Where is the real source of digital creativity

The summit of Live music has always been dominated by large bands, filling arenas consisting of high production values, funded by record labels and advertisers looking to attain a huge audience. The opposite end of the music spectrum however, still holds a colossal circuit of unsigned bands, desperately promoting on the streets to get the crowds that are worth playing for.
So how might the digital era have helped bridge the gap in production cost to sustain the livelihood of unsigned artists?
In October 2010, online video streaming experts StreamUK teamed up with the Roundhouse in Camden to embark on an innovative project. ‘Black Box’ is a series of creative showcases filmed and produced live at the Roundhouse and streamed live on Myspace.
“The first 10 minutes generated over 40,000 viewers whilst social media was used as an intermediary tool to guide information and send broadcast notifications .The statistics provided by the StreamUK/Level 3 media platform gave clear and concise reports of online traffic and in-depth specifics for the project’s success with online activity.”
“The result was a creative initiative achieving substantial social recognition, which evolved into a visually recognised brand, utilising an effective media platform through creative talent.”
It wasn’t long until the online audience figures were reaching the size of Wembley Stadium’s seating capacity, quickly drawing an immense reality that these artists were indeed playing to arena sized audiences.
“The overall success of previous events alerted Myspace, and on the day of our 5^th event in February, it was advertised on the Myspace homepage for 15 hours before the showcase went live”
Filmed, edited and encoded live, the footage was streamed via ‘StreamMP’ StreamUK’s media platform which was then delivered globally on Level 3’s Content Delivery Network. The technological capacity of the partnership opened up a debate regarding the potential of online video streaming as well as its benefits for unsigned artists eager to share their work with the internet masses.
In March the partnership look to take on their next technological challenge. The previous ‘Black Box’ showcases used various experimental digital techniques to offer internet viewers something much different. The online video streaming aspect encouraged the directors to push the boundaries and implement visuals that would not be possible in live shows – and the next project will do just that. “You wouldn’t know him” is a theatre event, filmed live from Texas (US) and London (UK) and edited live for the stream to an online audience.
The main theme of the theatre event is to express that even though these individuals are situated so far apart, in the digital age it really doesn’t matter. Using ‘Skype’ the actors shall interact and play live, supported entirely by the reliability of modern technology.
StreamUK are currently exploring new ways to test the waters of digital innovation. Many of our clients request a technological solution for storing, editing and utilising video content for various purposes, yet it is always a privileged responsibility of ours to suggest new ways in which we can employ and consume video content online.
The need for ultimate quality and secure management of video content has increased rapidly, with AV information swarming the internet, it still proves to be the ultimate tool in communications. The freedom to manage, edit and customise your content through platforms online, also now passes creativity into the hands of our customers, where now features such as monetising can translate a creative feature into a commercial benefit.
The past decade has taught industries that although production houses and agencies might have always been the source of original creativity, increased digital capabilities have encouraged us to occupy new developments with facilities that are ultimately bespoke and efficient for our clients. The success of our new media platforms has required the need for advanced settings and optimisation so users can make more of their content.