Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2021 - 29

Technical timeline of Wound/Portal. | Created by Kieran Hood.

Entertainment Technologies, in June,
and immediately began investigating
its possibilities. Max Sutton, the show's
software engineer-who was also fundamental in researching software solutions, writing technical documentation,
and providing technical support-worked
on using ZoomOSC in a way that best fit
the performance. Specifically, the software allowed for the ability to remotely
control Zoom UI functions such as
turning on and off performers' cameras
and microphones-all of which could
be done through calling cues in QLab.
Sutton received special permission from
ZoomOSC's developer to look at code to
customize it for the purpose of using two
ZoomOSC instances for the two Zoom
meetings that were used for the production and to serve as inspiration to write
a separate Python script for a moment at
the end of the show when all of the audience members were called to turn on
their cameras.
Other programs used include Qlab,
which ran sound and video and controlled
some Zoom UI functions in collaboration with ZoomOSC. Open Broadcasting
Source (OBS) with a virtual camera plugin that was used to add virtual elements

to performers' cameras on Zoom, replacing elements that would traditionally
be considered set pieces. Several NDI
programs handled capture, monitor, and
virtual camera (respectively used to capture one computer screen and send the
feed to another, check feeds, and use as a
different feed as the " camera " in Zoom).
ZeroTier, a program that combines VPN
and SD-Wan, allowed for remote login
and control of performers' computers.
QLC, free lighting software, allowed the
lighting designer and operator to control
lights in actors' rooms remotely through
ZeroTier. Finally, TeamSpeak, software
typically used by gamers to communicate
with one another, functioned as a communication system for the stage management team, operators, and technical
support.
One Zoom meeting was not going
to permit the type of audience interaction with the performance that the team
wanted. In order to permit each audience
member to see exactly what all of the performers and technical staff were seeing,
" computer inception " tools were needed.
This required three computers to set up
" the stage " --the Mac '11, the Dell, and the
Mac '18.

These three computers were all set
up in the TAPS workshop and hardwired
into the school's network. Remote logins were most easily achieved through
ZeroTier, which further allowed Cadigan
to manage remote logins of any computer in the show. On a Mac, this capacity is
built-in (through Finder > connect to server), but doing it on a PC is just as easy
after downloading Microsoft Remote
Desktop.
The process for setting up the " Zoom
inception " at the beginning of the show
looked like this: Everyone who was a part
of the production would log into the " rehearsal Zoom. " Then Kieran Hood, an
assistant technical director and member
of the technical support team, would remotely access the Mac '11 and use the
Mac to remote-log into the Dell computer. With the Dell, she would log into
the rehearsal Zoom meeting and make
sure that the NDI screen capture was
turned on. Then, she logged into the Mac
'18 where she opened TouchDesigner, a
software typically used for projection, but
used in this case for cropping out parts
of the NDI screen capture and re-route
it as the feed for NDI virtual camera.
After opening TouchDesigner, the next

SPRING 2021 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

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Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2021

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