As the highest-priced device in the Seiren V2 series, the Seiren V2 Pro has the most built-in controls - three in total. The functionality of the microphone mute button is self-explanatory: once pressed, the microphone is muted and ignores all sounds - press it a second time and the device resumes audio operation. Nice: A red or green light, in the form of a microphone symbol, indicates whether the recording function is switched on or off. Below this is the volume control for the headphones. Finally, the microphone amplifier control (gain) can be used to regulate how sensitively the microphone records; it is advisable to adjust the gain here to keep unwanted background noise out of the audio recording or to avoid audio clipping and peaking. The 5 mm headphone connection, mounted on your stomach, ensures that you can hear what you say into the microphone. Setup & basics As mentioned, the Seiren V2 Pro is advertised as a professional USB microphone for streamers. According to the produc...

At FMX, Present’s collaboration partners Cubic Motion (acquired by Epic Games in 2020) and the Universityof Augsburg demonstrated how emotional engagement with a user can be facilitated on a next level. A key-question was: “How can interactions with virtual avatars become commonplace – while circumventing the dreaded uncanny valley?”

Bertha-Benz Hall at the House of Economy in Stuttgart at FMX 2022 Manne and his colleagues took center stage at an insightful presentation about their project “Photoreal Realtime Sentient Entity”. Alongside Manne, Steve Caulkin, Engineering Director at Epic Games Animation UK, and Florian Lingenfelser, Chair for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Augsburg University, took the stage during the presentation. In our conversation, Manne hinted at what Present is quintessentially about: “Present is about people; it’s about a growing, elderly population, people stuck inside because of a pandemic – but it’s also about digital environments. In a way, digi...

This article by Sabine Hatzfeld originally appeared in DP 03 : 2015. For the film project "Le Gouffre", Thomas Chrétien, Carl Beauchemin and David Forest quit their jobs, formed the Lightning Boy Studio and moved in together for cost and production reasons. A Kickstarter campaign brought the animated film with the unusual look to completion, which was nominated for an animago AWARD in the "Best Short Film" category in 2O14. The trio met in 2006 at the Canadian college "Cégep du Vieux Montréal"(www.cvm.qc.ca). Carl Beauchemin and David Forest studied 3D animation, Thomas Chrétien 2D animation. In the third and final year of their studies, they decided to work together as filmmakers in the future. Thomas went on to complete a two-year 3D degree programme, while Carl and David gained their first experience in the industry. After six months of developing the story, production finally got underway at the beginning of 2012 - despite all team members now working full-time. Carl and David work...