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Music Media Entertainment Technology

The Tech Behind a Nine Inch Nails Show 73

inetstorm, who has "been a NIN fan for ages," sends along a Wired profile giving a look behind the scenes at the tech underlying the current NIN concert tour. "... this time around, NIN has pulled out all the stops, creating a groundbreaking, fully interactive visual display that is as much a part of the show as the band's instruments ... The core of the show is a sophisticated trio of transparent 'stealth' screens, which are raised and lowered during the performance... For the interactive portions of the show, all the onscreen video is rendered by Moment Factory's custom rig, a trio of Linux-based devices collectively known as 'the brain.'"
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The Tech Behind a Nine Inch Nails Show

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  • by fraktus ( 632342 ) * on Sunday September 14, 2008 @06:43AM (#24997189) Homepage Journal
    The difference is that for Daft Punk it's much more video technicians creating the vision of the Band.

    For NIN the band is much more involved in the audio - visual synchronization.

    I am from the company ArKaos that helped them to fix their show and made the interaction more easy.
  • by Kesh ( 65890 ) on Sunday September 14, 2008 @08:21AM (#24997477)

    I saw this show in Lexington, KY. Trust me, the stills on the article don't do it justice. You really have to see the show to appreciate how dynamic and fluid the effects are. Unfortunately, the videos on YouTube are pretty washed out because any camera small enough to sneak in has poor quality, and can't handle the bright lights well.

    I've also seen the Blue Man Group concert tour (three times!) and there's no comparison. The FX in BMG's "How to be a Megastar" tour are good, but this blows them away.

  • Re:Trent kicks ass (Score:3, Insightful)

    by X0563511 ( 793323 ) on Sunday September 14, 2008 @05:29PM (#25001563) Homepage Journal

    We don't know if it's offhand. Support of his opinion would be offtopic, probably long-winded, and probably earn him a few flamebait/troll mods just because.

  • by Behrooz ( 302401 ) on Tuesday September 16, 2008 @01:13PM (#25027305)

    When does technology stop being marketroid buzzwords and become art?

    This is new because Trent Reznor does things himself, and does them right. It's possible to throw as many screens and lights as you can afford on a stage, but for a concert experience all that matters is how the tech is used. In this case, the artist's vision is directly responsible for the design, programming, and implementation of the effects... and that makes all the difference.

    I can't imagine Toby Keith or Rascal Flatts disappearing into their basements for a week to design anything, let alone program and implement it themselves. Either way, I don't know of anyone else with Reznor's combination of technical and artistic chops, and that makes all the difference.

All seems condemned in the long run to approximate a state akin to Gaussian noise. -- James Martin

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