Tag: stage

Ground-breaking live stage show asks audience to ‘game’ their way through performance in real time – 7 Deadly Sins in The Civic Theatre on July 12th and 13th

Imagine a stage-show where you don’t just immerse yourself in the story, enjoy the music and marvel at the spectacle, but you also get to actively ‘game’ your way through the performance and influence what happens on stage?

‘7 Deadly Sins’ is the world’s first hybrid eGaming and storytelling stage show, and it will premier a number of development performances in The Civic Theatre, Tallaght on the 12th and 13th of July. Utilising ground-breaking mapping technology, created in partnership with Maynooth University, the audience use a simple app on their mobile phone to become ‘active’ participants, creating a seamless interaction between the audience and performers in real-time. So instead of being told to ‘put your phone away’ when you enter the theatre, this performance will be asking you to get your phone out and be a part of the show!

This steam-punk rock opera, created by Irish playwright and technologist Niall Austin and directed by Prof. David Bassuk, re-imagines Dante Alighieri’s iconic 14th century masterpiece ‘Inferno’ for the 21st century. The 7 Deadly Sins are positioned as digital or social media channels such as:

  • Photo and video sharing apps represent Envy
  • Dating apps represent Lust
  • Cryptocurrency represents Greed

While the performance is taking place live on stage, audience members can engage in combat with an array of virtual demons, zombies and dragons through an app available on IOS and Android. Spectators are encouraged to hold up their phones during the show and partake in the performance by using the app which features augmented reality gaming technology contextually designed around the on-stage production.

Starring opera sensation Claudia Boyle, rising hip-hop star Fortune Igiebor and singer and actress Aoife Spratt, the performance also features a host of other, never before seen interactive features.

Niall Austin, the show’s creator, says: “7 Deadly Sins not only brings a traditional piece of literature into the 21st century, it is a dynamic experience which offers the audience a new frontier in live entertainment – where technology, narrative and performance marry together create an unforgettable stage show. Live entertainment is constantly evolving with many young people now attending concerts and shows to take photos and videos. I am looking forward to enhancing audience engagement and creating an incredible experience for attendees.”

Donal Shiels, Artistic Director at The Civic, says: “It is an exciting time in the world of theatre where technology can be incorporated into stage productions to create a new and interesting experience for audience members. We are delighted to be bringing a world first to The Civic Theatre as we remain committed to evolving with the ever changing technology landscape. Following the incredible success of Niall’s last two shows – PL-AI and Deep Fake – we are looking forward to seeing the interaction between the audience and the performers.”

 7 Deadly Sins takes place in The Civic Theatre, Tallaght on Friday 12th July and Saturday 13th July at 7:30pm

 As a ‘development performance, tickets are available for €12 here: https://www.civictheatre.ie/whats-on/7-deadly-sins/

The Founder Factory Unveils New Brand ‘Factory44’, Delivering On-Demand Creative Services for Every Business Stage

The Founder Factory, Ireland’s on-demand creative studio, has announced its strategic rebrand to Factory44, with a renewed mission to provide compelling and impactful content solutions for businesses at every stage of development.

The transition to Factory44 signals the company’s evolution from a niche service provider initially geared towards startups and founders, to a dynamic, membership-based hub of creative solutions catering to the diverse and time-sensitive content needs of businesses. From ideation to execution, Factory44’s dedicated team of experienced content creators, designers, and strategists are on-hand to deliver content that engages, educates, and inspires audiences, powered by a state-of-the-art studio and equipment suite.

Since inception, Factory44 has exclusively served clients from the founder and start-up community, with an affordable membership price tier of €4,500 per year. This membership package grants members unlimited, on-demand access to Factory44’s dynamic studio, expert team and a full-scope of content creation services including podcasting, videography and photography. It also includes invites to exclusive member-only events, featuring Factory44’s growing network of members, creatives, founders and marketers. Factory44 has also introduced separate price tiers for SMEs and large enterprises with more comprehensive content needs, with add-on packages including copywriting, video editing, strategic digital consultancy, graphic and web design, as well as social media management.

Under the stewardship of serial entrepreneurs Bernard Nolan and Robbie Phelan, Factory44 has experienced an accelerated growth trajectory, expanding from an original staff of two at the beginning of 2023 to eight full-time staff members currently, with two new hires earmarked for Q4 of this year. Having closed a €250,000 pre-seed investment round earlier this year, the funding is being allocated towards business expansion and recruitment, with a particular emphasis on scaling the company’s multi-faceted content department and launching new content ‘factory’ locations in the coming 24 months.

Bernard Nolan (CEO and Co-Founder) has held senior management positions in globally renowned tech companies along with founding multiple startups in fields such as MedTech and AI recruitment. Bernard has won multiple startup awards, including Ireland’s Best Healthcare Start-up in 2017 at the National Start-Up Awards, having founded an online medical platform empowering users to access, store, manage and communicate medical information anytime, anywhere. He was also a regional finalist in Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur Competition by Local Enterprise Office / Enterprise Ireland in 2018. His Factory44 Co-founder Robbie Phelan is a seasoned sales and operations senior manager, who previously Co-founded a HR technology company that delivers an AI-powered talent experience platform, enabling a faster, fairer and friendlier hiring experience for candidates and employers alike. Together, Bernard and Robbie are now laser focused on disrupting Ireland’s content creation scene.

Commenting on the announcement, Bernard Nolan, Co-Founder and CEO of Factory44 said: “Our ongoing and rapid expansion demonstrates the high market demand for affordable, membership-based content creation services. In today’s hyper-competitive economy, businesses at every stage of development need on-demand access to dedicated content experts, without paying lofty fees. Whether you’re a startup looking to establish a strong digital presence, a founder seeking to expand your sphere of influence and personal brand, or an established enterprise aiming to refresh your brand narrative, Factory44 has the expertise to craft best-in-class content that aligns with and supports your business objectives.”

Robbie Phelan, Co-Founder of Factory44 said: “By only paying for what they need, our expanding client base derives fantastic value from our dedicated in-house experts, who are treated like an extension of their team – reliable, dedicated and invested in their success. With a three-story state of the art facility centrally located in the heart of Dublin, we’re building a thriving network of enterprises that can explore collaboration synergies, while achieving the highest standards of content output in an affordable and efficient manner.”

AWS launches Startup Loft in Dublin to support early-stage tech entrepreneurs reach their potential through the Cloud

The AWS Startup loft is a home for technology startups in one of AWS’s Dublin city centre offices in Charlemont Street. This co-working space is free to use for startups and is equipped with open seating, phonebooths, WiFi and coffee to keep startups fuelled.

The loft regularly hosts office hours and talks with venture capital, legal and accounting firms. Every Wednesday and Thursday startups can sit down with an AWS solution architect or account manager for ‘Ask the Expert’ sessions. This could be an opportunity to discuss a startups technology roadmap, architecture guidance or cost optimisation.

Vyra – Eoin Le Masney (Sector – Sustainability EdTech)

Backed by behavioural science, the Vyra Platform provides businesses with a highly engaging solution to up-skill employees rapidly and at scale. Whether it is through Vyra’s best-in-class learning modules or bespoke company learning programmes, the Vyra Platform is there to deliver to 50 or 5000 employees. https://vyra.ie/why-vyra/

KowRoo – Sheelagh Brady (Sector – Travel and Corporate Security)

Risks associated with travel, such as delays, accidents, criminality, or even death, can have an enormous impact on a business. The global security market is estimated to have an annual turnover in excess of $66.9B for the US alone. KowRoo combines analysis of real-time data that is personalised for the user, whilst integrating the risk appetite of the business, and communicating dynamic risk rating results via an app to the user. KowRoo will have a mobile app and desktop user interface, behind which a large volume of historical risk assessments generated from past analyses and real time incidents will be used as inputs to modern AI algorithms to build a real time robotic analyst “KowRoo”.

Elkstone Capital – Kate Fullen (Venture Capital)

Elkstone is a leading Irish Investment House focused on Entrepreneurs, Senior Executives, Institutional LPs, the Venture Community and Irish Diaspora. Their mission is to increase the economic value and overall wellbeing of the Island of Ireland by enabling deserving investments and delivering superior investment performance.

Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Minister Dara Calleary :

“The Start Up Loft initiative is an important addition to the entrepreneur and start up ecosystem here in Ireland. This space and others like it play a vital role by supporting early stage and start-up companies test out their ideas, pitch for investment, and build their networks. I’m pleased to support the launch today which will complement the range of government supports and schemes available through our enterprise agencies, including the Local Enterprise Office network and Enterprise Ireland, to help Irish start-ups scale up, grow, and succeed both at home and on the global stage.”

 Mike Beary – Country Manager, AWS Ireland:

“At AWS, one of our leadership principles is to “Think Big”. Here in Dublin, we want to enable a culture of “thinking big” by providing some of Ireland’s brightest entrepreneurs with a space for their ideas to grow. This new Startup Loft will create the ideal forum for new companies to meet other founders, interact with VCs, and discuss how to take their businesses to the next level.”

Kate Fullen – Elkstone:

“Spaces like this give the VC community a chance to work with some of the most interesting founders in the country as they get their new companies up and running. The AWS Startup Loft is a great addition to the business ecosystem in Dublin.”

 Sheelagh Brady – KowRoo:

“Putting a company together from scratch is a hugely complicated and exciting project. The Startup Loft gives me a dedicated space to expand my business while learning from other entrepreneurs as we move our projects to the next stage. Having access to VCs and AWS experts is an added bonus. ”

 Eoin Le Masney – Vyra:

“The AWS Startup hub has been a game changer for Vyra – we have met some fantastic founders, solved problems with solutions architects and even used the space to pitch to mentors and investors. AWS Startup Loft is always creating value through events and regular check-ins and I know that in the future we will reference the AWS Startup hub as a key ingredient in our early stage success.”

Creative launches its newest under-monitor soundbar, The Creative Stage SE

Creative Technology today announced the release of Creative Stage SE, the latest under-monitor soundbar that is designed to amp up the user’s desktop audio experience. Despite its compact size, the Creative Stage SE packs a powerful audio punch with custom-tuned racetrack drivers and Sound Blaster technology to deliver a clearer and more immersive audio experience. This soundbar is also simple to set up and powers up easily via a power adapter; it also offers both USB digital audio and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. Together with convenient controls and tone adjustments, the Creative Stage SE sets the stage for an elevated movie, music, and gaming experience for PC users.

Creative Stage SE offers clearer, louder, and punchier audio in a smaller form factor.

Fitted with powerful full-range racetrack drivers and oversized radiators, the Creative Stage SE is able to deliver clearer and punchier audio, even without a subwoofer. With a total peak power of 48W, this soundbar surpasses the audio performance of any default PC built-in speakers to offer a better listening experience for users. The Creative Stage SE also features Sound Blaster audio technologies such as Clear Dialog and Surround Sound, which offer users clearer dialogue even amidst jam-packed scenes and a cinema-like audio experience with a widened sound stage.

On top of that, the Creative Stage SE also allows users to switch between warmer and brighter audio reproduction with the latest tone adjustment feature. Now users can tune and adjust tone neutrality to their liking with a simple press of a button.

Lastly, for a seamless listening experience, the Creative Stage SE features a simple plug-and-play setup that supports both USB digital audio and Bluetooth connectivity. Furthermore, the soundbar includes an integrated volume control knob conveniently located on the side for users to make quick sound adjustments on the fly, as well as a remote control to toggle a variety of features such as tone adjustments, surround sound, and clear dialogue mode selections.

Creative Stage SE is priced at UK£69.99 and is available at Creative.com. For more information, visit www.creative.com/stagese

Tech Review – Creative Stage Air V2 soundbar

The soundbar is now a popular piece of tech buy for their homes to enhance their audio experince no matter what it may be connected to, you can buy for your TV PC and more and small size on like what we have here today is just as ideal if you are on a budget and do not want an oversized one which some folk are fussy about.

We tested this one with a laptop and phone and of course as expected it blows your default speakers out of the water and a nice thump of bass thrown in for good measure, now you are limited with i/o ports and no HDMI so keep that in mind before buying as often it can be the case people think a HDMI port comes in all soundbars when it does not and this is targeted at a different audience but can be used anywhere still and is portable.

This soundbar has a comprehensive connectivity profile for compatible devices (which include PC, Mac, PS5, Nintendo Switch, mobile devices) – users can conveniently connect a single USB cable for audio and power, or revert to the trusty 3.5mm port for analogue connectivity. It also delights as a wireless speaker, featuring the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology with six hours of playback on a single charge.

There is no app or anything here to control the EQ but most products like this are the same apart from some gaming options from the brand which are super cool. This is a simple plug and play and it does the job with a nice glossy finish and metal finished grill up from, it is a fingerprint magnet but once settled in place you have no real need to touch the front or sides as the controls are on the side of the unit.

This could be also used a general speaker in the house be it your bedroom living room or kitchen too and easily fills a room, check out the video for samples below and if you are on a bit of a budget and tied up for space and want a better audio experience at home this should be on your list.

Creative Stage Air V2, visit creative.com/StageAirV2.

Video Review