Wow, Avatars really do Got Talent

disclaimer: this blog post is about an event produced with my company, Infinite Vision Media

Some press from Clickable Culture and SLNN on America's Got Talent in Second Life, aka Avatar's Got Talent.

This event was a challenge and a fun time. We wound up wrangling 14 different talents (contestants + celebrity judges + host), and packed a sim and half-packed two additional sims. We broadcast one sim to the other two sims, and had all of our judges and hosts on a audio stream to all three sims. The result took a lot of coordination, but well worth it.

Looking back on it, I can't think of anything in SL ever before with this level of complexity for a live show. I general don't tout firsts as a rule, but this event was fairly unique. What I really loved was that not only did we have pre-recorded audition tapes that played, as well as audio from real people, but we also had the live SL acts performing. The audience came, and most stayed *the whole time*, which to me was a huge mark of success.

I'm thrilled NBC came to my company with the idea. The concept worked very well with Second Life, and I'm delighted to see how well NBC is understanding Second Life and virtual worlds as a medium not just of one-way media, but interactive with the community.

Also, I was really happy with the quality of talent. People did custom scripts, animations, particles, and avatars for the event. A lot of it was really campy, but I personally thought that was in-line with the real show, and we got a lot of laughs from the control room where we managed the event as well as LOLs from the event in-world.

I am also extremely proud of my team, who to-the-person pulled off a technical feat and was extremely on the ball and professional. We had some new talent working on the studio, as well, and it turned out gorgeous. You can visit the NBC - Universal lot on the island "Virtual NBC 3".