New website for Ensemble

Today saw the launch of a new website dedicated to the Apollo Ensemble product range. www.apolloensemble.co.uk aims to provide detailed information about Apollo Creatives interactive light and sound system.

Creative Director Mark Hildred explains:

"The Ensemble products are capable of doing so many different things that we felt the existing Apollo website was too constraining. The new site allows us to explain in detail all the features and applications for the equipment."

The site will be expanded over the coming months, to provide a comprehensive overview of the Ensemble, sensors and software.

Christmas Grotto Sensory room

The Halloween sensory space that we created in October has been changed to Christmas themed Grotto, complete with Father Christmas and bags of presents!

Instead of employing a witch, the Grotto uses the help of an Elf, who guides the children round the space exploring the different sounds, lighting and images and using the interactivity to tell stories and play games.

The highlight of the space is an interactive dice, that can communicate to a computer which way up it is facing. A different set of sounds is played depending on which side is chosen, and the projection also changes. All of the images are shown beneath the outline of a window frame to make it appear that the children are looking out into a magical world controlled by the dice. The multi-coloured dice also controls the colour of the bubble tube.

After playing games and telling stories with the Elf, the children enter into a second room and see Father Christmas who gives them a present and takes their photo.

The Interactive Christmas Grotto is open to the public throughout December at Creepy Crawlies, a children's adventure play site in York.

IT Diploma - Wilberforce College, Hull

Following on from the session last week at Manor School in York, today I was at Wilberforce College in Hull for their IT Diploma. The students there are going to be looking at the Ensemble Designer and Player software, offering their expertise on icons, window design and technical support documentation.

We hope that their assignments will lead directly to some visible changes to the software.

Students install at The Rotunda

Today was the final session on the Interactive Technology course at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus. The students had to present their interactive installations at the Rotunda Museum and allow those of us marking to have a play.

Apart from a few technical issues (most of them not to do with the students) the whole event went very well. Each group had devised a creative way to present a selection of Charms from the collection.

I advise you to get down and have a look if you are over in Scarborough over the next couple of weeks.

Manor School Creative Industries Lecture

I was at Manor School today in York as part of the new Creative Diplomas. As well as giving an overview of Apollo and the Ensemble system, I've also left the students with the task of developing a 'cookbook' to use with Ensemble. I'm looking forward to seeing what they devise over the coming weeks.

Halloween at Knaresborough Technology Park

To celebrate Halloween we have changed the MRI portrait with us here in Knaresborough Technology Park to an image of a ghost. Using an infra-red distance sensor and the Apollo Ensemble system, when a person walks in front of the screen the ghost comes alive and starts telling jokes and rhymes!

Halloween Sensory Space - Completed

With the help of Camel Event Productions we have completed the Halloween sensory space for Creepy Crawlies. Using the Apollo Ensemble system, a computer controls all sounds, lights and videos when triggered by hidden switches.

Featuring a bubble tube, projector, fibre optics, ultra-violet, colour changing lighting and a sound system, the space makes the best use of Halloween props to create a scary atmosphere. Add to that a reverberated microphone and a real witch, the space becomes a perfect place to tell scary stories and really get in the Halloween mood!

As you try to open a book containing a hidden sensor, a portrait of a ghost comes alive to tell jokes and rhymes. The highlight of the sensory space is the bubbling witches cauldron which starts misting when you walk up to it!

The Halloween Sensory Space will be open in Creepy Crawlies at the start of next week and last until Halloween.