Latest news with #Vivaldi
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A dazzling new light and sound spectacle is arriving in Australia this winter
Australia has no shortage of epic light shows and art installations. From coast to coast, we've seen our nation's most incredible buildings transformed into glowing canvases that transport us to places beyond our wildest dreams. Fittingly, 'dreaming with your eyes open' is one of the taglines for Australia's newest immersive light and sound experience set to debut in Brisbane this July. After wowing more than 1.5 million people across sold-out seasons in Europe and the UK, Swiss art collective Projecktil is bringing its latest audiovisual spectacle, Eonarium Enlightenment, to Australia. This 30-minute show takes audiences on a journey through the seasons, divided into four scenes: summer, autumn, winter and spring. Projektil's technologists have measured every inch of Brisbane's St Stephen's Cathedral – from its heritage-listed walls to its soaring ceiling and its intricate corners. Using state-of-the-art video mapping, they'll transform the space into a 360-degree immersive environment that fully engages the senses. Expect vibrant light projections, mesmerising visuals and evocative soundscapes – all accompanied by the classic melodies of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. You can gaze up in awe from the comfort of cushioned chairs and bean bags sprawled across the cathedral floor, and shift positions throughout the show to take it in from a new perspective. Brisbane is the first stop on Eonarium Enlightenment 's Australian tour, with future cities to be announced soon. If you're keen to check it out in Brisbane, the season lasts from July 5 to September 27, with tickets starting at $20 for children and $29 for adults. You can find more details and snap up tickets here. 🌈
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Google Just Kicked In Hollywood's Trailer Door
What a difference a year makes… Not long ago, AI's best attempt at video generation resulted in that cursed clip of Will Smith shoveling spaghetti into his mouth with his four-fingered hands. But now the world has Google's Veo 3 at its fingertips – the tech titan's latest AI video generation tool. And the results we're seeing are nothing short of astonishing. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips This shiny new model can generate ultra-realistic, 1080p, synchronized audio-visual content based on a simple text prompt… 'A woman, classical violinist with intense focus, plays a complex, rapid passage from a Vivaldi concerto in an ornate, sunlit baroque hall during a rehearsal. Her bow dances across the strings with virtuosic speed and precision. Audio: Bright, virtuosic violin playing, resonant acoustics of the hall, distant footsteps of crew, conductor's occasional soft count-in (muffled), rustling sheet music.' And within seconds, there she is, in video so realistic, you can even see individual hairs on her head highlighted by the sun. She's almost tangible. The music is swelling. And no human lifted a single camera. What we're witnessing with the launch of Google DeepMind's Veo 3 isn't some gimmicky tech demo or mere novelty for nerds on X. This seems more like the starting pistol for the next great creative-industrial upheaval – and if you're in the business of making or investing in content, it's time to get serious. Yes, Veo 3 may be limited to eight seconds today. But that's not a wall; it's a runway. And if you've been paying any attention to the exponential trajectory of AI development, you know where this might go next. Longer clips, then full scenes, entire episodes… and eventually, complete seasons. Perhaps one day, personalized stories crafted in real-time based on what you like to watch. It's coming – . This could be the beginning of the end of Hollywood as we know it… And the start of a new era of AI stock dominance in the content world. Obviously, this isn't the industry's first attempt at AI-generated video. Runway's Gen-2 was a cool prototype. OpenAI's Sora looked great in a lab. But Veo 3 is different. It's the first model with: 4K visual quality fully integrated audio cinematic camera movement deep prompt adherence and, crucially, a launch partner with billions of users and a roadmap to global rollout In our view, Google has aimed a shotgun full of GPU clusters directly at Hollywood's business model. And Veo 3 is just the tip of the spear. Behind it are entire pipelines – Gemini-powered plot generators, scriptwriting agents, motion planners, and real-time editors. Google is compressing the entire TV and film production supply chain into a single generative stack. Do you know what happens when you take a years-long, $100-million content pipeline and squeeze it down into a GPU-powered prompt that costs pennies? You break the game… If you work in video production – or the hundreds of satellite roles orbiting it – AI just kicked in your trailer door with Veo 3. Think about it. With this quantum leap in AI's video generation capabilities, actors could soon be replaced by photorealistic avatars and voice clones. No need for makeup artists; glam will be digitally rendered in post. Goodbye, set designers; hello, infinite virtual stages. Cinematographers? AI models now handle camera movement with humanlike precision. Now, writers, you're still needed… but you'd better learn to prompt. This might feel like sci-fi, but it's more so basic economics. Studios are always hunting for ways to reduce cost and time. And AI doesn't sleep, unionize, forget lines, or demand a four-figure payday. That's why we expect that over the next five to 10 years, AI will eat the technical backend of filmmaking the way Amazon ate retail – and with the same ruthless cost-efficiency. The same kinds of players always win when the tech curve steepens: Those who ride the exponential wave instead of trying to fight it. Take Netflix (NFLX) – Blockbuster killer; once DVD-dealer, now data king in entertainment. It knows what you watch, when you watch it, what you love, and what you hate. Imagine what an AI script engine could do with all that data. You're a fan of fictional period romance stories? Netflix's AI could create 10 different versions of the next Bridgerton, testing which hooks you harder – then instantly generate the winner in full. Or how about Alphabet (GOOGL)? It runs YouTube and Veo 3 – the delivery pipelines and creative infrastructure. Combine Veo with Gemini and YouTube Studio, and you've got a vertically integrated AI content machine with billions of monetizable eyeballs. And then there's Meta (META). It's got LLaMA, Emu, and a raging addiction to immersive content. Just picture Veo-level video generation tailored to your social graph, optimized for infinite scroll, and seamlessly injected into Instagram, Threads, and the Metaverse. Engagement meets hallucination. And the rest of Hollywood? Well… Legacy studios, crew-heavy productions, anyone betting their future on union-only sets and hundred-million-dollar shoots… it seems you are on notice. The economics just changed – permanently. When it comes to AI-native studios that can churn out hyper-targeted content at 1/100th the cost and 100x the speed, there's no competition. And it's not likely that audiences will resist. Pundits said the same thing about CGI, YouTube, reality TV, TikTok. People don't care how it's made. They care how it feels. And if AI gives them a hit of dopamine, they'll hit 'Next Episode' without a second thought. This latest AI breakthrough feels a lot like the early 2000s, when Amazon used the internet to undercut brick-and-mortar retail. Lower costs, faster delivery, wider selection. Incumbents laughed… until they went bankrupt. Remember Sears, JCPenney, K-Mart? Same script, different industry. AI is the internet. Veo 3 is Netflix is Jeff Bezos, sitting atop its throne with a popcorn bucket in hand. And once one company starts passing cost savings to consumers with cheaper subscriptions, faster content cycles, and more personalization, others have to follow. That's how you get a full-blown economic reset. Currently, Veo 3 is available to select creators via waitlist — but given Google's track record with rapid deployment, widespread rollout to YouTube creators and enterprise partners could come quickly. Here's what we think could be next: Custom AI-generated series and movies tailored to individual users Interactive stories where the plot evolves based on viewer engagement Fan-generated shows that rival studio hits Ad-supported, AI-produced content that costs nothing to stream Veo 3's launch proved that the AI Content Economy is just around the corner. We are years – not decades – away from this becoming a widespread reality. So, if you're an investor, go long AI. This breakthrough tech is eating the whole global economy. Hollywood is just one entree in a seven-course meal. Buy the platforms, AI chipmakers, infrastructure enablers, and appliers – Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia (NVDA) – and yes, Netflix. These are the architects of the new media world. Learn to prompt like a boss; curate, direct, and remix. AI is the orchestra, but someone still has to conduct. And if you're in denial, you might want to check the mirror – and ask Blockbuster how things shook out after ignoring the curve. AI's industrialization of content creation isn't a theory anymore: it's a living, accelerating disruption. Veo 3 marks the moment when generating Hollywood-quality video no longer requires Hollywood-scale budgets. And we're just at the starting gate. Just as streaming upended cable and smartphones reshaped the internet, generative video is about to redefine content itself – who created it, how fast it's made, and who profits. The big studios? Maybe. But more likely, it'll be the AI-native platforms, the chipmakers, and the investors who saw it coming. And yet, Veo 3 is just one front in a much broader AI revolution. While the world watches digital actors take center stage… Another trillion-dollar transformation is forming in the wings. Humanoid robots – what we're calling '' According to Morgan Stanley (MS), this market could be worth as much as $30 trillion in the coming decades. That's bigger than today's global e-commerce and cloud computing markets combined. Why? Because humanoid robots won't just generate videos or write code. They'll do the jobs. Real, physical tasks in factories, on farms; in homes, hospitals, and warehouses. Every job the global economy depends on could be automated, accelerated, and made profitable at scale. And it's all happening faster than most expect. . The post Google Just Kicked In Hollywoodâs Trailer Door appeared first on InvestorPlace.
The Age
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘This is a hall for everyone': The hidden Sydney venue that turned its boardroom into a rave cave
For a marathon six hours last Saturday, the City Recital Hall in the heart of central Sydney reverberated with the beats of more than a dozen musicians belting out electro, indie and funk tunes to a crowd of hundreds. Cult queer party Heaps Gay took over the foyer with a DJ deck, pink fluorescent lights and bare-chested mannequins, seats were yanked out of the cavernous auditorium to make way for a laser-lit dance floor, and the recital hall's usual boardroom was transformed into a heaving rave cave. The day-into-night Sound Escape party – flanked by recent performances from Mississippi disco gospel ensemble Annie and the Caldwells, Maori soul singer Teeks, Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp, and US alternative pop singer Joan As A Police Woman – was a far cry from the Baroque strains of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel long associated with the Angel Place venue. It's a bold shift that the hall's chief executive, Kate Wickett, hopes is a harbinger of a more diverse and contemporary musical repertoire – and audience – to occupy the venue. Wickett, a former lawyer and consultant who ran Sydney WorldPride 2023, is one year into the job after she was asked to increase the number of performances, broadening the audience beyond classical enthusiasts, expanding the music genres on offer, and amplifying the decades-old institution's role in Sydney's cultural fabric. 'We have world-renowned acoustics, but it's about diversifying the types of music we play here,' Wickett said. 'We love our key presenters the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva, Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera. That is one type of music – classical – which is what we were purpose-built for, but it's really about bringing in new audiences to experience the hall.' Wickett's mission to transform the venue faces a raft of challenges. Chief among them is the hall's failure to bounce back after the pandemic crippled live shows: It is only utilised to about half its capacity. Loading Adding to the obstacles are high living costs, which have softened ticket sales, and the fact its primary audience – though loyal – is small and ageing. Also, the hall's location, tucked in the laneways between George and Pitt streets, means it is often overlooked. 'We're a hidden gem, we're just too hidden,' Wickett said. 'For such a brilliant, centrally located hall, and for such a high-quality venue and beautiful asset, to be empty for half of the year is challenging. 'We want to share it; this is a hall for everyone.' To that end, Wickett's team is forging ahead with a shake-up of the venue's program to include more diverse and emerging artists, while staying committed to its classical roots and seeking to maximise the hall's adaptability for events. 'Classical is extremely important to us. But we've been perceived at times as being only for classical and not accessible to different kinds of music, and we're trying to head that off by bringing in a variety of different performers. 'It's about electronic, classical, bands, choral, showcasing the versatility of the hall and the opportunity for us to bring new people in to experience it.' Last year, the venue staged its first 'seats out' performances, removing seats in the stalls to allow the audience to dance to French disco legend Cerrone and Los Angeles hip-hop pioneers the Pharcyde. In contrast, Tangerine Dream and Soccer Mommy performed this week, and coming concerts of Beethoven and Mozart sit alongside acclaimed Kirtan artist Radhika Das. Wickett said her team was bent on drawing crowds that were younger, who might not have visited the hall, and were from diverse cultural backgrounds. 'We are in the centre of Sydney, and it's about bringing people here from all different parts of the city, different diasporas, and activating this precinct so we can become a beacon of music for people, and really good quality music.' Wickett also believes the venue's location smack-bang in the centre of the city, behind the Ivy precinct and between railway stations, means a boost in attendance would also be a boon to surrounding bars, clubs and restaurants. 'It's the concept of all boats rising; if we do well, so do our neighbours.' Wickett says she's also not interested in competing with other cultural institutions, such as the Opera House or Capitol Theatre, saying the various performance venues 'complement each other. We each do different things'. Loading The recital hall has been used for corporate events, and for filming: It played a starring role in the ABC series The Piano and an episode of NCIS: Sydney. The 1238-seat recital hall opened at the base of the 30-storey Angel Place office block in 1999 to meet demand for a new mid-size performance venue. Unlike the Melbourne Recital Centre, which receives several million dollars from the Victorian government each year, the City Recital Hall is a City of Sydney asset – the council holds a 99-year lease for the venue from developer Mirvac – and is run by a non-profit organisation. The upshot is that the recital hall does not receive any ongoing funding from state or federal governments. In March, the City of Sydney decided to provide $1 million in funding each year until 2030 – an increase of $300,000 a year based on the previous five-year agreement with the council. About 85 per cent of the hall's income was generated from ticket sales, bar sales, hire fees and other services in 2023-24. Less than 1 per cent of its income was gleaned from philanthropic donations. Wickett describes the funding arrangement as 'really challenging', and she has been lobbying Chris Minns' government – which has pursued policies to encourage live music and reboot the 24-hour economy – to chip in funds. 'Currently, we rely on funding from the City of Sydney and organic growth, but a real investment in programming, for both local and some international acts, would provide that step change for us to increase utilisation,' she said. Arts, Music and Night-time Economy Minister John Graham said the hall was a 'fantastic venue, in a great location, with some of the best acoustics in Sydney', but the government's primary responsibility was to fund state-run venues and help them recover and thrive after the pandemic. Loading Graham said the government had provided targeted financial support to the recital hall, including COVID recovery funding and sound system upgrades. He also revealed that the recital hall would benefit from a $250,000 Sound NSW grant to upgrade its audiovisual systems and hearing loop. 'High-quality theatres like the City Recital Hall are a vital element of our night-time economy and our cultural life. They can host contemporary and classical music, talks, film and cultural events – which drive business for the surrounding hospitality venues,' Graham said. Despite the challenges, Wickett remains upbeat about the opportunities ahead. She said the hall had been utilised 198 days in the 2024-25 financial year, up from 179 days two years earlier. She also remains convinced of the role the venue can play in fostering the capacity for live music to connect people from various parts of society, especially in fractious times. 'It's so important for a space like this hall to bring people from different backgrounds, or diasporas, or parts of the community, who can come together and have a really connected and joyous experience,' Wickett said.
Sydney Morning Herald
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘This is a hall for everyone': The hidden Sydney venue that turned its boardroom into a rave cave
For a marathon six hours last Saturday, the City Recital Hall in the heart of central Sydney reverberated with the beats of more than a dozen musicians belting out electro, indie and funk tunes to a crowd of hundreds. Cult queer party Heaps Gay took over the foyer with a DJ deck, pink fluorescent lights and bare-chested mannequins, seats were yanked out of the cavernous auditorium to make way for a laser-lit dance floor, and the recital hall's usual boardroom was transformed into a heaving rave cave. The day-into-night Sound Escape party – flanked by recent performances from Mississippi disco gospel ensemble Annie and the Caldwells, Maori soul singer Teeks, Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp, and US alternative pop singer Joan As A Police Woman – was a far cry from the Baroque strains of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel long associated with the Angel Place venue. It's a bold shift that the hall's chief executive, Kate Wickett, hopes is a harbinger of a more diverse and contemporary musical repertoire – and audience – to occupy the venue. Wickett, a former lawyer and consultant who ran Sydney WorldPride 2023, is one year into the job after she was asked to increase the number of performances, broadening the audience beyond classical enthusiasts, expanding the music genres on offer, and amplifying the decades-old institution's role in Sydney's cultural fabric. 'We have world-renowned acoustics, but it's about diversifying the types of music we play here,' Wickett said. 'We love our key presenters the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva, Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera. That is one type of music – classical – which is what we were purpose-built for, but it's really about bringing in new audiences to experience the hall.' Wickett's mission to transform the venue faces a raft of challenges. Chief among them is the hall's failure to bounce back after the pandemic crippled live shows: It is only utilised to about half its capacity. Loading Adding to the obstacles are high living costs, which have softened ticket sales, and the fact its primary audience – though loyal – is small and ageing. Also, the hall's location, tucked in the laneways between George and Pitt streets, means it is often overlooked. 'We're a hidden gem, we're just too hidden,' Wickett said. 'For such a brilliant, centrally located hall, and for such a high-quality venue and beautiful asset, to be empty for half of the year is challenging. 'We want to share it; this is a hall for everyone.' To that end, Wickett's team is forging ahead with a shake-up of the venue's program to include more diverse and emerging artists, while staying committed to its classical roots and seeking to maximise the hall's adaptability for events. 'Classical is extremely important to us. But we've been perceived at times as being only for classical and not accessible to different kinds of music, and we're trying to head that off by bringing in a variety of different performers. 'It's about electronic, classical, bands, choral, showcasing the versatility of the hall and the opportunity for us to bring new people in to experience it.' Last year, the venue staged its first 'seats out' performances, removing seats in the stalls to allow the audience to dance to French disco legend Cerrone and Los Angeles hip-hop pioneers the Pharcyde. In contrast, Tangerine Dream and Soccer Mommy performed this week, and coming concerts of Beethoven and Mozart sit alongside acclaimed Kirtan artist Radhika Das. Wickett said her team was bent on drawing crowds that were younger, who might not have visited the hall, and were from diverse cultural backgrounds. 'We are in the centre of Sydney, and it's about bringing people here from all different parts of the city, different diasporas, and activating this precinct so we can become a beacon of music for people, and really good quality music.' Wickett also believes the venue's location smack-bang in the centre of the city, behind the Ivy precinct and between railway stations, means a boost in attendance would also be a boon to surrounding bars, clubs and restaurants. 'It's the concept of all boats rising; if we do well, so do our neighbours.' Wickett says she's also not interested in competing with other cultural institutions, such as the Opera House or Capitol Theatre, saying the various performance venues 'complement each other. We each do different things'. Loading The recital hall has been used for corporate events, and for filming: It played a starring role in the ABC series The Piano and an episode of NCIS: Sydney. The 1238-seat recital hall opened at the base of the 30-storey Angel Place office block in 1999 to meet demand for a new mid-size performance venue. Unlike the Melbourne Recital Centre, which receives several million dollars from the Victorian government each year, the City Recital Hall is a City of Sydney asset – the council holds a 99-year lease for the venue from developer Mirvac – and is run by a non-profit organisation. The upshot is that the recital hall does not receive any ongoing funding from state or federal governments. In March, the City of Sydney decided to provide $1 million in funding each year until 2030 – an increase of $300,000 a year based on the previous five-year agreement with the council. About 85 per cent of the hall's income was generated from ticket sales, bar sales, hire fees and other services in 2023-24. Less than 1 per cent of its income was gleaned from philanthropic donations. Wickett describes the funding arrangement as 'really challenging', and she has been lobbying Chris Minns' government – which has pursued policies to encourage live music and reboot the 24-hour economy – to chip in funds. 'Currently, we rely on funding from the City of Sydney and organic growth, but a real investment in programming, for both local and some international acts, would provide that step change for us to increase utilisation,' she said. Arts, Music and Night-time Economy Minister John Graham said the hall was a 'fantastic venue, in a great location, with some of the best acoustics in Sydney', but the government's primary responsibility was to fund state-run venues and help them recover and thrive after the pandemic. Loading Graham said the government had provided targeted financial support to the recital hall, including COVID recovery funding and sound system upgrades. He also revealed that the recital hall would benefit from a $250,000 Sound NSW grant to upgrade its audiovisual systems and hearing loop. 'High-quality theatres like the City Recital Hall are a vital element of our night-time economy and our cultural life. They can host contemporary and classical music, talks, film and cultural events – which drive business for the surrounding hospitality venues,' Graham said. Despite the challenges, Wickett remains upbeat about the opportunities ahead. She said the hall had been utilised 198 days in the 2024-25 financial year, up from 179 days two years earlier. She also remains convinced of the role the venue can play in fostering the capacity for live music to connect people from various parts of society, especially in fractious times. 'It's so important for a space like this hall to bring people from different backgrounds, or diasporas, or parts of the community, who can come together and have a really connected and joyous experience,' Wickett said.
Tom's Guide
23-05-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Proton VPN drops to its lowest ever price – get it while you can
It's Proton's birthday and what better way to celebrate than offering Proton VPN at its lowest ever price. It's one of the best VPNs out there and a rock solid, privacy-focused provider. The two-year plan is 70% off, working out at $2.99 per month ($71.76 up front). But be quick, the deal runs out on May 28. Proton VPN comes from the team behind Proton Mail, and it's a big name in the privacy and security world. It's one of the most private VPNs, so if privacy is your priority, it's a chance to get a top provider for cheap. Proton VPN is not the only VPN deal this weekend. Check out our round up of the top VPN Memorial Day deals. Proton VPN: the best VPN for privacyProton VPN is a privacy-focused provider and offers class-leading privacy and security for up to 10 devices. It's super fast and unblocked every streaming site we threw at it. There's over 12,000 servers, double hop Secure Core servers, and a host of anti-censorship features. The 2-year plan works out at $2.99 per month ($71.76 up front) and has never been cheaper. There's a great free VPN too and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Proton VPN's real strength lies in its privacy. It's a verified no-logs provider and has completed a number of independent audits. This means it doesn't store, share, or sell any of your personal data and it's protected by class-leading encryption. It's also open source, so you can see the code for yourself. Proton VPN owns all of its more than 12,000 servers, resulting in added security, and it has a large presence in Africa and Asia – more than any other provider. It's one of the fastest VPNs we've tested, hitting speeds of over 900 Mbps. It also unblocked every streaming site we tried to access with it. This speed and unblocking power makes it one of the best streaming VPNs. Proton VPN isn't the most feature heavy VPN, but everything is included and there's no paid add-ons. There's a solid kill switch and split tunneling, as well as some more technical features such as moderate NAT. Its Secure Core feature allows you to route your VPN traffic through two servers rather than one, for an additional layer of encryption, privacy, and security. Proton VPN has some of the best anti-censorship features available, and one of its biggest goals is to provide access to a free and open internet. Its Stealth VPN protocol obfuscates your internet traffic and hides the fact you're using a VPN. On Android, you can disguise the Proton VPN app and there's a browser extension for those who cannot download the app at all. Proton VPN Free is one of the best free VPNs available and protects you with the same level of privacy and security as the paid plan. Guest mode means you don't even have to create an account to access it and Proton VPN has partnered with the secure browser Vivaldi to offer it as an extension. Proton VPN's UI isn't the simplest, and beginners may take a bit of time to get used to it. Following a recent update, the UI has undergone a big redesign, making it a lot cleaner. But it's still not as easy to use as ExpressVPN or Surfshark. NetShield is Proton VPN's threat protection offering. It claims to block ads and trackers, but in our testing it proved far less effective than NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro. Proton VPN isn't usually the cheapest option available, but it's not the most expensive. But it's never this cheap and takes it below NordVPN and ExpressVPN by some way. However, Private Internet Access (PIA) and Surfshark still come in cheaper and may be better options if you're on a tight budget. Overall, Proton VPN is a great VPN and ideal for the privacy-conscious. It's fast, has some decent features, and offers protection for 10 devices. If you're a fan of the Proton ecosystem then it'll slot in with ease. $2.99 per month makes it very good value and it's well worth considering. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
