SLCC 09, New Sim & Updates

Second Life Community Convention (SLCC)

A few days ago, it was confirmed that PAL will be presenting a 45 min speech at the SLCC annual conference in San Francisco (August 13th-16th), as well as participating in the two-day musictrack/panels there. It's a great honor, and we'll come and share our 1½ years of experience in music and music TV production in SL. Overall, though, the speech will focus on how virtual worlds open up new opportunities in the way we experience music and how bands and fans will be able to touch base much more directly in the future.

New Pop Art Lab Sim

As previously posted, we recently obtained our own sim. Currently, PAL consists of the "old" design rezzed up in the sky whilst we plan "form & function" and design for the full sim build at ground level. It's a huge job, and one of the main challenges is how we connect the best from PAL as it originally was designed at birth - "a walk through sound exhibition" model- versus the PAL most of you know which was designed focusing on easy navigation and a clear way of telling visitors what the PAL concept is all about (an easy way to hear the best new albums on the market). The goal, however, is to expand the immersive possibilities which 3D enviroments offer, but still maintain easy navigation.

"The walk through sound exhibition" model
February 2008

"The easy to navigate" model,

September 2008

The build design in itself is a mega project, and we expect the new design to be ready in September or October and celebrate the opening along with PAL's official 1st year birthday.
There are several reasons why we have moved to our own sim. First of all, we needed full control and powers to protect the build and the good name we already have. Secondly, we now feel totally secure in liaising with sponsors. Whatever happens, no-one will be able to spoil the fun! Lag issues and prim limits with the old 6 parcel PAL will be greatly improved.

Pop Art Lab Update
We have been busy with the new sim, holidays and a video shoot lately. The video shoot in particular has been quite a job. It involves an RL band from Hollywood, LA and is PAL's first step into such an enterprise. That means we've made custom-designed stage/builds and RL replicas of artists' avatars, and we have utilised animators, a lighting manager and others. A hell of a lot of work has gone into this venture, but we are very close to the end of all this and it's been a very exciting process to say the least.

Which leads me to our new Pop Vox TV shows in the making. Hopefully, two new Pop Vox shows will be broadcast in August at Treet.TV.

Lastly, this blog has a new editor! Welcome to Serendipity, long-time PAL supporter, who has agreed to help with fresh new ideas and to edit my English typos.