Perhaps you already work out with 'wearables' or portable sensors attached to your body. Those high tech devices measure the multitude of activity going on in your body and provide feedback for improving your health. The Lightwave start-up also uses this portable technology during live events to gather data on how audiences react.
Rana June, co-founder and VP of Medialets, a marketing and social media analytics startup, launched this project. Most people still know her from her days touring around as one of the first iPad DJs. Back then, spinning tunes with a tablet device was still pioneering...
Now, she's combining her tech-expertise with her music background. The result: Lightwave. This start-up provides useful analytics during live events. At the core of the project are portable armbands that measure various interactions such as movement, noise level and temperature. It’s these armbands that give the artist real-time information on people’s reactions in the audience.
"When you're out performing, you don’t have any clue if the guy back in some corner somewhere is even having a good time", says Rana June. That information is just what Lightwave provides. The technology collects and visualizes the data. "Based on that feedback, you, as the performer, can immediately feed into the audience's vibe", as Rana is well aware. The idea is for the performing artist or the business brand sponsoring the event to hand out the Lightwave armbands. As with 3D-glasses in the cinema, the organisers can take them up at the end to reuse another time.
Pepsi recently organised an initial 'taste test', so to speak, of Lightwave technology: an exclusive bio-reactive concert with DJ A-Trak. The technology still has mounds of unseen and untapped potential, however, even for other types of events.
