Technologies

Audiovisual

We've worked with all kinds of systems and have a healthy disregard for expensive, centrally-controlled systems that require specialist support contracts. We encourage you and your staff to take ownership by installing things that are easy to use and reliable. The most sophisticated video projection or surround audio systems might not be what you need, but if you do we can specify and install them to the highest standards, based on decades of experience.

Live Streaming

You can now set up your own live show or even an internet TV channel for little or no cost, using equipment as basic as a mobile phone. For a few thousand pounds you can make professional-quality content and broadcast it live to a potentially infinite audience.

Virtual Reality

For a few hundred pounds you can buy the hardware needed to experience virtual environments. Developing your own content is not that hard to do, but regular advances mean that something that is impressive this year will look very dated in a couple of years' time.

Photogrammetry

Building a lifelike 3D model of your property is no longer prohibitively expensive. This process uses software to build a model from dozens or hundreds of photographs, which you can then explore through a web browser, a Virtual Reality headset or ar Augmented Reality application. However it's no replacement for laser point cloud scanning, which creates a model accurate enough for archaeological or structural engineering purposes.

Augmented Reality

This is a technology which has been growing quietly over the last decade. Google Maps is an augmented reality application, since it superimposes a virtual map on your actual location. Other forms of Augmented Reality let you view virtual models through a tablet or mobile phone screen that move in response to your movements. Essentially, it turns your screen into a magic window that enhances your environment with information or entertainment.

Internet of Things

As we continue to put chips in everything, our everyday household devices start to communicate with each other and with us. Aside from heating that comes on when you're on your way home or smart bins that order things you're running out of, IoT devices let us set up experiences and facilities around your property that don't require wonky wi-fi or intrusive cabling. MESH networking lets many devices talk to each other securely without being exposed to the internet. We can control door locks, lighting, sound, pretty much anything using tiny devices that cost just a few pounds.

Holograms

Always fun. The best holographic effects are now achieved with specialist fabrics that are practically invisible but reflect light, so floating images with a real depth are achievable without astronomical cost. Do be aware that you can't see them from all angles and you can't walk through them without destroying them!

Diasynchronoscope (D-Scope)

A fabulous installation effect that gives the impression of being inside an impossible animated world. Requires pitch darkness and days of preparation, but it's breathtaking.

Mixed Reality

Nicky's specialist area. Mixed Reality is all around us, when virtual or digital aspects are layered onto the real world. Imagine a virtual visitor to your property being able to interact with someone visiting in person. People visiting your site can not only tell their friends where they are but invite them to participate in the experience. Hybrid Histories see these experiences as a future source of income for sites that invest time in building them. Online visits will never replace the real thing; they should drive people to come and experience it for themselves.

Live Action Role Play

LARP is moving from decades as a niche activity to a mainstream entertainment choice, even a fledgling industry. Thousands of people are paying substantial amounts to stay in fictional worlds for days at a time. Hybrid Histories proposes LARPs that are technologically enhanced to allow audiences at home to take part in their thousands in an unfolding, real-time story based on the locale, generating considerable income in the long term. It's sort of a Murder Mystery weekend taken to new heights.