While browsing through various articles, videos and reports to find an interesting topic for the portal, I accidentally bumped into the French manufacturer of tracking systems "Naostage". What's interesting about another tracking system? Well, the fact that the said system does not require physical trackers, and recognition is done by silhouette recognition software. Interesting right?
The company itself was founded in 2018, so relatively recently considering the Covid break around the world. Its "fathers" are Paul, Olivier and Nathan, engineers. As they say about themselves, they are passionate about stage performance, the audiovisual world and new technologies.
The potential applications of K SYSTEM are limitless: in addition to concerts, tours and festivals, the technology can be used virtually anywhere. Examples of applications range from visitor attractions in museums or galleries starting with triggering sound, video and lighting effects. K SYSTEM gives you the ability to automate your show, simplifying preparatory production and reducing costs in all areas. The entire system consists of three components.
Kapta 3D sensor - the first component of the system
It is a panel with sensors and a camera that, when hung on a trellis (for concert use) or in a designated area of the installation, allows for scanning the space for tracking. It is available in two types. The first, numbered 320, allows scanning a maximum space of 10x8m, and the highest height at which it operates is 8m. The 640 is the brother with more capabilities, as it gives you the ability to scan an area of 20x12m, and the maximum height at which we can hang it is 15 meters.
The sensor itself resembles an LED Bar, only it doesn't light up, but scans... We connect it with a standard PowerCON, and it transmits information via an etherCON cable - Cat6a recommended.
CORE - or the brain of the operation
The second element of the whole system is the server, thanks to which everything comes to life. With the aforementioned Captcha we plug into it with a Cat6a cable and that's it. Simple?
The server itself allows us to plug in two sensors and serve up to 16 people on stage simultaneously! What more to write about the computer, it fits into a standard 19' 4U, consumes 1kW and has a powerful network card.
KRATOS - Operating System
All the magic is enchanted in KRATOS. It is an intuitive program for operating the system. I make no secret of the fact that its layout is surprisingly uncomplicated and pleasant at first glance.
The software allows us to calibrate the space, which, according to the manufacturer, will take you no more than 20 minutes. The capabilities of the software itself are amazing. During setup, we can assign people to a target slot. All you have to do is physically place the person in the tracked area and indicate in the software that "THIS IS IT" and that's it. From then on, the system itself will recognize who is who, without any trackers.
The program gives us a lot of possibilities, starting from creating a plot, designating tracking zones, creating scenarios, interactions, up to creating cue queues. KRATOs supports practically all standards to be able to connect it with every possible audiovisual system. PSN, OSC, Telnet, sACN, Art.-net, http, UDP or TCP, take what you want.
Z informacji technicznych warto dodać, że producent podaje dokładność trackowania na poziomie <10cm.
Simplicity through technology.
As a fan of modern solutions that are increasingly user-friendly thanks to automation, I make no secret of the fact that the use of AI in this system is shocking to say the least, so positively.
Looking at how the installation and setup is done, it turns out that with this system, anyone - even without some specialized knowledge - can get the Naostage K SYSTEM ready to go. Installation is limited to two wires and hanging one "bar" in the desired location.
The very fact that you don't need any sensors, several cameras or trackers makes it possible to call this system a veritable "plug&play."
Don't believe it? You can check it out for yourself!
Exactly a week ago, Naostage made its software available for free to test, so you can click around and see for yourself if it's actually that simple. You can download the program after this LINK. The demo, in addition to a general fly-through, allows you to install the KAPTA simulator and test the program as in real life.
Summary
The product was released after four years of research and development. K SYSTEM itself won the JTSE Innovation Award 2022 (Best Hardware/Software category) at the recent JTSE show in Paris, The Best of Show at ISE 2023, and advanced to the finals of the AV awards, which will soon be held in London. According to reports, the judges were impressed by the ingenuity, versatility and ease of use of the Naostage solution.
A great authentication of Naostage's solution is the fact that it has already been used commercially. During the "So Floyd - The Pink Floyd Tribute" tour, the feedback is obviously positive. I encourage you to take a look at the video of this production. (Below)
The product fits perfectly into the theme of immersive spaces, imagine the possibility of creating a room where, upon entering, you are immediately implemented into a magical audio-visual world, completely without any instrumentation.
I'm so curious about this solution that I've already contacted the manufacturer to see if we can get along for some small demo. For now, they're operating mainly in France, but you can see there's a push into the world.
As far as I know, the first demonstrations and installation of the presentation in Poland are planned, and we will not let go of this topic, the forehead!
More, of course, on the manufacturer's website: Naostage
Producer: Naostage
