of being present in the audience. But these performances can be enjoyed in a different way through a means of reproduction such as a DVD or live streaming. Under ideal circumstances the spectator would prefer to be in the theatre but often, the fact of living in another country, or not being able to afford either the journey or the ticket for the performance mean that such options are the best way of enjoying a pleasant evening.AC/EAny theatre-goer twenty years ago would simply find it incredible to learn that now in a similar situation anyone attracted by the performing arts and music has available, via their computer or a relatively nearby cinema, the entire season of concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the most important productions of opera houses such as Covent Garden in London or the Metropolitan in New York, La Scala in Milan or the Bayreuth Festival. These institutions have before them the opportunity to multiply their audiences and for every performance to be seen by a number of spectators that would have been unthinkable just some years ago.For this study, the following cases have been chosen as examples of the current trends in the commercial exploitation of performances as an audiovisual product.CONCERT HALLSBerlin Philharmonic Orchestrahttp://www.digitalconcerthall.com/es/The system created by the Berlin Philharmonic, its sound and audio quality, is simply spectacular. It required enormous initial investment but in the long term the idea is that it will pay for itself and become another source of revenue for the orchestra. Above all it has involved the international public and the orchestra’s great admirers who want to see the concerts they have most enjoyed again, as many times and they please. It is a question of recouping the “expanded there and now” that Antonio Rodríguez de las Heras discusses in his article for thisFOCUS 2014: THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS2.2 THE COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF PERFORMANCES AS AN AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCT CURRENT PAGE...140