Hello Tony,
I only used the service th eone time when my wife and I were attending
The Lion King musical in Toronto a couple of weeks ago.
What I liked is the same I like about a described movie namely that as
a completely blind person I know what is going on. I lost my sight at
the age of 16 and even though that is going to be 41 years ago this
coming January, I always have been somebody who continues to visualize
many things. Especially a performance like the Lion King is highly
visual and sitting there and only hear the songs and the dialogue
would be enjoyable, but it was a lot more enjoyable getting
descriptions about what all the animals were doing, about the set and
some of the costumes. As I said, this service is I believe relatively
new to the several theatres in Toronto run by Mirvish Productions and
they did not play the additional descriptions prior to the start of
the performance where even more details are given about the costumes,
characters and the set. I still haven’t take the time to listen to it
now that we have already seen the musical, but I still plan to do so.
As GalaPro said in the reply I received from them, don’t hesitate to
contact your local production company or companies or ask your blind
organisation to do so and encourage them to contact GalaPro to find
out what they would have to do to offer the service.
Best regards,
Sieghard
*From:*[email protected] <[email protected]> *On Behalf
Of *Tony Sweeney
*Sent:* Tuesday, December 17, 2024 2:11 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when attending a
live performance
As a matter of interest I shared the GalaPro news with the Irish
national organisation for the blind Vision Ireland who hadn't heard of
the service and they were very impressed indeed.
I would love to attend such a described live show especially in my
adopted city of Dublin or even travel to other counties too if desired.
Is it possible for you to let us know what in particular you liked
abvout described shows that you attended?
Tony
On 17/12/2024 02:40, Cris Ali wrote:
I wish they have more cities in Europe. I travel to Europe almost
every Summer for two weeks vacation and would love to attend live
shows there. I have been to London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome,
Oslo, Amsterdam and many other European cities. I always wished to
go to described live Shows and performances. This app is a great
start.
Follow me on X @ibnalbalad
On Dec 12, 2024, at 1:30 PM, Sieghard Weitzel
<[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
I was wrong with respect to assuming that “London” was London,
Ontario, Canada instead of London, United Kingdom.
As I said, I wrote to GalaPro and received the below reply
this morning:
*From:*Betsy Selman [email protected]
*Sent:* Thursday, December 12, 2024 9:18 AM
*To:* Sieghard Weitzel [email protected]
*Subject:* RE: Your locations
Hello Sieghard,
Thank you for the feedback, and I’m so glad you were able to
enjoy /The Lion King./
London in the app is indeed London, United Kingdom. I can see
where the confusion comes from and we will work on updating
the website language.
If there are any other theaters where you regularly attend
shows and would like them to install GalaPro, you can have
them reach out to the same email address
([email protected]) and we can send them information
on pricing and technical specifications.
Thank you,
Betsy
--
*Betsy Selman*| she/her
Project Manager
Sound Associates, Inc
(O) 212-757-5679 *109#
[email protected]
*From:*[email protected] <[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Sieghard Weitzel
*Sent:* Wednesday, December 11, 2024 2:59 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* RE: GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when
attending a live performance
I wrote to GalaPro for clarification, but I assume it does
refer to London, Ontario because in their description they say
among other things:
Our product is used in the leading Broadway theaters and has
been enjoyed by thousands of users across North America.
Since it mentions “across North America” I assume that
currently the US and Canada is where they provide their services.
*From:*[email protected] <[email protected]> *On
Behalf Of *CJ & AA MAY
*Sent:* Wednesday, December 11, 2024 1:05 PM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* RE: GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when
attending a live performance
Yes, I’m pretty sure you are right, Tony, in that the theatre
mentioned was in Canada.
Alison
*From:*[email protected] <[email protected]> *On
Behalf Of *Tony Sweeney
*Sent:* 11 December 2024 21:04
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when
attending a live performance
Alison,
I don't think that it is yet available in the UK or Ireland
but the app is certainly available on the Ireland app store so
fingers crossed.
On reflection I feel the London mentioned in the article may
well be in Ontariono Canada and not as I previously thouught,
the UK.
The GalaPro people certainly have to be applauded for their
initiative for sure.
Tony, Dublin Ireland
On 11/12/2024 20:56, CJ & AA MAY wrote:
I was interested to read about this. I have heard about
it, but not actually had a chance to try it out.
But it has to be simpler than queueing to borrow special
headphones which only work if you are sat in the right
area of the cinema or theatre and which the theatre or
cinema has to keep clean and in good repair.
Also almost every time I have used the headphones, they
have varied and I’ve needed to be shown where the controls
are.
I do hope this service becomes standard.
Alison
Actuial *:*[email protected]
<[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Sieghard
Weitzel
*Sent:* 09 December 2024 21:38
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when
attending a live performance
Hello,
I wanted to share a recent experience I had attending the
musical "The Lion King" at the Princess of Whales theatre
in Toronto which is one of several theatres operated by
Mirvish Productions.
And before people press delete or post irate messages why
I am posting this to the Viphone list, I am doing so
because the main point of this post is to review and make
people aware of an app called GalaPro which provides audio
descriptions for live shows/musicals in a number of cities
in the US, in London and for Canada in Toronto at the
Mirvish Productions theatres.
Below is the description from the Gala Pro website
<https://www.galapro.com/>:
Entertainment For Everyone
Imagine travelling to a new city and enjoying a local
event or show in your native language. Now, imagine
enjoying closed captions or audio description
at any performance you would like to attend without having
to wait for the one scheduled accessible show. Our
revolutionary, patent pending, app enhances
the audience experience by delivering individual closed
captioning and audio description to the user's own mobile
device. All content is provided in real
time, using speech recognition technology, developed
specifically for live performances and shows. With GalaPro
everyone can enjoy the show at every single
performance.
Our technology is designed to provide an inclusive
experience that is discreet for the user and does not
disturb the surrounding audience members. Our
product is used in the leading Broadway theaters and has
been enjoyed by thousands of users across North America.
GalaPro is a solution for everyone, from
seasoned opera and theater lovers, to travelers who need
accessible solutions, for film festivals or films on your
own TV, to exhibitions and museums or
even live concerts, GalaPro’s innovative technology will
provide all content on demand. Go ahead and see any show
in the GalaPro portfolio! GalaPro will make sure you
understand it all.
When I bought my tickets which I did by phone because
Mirvish Productions also offers a complimentary free
ticket for a companion, in my case my wife, I was told
about this app. It is a straight forward process, you
download the GalaPro app and follow the simple
instructions when you get to the theatre. These
instructions basically are that when you are at the
theatre you open the app, select your city and the show
you are attending, in my case "Toronto" and "The Lion King".
Then you are instructed to turn on Airplane mode, but
leave Wi-Fi enabled which happens by default anyways.
Then you go to Settings > Wi-Fi and connect to the GalaPro
network and enter the password which is provided in the
instructions, I think in my case it was simply "galaPro1".
Once you are connected you go back to the app and tap
"Next", I think at thgis point I hd to select if I wanted
audio descritions or one of the other options which are
subtitles and I think there is also an option to hear the
dialogue in other languages (didn't really explore that).
Once you complete the steps a page loads and your phone
does display this in landscape mode even if you have
orientation locked, but essentially it only has a "back"
button, it then says "Audio on" and there was one other
thing I can't remember, but you now have nothing more to
do except wait.
As soon as the show starts, audio descriptions
automatically start and I can only say it was an amazing
experience.
One more thing I'd like to mention is that it will at some
point say that this only works with wired headsets,
Bluetooth is not supported. Of course you also want to
listen to the music and everything else so as usual, I
just used my wired Earpods and I just put in the right
earbud lightly which allowed me to hear the audio
descriptions but this also did not block the sound from
the stage significantly. Just as in movies audio
descriptions are of course not constant, sometimes minutes
go by with nothing until a new scene or background is
described.
I did find that while some costumes were described, there
could have maybe been more detail and I provided some
feedback to Mirvish Productions regarding this. Below are
two replies I received today, we were at the show last
Thursday evening, but I didn't write to them until the
weekend since we had an almost 12 hour travel day to fly
back to Vancouver and up to our little town in
Northwestern BC on Friday. In the first email the rep I
spoke with previously thanks me for my feedback, in the
second email she gives me a bit more information and a
link where apparently I can hear a lot more details about
the scenery and characters.
I included her two emails below and here is what is said
about this on the website under the “audio descriptions”
section:
In an effort to be economical with audio description
during the performance, we provide pre-show notes that
describe the scenery and characters in detail.
These pre-show notes are played on loop in the 30-minutes
prior to the performance.
They did not do this at the Princess of Whales Theatre,
but as you can read in her email, they will make sure this
will happen in the future. Anybody who wants to listen to
this and get a sense of what it is like can do so by
clicking this link
<https://lionking-com.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/LionKing_BroadwayOnline.mp3>.
I certainly encourage anybody who may plan to attend a
musical to check with their theatre if they offer audio
descriptions via the GalaPro app. Supported cities at this
point are:
New York
London
Washington DC Metro Area
Toronto (only city in Canada, supported shows are "Come
from Away", Moulin Rouge" and "The Lion King")
Richmond
Baltimore
Philadelphia
Providence
Los Angeles
Seattle
Boston
San Francisco
Des Moines
Pasadena
Dallas
From: [email protected]
[email protected]
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2024 12:09 PM
To: Sieghard Weitzel [email protected]
Subject: RE: Feedback on GalaPro and audio descriptions
[CSE: aFS10V, TKT: TbXUTg]
Hello Sieghard,
Thank you for taking the time to share your wonderful
experience attending The Lion King and for your thoughtful
feedback about the GalaPro audio description service. We
are delighted to hear that the technology enhanced your
theatrical experience and made the performance more
accessible.
Your observations about the audio descriptions are
incredibly valuable. We appreciate your specific
suggestions regarding more comprehensive costume
descriptions, which we have passed along to our production
team and the GalaPro service providers. Your insights can
help improve the experience for future visually impaired
audience members.
We are proud to offer technologies like GalaPro that make
our performances more inclusive and enjoyable for all
patrons. Your enthusiasm and appreciation mean a great
deal to us, and we're thrilled that you and your wife have
made Mirvish productions a part of your Toronto visits.
Thank you for being such a wonderful patron and for
helping us continually improve our accessibility services.
Warm regards,
Becky
Audience Services
Mirvish Productions
322 King Street West
Suite 325
Toronto, ON, M5V 1J2
________________________________________
Hello Sieghard,
Right after I had responded to you, I heard back from our
GalaPro representative.
She advised that you can access a recording of pre-show
notes that describe the scenery and characters in detail.
You can access it here on this page -
https://lionking.com/accessibility/
Please scroll to the section for Audio Description.
The link is here
https://lionking-com.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/LionKing_BroadwayOnline.mp3
I will also make sure that this recording is running
pre-show at our theatre.
Thank you again!!
Warm regards,
Becky
Audience Services
Mirvish Productions
322 King Street West
Suite 325
Toronto, ON, M5V 1J2
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