You will soon be able to get live AI descriptions via the Ray-Ban Meta
Smart Glasses (at least here in North Amwerica), but they already said
your glasses battery will last about 30 minutes doing that so whenever
this is possible you better bring a large external battery which of
course would not be a big deal if that is all it took. The estimate of
GalaPro by the way was right on with respect to battery usage, I had
my iPhone 16 Pro charged to 100% before the show and I was at 84%
afterwards, they say to expect about 15% of battery usage.
*From:*[email protected] <[email protected]> *On Behalf
Of *Tony Sweeney
*Sent:* Tuesday, December 17, 2024 10:38 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: GalaPro - a fantastic new experience when attending a
live performance
On top of all that Sieghar I was just listening to a demo of SeeingAI
and describing video.
Imagine if that app or other in time could describe live theatre in
real time that would be awesome indeed.
Tony
On 17/12/2024 17:49, Sieghard Weitzel wrote:
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]>
<mailto:[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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