“Theatre in Paris and Atos launch multilingual augmented reality surtitling through connected glasses”

Providing surtitles in English and Chinese for ‘King Lear’ and English and French for ‘Return to Berratham’ at the Avignon Festival, starting July 4th 2015.

At the Avignon Festival, Atos, an international leader in digital services, and Theatre in Paris, a cultural tourism company, will offer foreign spectators the possibility of attending French theatre performances in several languages thanks to their multilingual augmented-reality surtitling solution through connected glasses.

This innovation makes it possible to display dialogues in real time and in the chosen language through the glasses, injecting a novel experience into the world of live entertainment. This solution is being rolled out as part of The Bridge Living Lab, the European accelerator for Crossover Culture & Technology, under the French Tech label. Theatre in Paris provides surtitled content and broadcasts it during the performances. Atos integrates and aligns technology with the constraints of live entertainment. The glasses are designed and manufactured by the French start-up company, Optinvent.

For Paul Rondin, Managing Director of the Avignon Festival: "The Festival has always been a meeting point for creation, innovation and experimentation. These glasses not only demonstrate technological prowess, but are an accessibility tool, providing a simple way for cultures to be spread and making ‘the other’ accessible to very different publics. In terms of our overall strategy, it is a perfect marriage of new technologies and theatre as old as time; it represents a good exploitation of the complementary nature of these two worlds, which we all need. "

Carl de Poncins, President of Theatre in Paris: "Our ambition, since our creation in 2014, has been to open theatre doors to as many people as possible by enabling non-French speakers to attend performances given in French. Our dedicated English surtitling and reception service has already been successfully deployed in a number of Paris theatres. The augmented-reality solution we unveiled, with Atos, at the Avignon Festival should allow us to supplement our existing offer and give spectators a revolutionary new experience."

Steve Peguet, Innovation Director at Atos France: "At Atos, we are convinced that innovation comes from bringing together people, business and technologies. Being responsible for the smooth operation of large-scale performances, providing spectators with new experiences and ensuring a secure environment for real-time devices have been part of Atos’ pallet of skills since the beginning of its partnership with the International Olympic Committee. Today, we are delighted to be contributing to the Avignon Festival our expertise acquired from providing IT services for all the Summer and Winter Olympic Games since 1992, and set to continue until 2024."

Following testing under real-life conditions during the 2015 Avignon Festival, the solution is set to be deployed more widely at the 2016 festival, with two additional lines of development:

adjustments to the glasses for the hearing impaired to give them maximum enjoyment during performances, in particular in the open air;
building on the possibilities provided by augmented reality by offering creators and producers the possibility of adding new content (superimposed 3D animation, the appearance of rain, augmented sceneries, etc.)

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with 2014 pro forma annual revenue of circa € 11 billion and 93,000 employees in 72 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Cyber-security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications, and Transportation.

Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, and Worldline.

Contact Presse :

Anne de Beaumont
+33 6 23 76 19 41
anne.debeaumont@atos.net

About Theatre in Paris

Theatre in Paris is the first tourism company that allows non-French speaking audiences to get a taste of the magic of theatre by attending French plays, surtitled in foreign languages, amongst the locals. Since its start in 2014, the company has welcomed audiences from over 45 nationalities. It is housed in the Welcome City Lab, the first incubator in the world dedicated to start-ups in tourism, and winner of the Living Lab’s The Bridge Accelerator, the European platform for the acceleration and development of innovative technological solutions in the realm of events and cultural content.

Press Contact:

Carl de Poncins
+33 6 66 77 14 57
cdeponcins@theatreinparis.com

About the Avignon Festival

The Avignon Festival means 69 years of universal thought at the service of cultural heritage and contemporary creation. 69 years of placing art in the perspective of the reality of the society, 69 years of aesthetic and political projects that observe the majors metamorphoses of the performing arts and the complexity of mankind. In 2014, Olivier Py was the first director to run the Festival since it was founded by Jean Vilar. In keeping with his ideas, Py was reconnected to the militant spirit and offers to the public “a different relation to the world, one in wich politics are not isolated from both thinking and hope”.