The move follows on from Out Board's substantial successes with their own audio show control application of the Ubisense technology, TiMax Tracker, which tracks actors and performers around stages and arenas to automatically localise their amplified audio signature via real-time control of the TiMax2 SoundHub audio matrix processor.
Out Board has also supplied this highly versatile precision tracking technology to control other third-party audio show controllers such as the Meyer LCS system, and provided support to developments in further disciplines such as control of lighting, cameras, multimedia servers and advanced show control environments such as the CAST BlackBox system.
Ubisense CEO Richard Green comments: "Out Board understand the language and dynamics of the entertainment technology industry, and they have the in-depth technical and commercial experience to fully develop and support these exciting new initiatives. Their well-established distribution network also gives them a truly global reach to help apply these skills, we're confident they're well placed to maximise the potential of Ubisense in this sector."
The Ubisense core RTLS platform employs a unique combination of angle-of-arrival (AOA) and time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) analysis to deliver highly reliable and accurate location information to a resolution of 15cm (6") in three dimensions. Out Board add their own software application layers to provide real-time visualisations and application-specific show control GUI's. A network of compact Ubisense sensors receives 6-8GHz UWB radar-frequency pulses from miniature tags worn by the performers, and the resulting real-time localisation data is used to deliver either discrete or continuous positional control of external media peripherals via MIDI or Ethernet.
Just as demand has rocketed for effective RTLS resources in Ubisense's core enterprise markets such as personnel or asset tracking and process control, so the entertainment industry has also seen a growing interest in this area. Out Board's Robin Whittaker remarks: "People in our industry seem very tweaked by RTLS allowing them to do things that were just not possible a few years ago. We know a lot of those people, and we're delighted to be in a position to deliver them viable solutions to open up these new possibilities."
(Lee Baldock)
