Watching the Footwork: Second-Screen Interaction at a Dance and Music Performance

Interactive mobile technologies have become part of audience experiences of live performances in terms of both general media sharing and specific (sometimes official) extra content. At the same time, high bandwidth affords streaming of live events to mobile devices. We take advantage of these technologies in our high resolution, panoramic image video stream and study a scenario of audience members viewing the very same live event they are watching on a tablet. The video stream on the tablet is navigational and enables audience members to pan and zoom in the real-time video feed. We studied audience interaction and impressions in three performances of a dance and music show and found distinct uses of the second-screen video stream. We emphasize that despite initial reluctance, the observed utilization of the technology opened up for new potential practices. Our study shows how working with perceived conflict in technology can still open up design space for interactive technologies.