Abbey Road Red teamed up with WIRED for their WIRED Live event held at the Tate Modern on 1 November. The Red team showcased some of the exciting technologies coming through their music-tech incubator programme at the WIRED Test Lab in the Blavatnik Tanks, which introduced new, exciting technology and gear for the audience to demo and engage with. On show at the Abbey Road Red section was the visually stunning MKPlayer360, an immersive projector from Barcelona-based Broomx Technologies, who recently joined the six month incubation programme. The projector itself contains patented processing technology and an exclusive lens to create immersive projections that go beyond the typical human field of view (FOV), leading to jaw-dropping visual experiences. One of the leading messages for Broomx Technologies is that the MKPlayer360 offers a solution to bring Virtual Reality (VR) away from solitary experiences with headsets and more towards social VR experiences.

Educational institutes, tourism boards, health researchers and event companies are amongst the early adopters of the technology and those attending the Wired Test Lab couldn't miss the stunning visuals projected onto the walls of the Tate Modern Tanks! Abbey Road Red also showcased Japanese company COTODAMA and its intelligent lyric visualisation technology, which manifests itself in the company's original hand-made Lyric Speaker and the soon-to-be-released and beautifully designed Lyric Speaker Canvas. Users can connect to the Lyric Speakers via Wi-Fi and stream their favourite music through their chosen streaming platform; COTODAMA's technology then animates lyrics synchronised word-by-word to the music using exclusive motion graphics that suit the mood and structure of the song as well as the vocal's delivery. COTODAMA are using their technology to bring lyrics back to centre-stage and empower lyric culture by building a stronger connection between the songwriter, artist and listener.

Vochlea Music, a recent graduate of Abbey Road Red also presented its vocal recognition music creation software called Dubbler. Dubbler allows a user to beatbox into the microphone; the software then intelligently decides which sound you are mimicking (e.g. kick drum, snare drum, closed/open hi-hats) and outputs MIDI information which can be assigned to software instruments and samples. It doesnt stop at beatboxing either, with other sound modules and styles in development before Vochlea launches its first consumer products. The event saw a host of tech enthusiasts and press come through the Test Lab doors and experience the technology on show. The Abbey Road Red team had a great time showcasing their startups whilst learning about other innovative companies making waves in the tech world. One of my highlights was ICAROS, which enables users to fly or dive through virtual worlds while improving fitness... at the cost of your integrity!

Red was back again in the Tate Modern Tanks for WIRED Next Gen on Saturday 3 November, this time to show young creators how fun and easy it is to use current incubated company Humtap to generate amazing sounding tracks on the spot, using three simple inputs: their voice to hum a melody, fingers to tap a beat on their mobile screen and their choice of a musical style. Red also showcased Abbey Roads first ever app release - songwriting aid Topline. By the end of both workshops, eager young users were creating tracks in Humtap and writing vocal melodies over them using Topline. It was brilliant to see the young audience in the workshops respond so eagerly to the apps, and a great testing ground for Humtap, despite bad singing by Red!