Theatre Subtitles via Smart Glasses

Theatre in Paris is proudly recognized as one of the few companies that provide you the public an unforgettable theatre experience in Paris without the need to understand the language. How you ask? Through on-screen subtitling. Our top professional translators work very hard to translate more than 100 plays that we offer on our website to give you the benefit of obtaining the utmost understanding of what the artists in the play are saying. Screens are placed in visible areas either above or surrounding the stage in order for you to follow along while at the same time not missing out on the performance. Though this method has been efficient for many years and is still the best way for the audience to enjoy a French play, we have decided to add a new state of the art technique in our subtitling options, Smart glasses!

Ongoing objective

Smart glasses are part of a top of the line high-quality theatrical experience and they are the future. It allows you to sit anywhere you want in the audience and read line by line the translated version of the play right on the glass lenses. Theatre in Paris- Panthea (your European subtitling solution for performing arts) have been offering this method to partner theatres since 2015. Having been tested in Avignon, France, and Berlin, Germany audiences have been absolutely amazed at how effective this subtitling alternative has been, no more having to be stuck in an uncomfortable situation if the person in front of you is blocking the screen.

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Fit for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired. How?

Our Epson smart glasses are fit to accommodate individuals who are either deaf or hearing impaired. It can be quite complicated for those who have a slight hearing impairment, being able to listen to the actors may not be easy. We have spoken in person with guests who go through this dilemma and they’ve confessed that it is a struggle for them. They’re stuck between the choice of going to a show or not going at all, and this option gives them the liberty to choose with no hesitation. There are cases where some individuals can hear quite well when particular noises are canceled out, otherwise, they hear slight noises around them, and they aren’t able to focus on one thing. The Brightside of this matter is the fact that reserving a seat with smart glasses allows you to read the subtitles and clearly focus on the play without having to worry about relying on your neighbor to be quiet during the act instead of speaking to the person next to them a bit louder than you would have liked. Just to be clear we can have the subtitles in any language, including French itself.

Accessibility is very important; our goal is to have as many options possible for theatergoers. We’ve partnered up with different theatres who are open-minded ad have the same goal as us to further improve customer experience, they’ve allowed us to test this technology on audience members and in return we have obtained a lot of positive feedback from guests who have had the opportunity to feel immersed in the play through a pair of augmented reality smart glasses.

For a while now we have been working on different projects with various companies where we offer our services which involves our smart glasses, most specifically Opera houses and other theatres such as Opera National de Paris, Theatre Edouard VIII, Opera de Lille, Staatsoper Unter Den Linden, Deutsches Theatre Berlin, and the list goes on.

For five straight years, we have participated in the summer D’Avignon Festival, one of the most prominent international events for live contemporary artistic performances that consist of 50 French and foreign shows all organized by the board of directors of the Avignon festival and an agreement with the Mayor of Avignon.

Though Opera Garnier is one of our permanent partners we had the opportunity in summer 2019 to work alongside them in presenting the state-of-the-art smart glasses that allow guests to read the subtitles from the translated musical drama Don Pasquale, even the lyrics were translated. This was an epic one month considering our translating specialists had to translate French subtitles into English, Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, and other languages. That’s right you can have the original French playwright translated in your own language! This is one of the perks about user smart glasses.

For those of you who are looking to watch a theatre play a whole new way, you can have a taste of this technological breakthrough by booking tickets to see Successful Strategies (L’Heureux Stratageme), currently displaying in Theatre Edouard VIII.

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How does it work?

A lot of people are curious as to how the glasses work, and it is actually quite simple. Not to worry though, before any show our specialist will give you clear instructions on what to do and they will be around before the show if you’re in need of any assistance. Once seated and before the performance initiates, you will need to test out your smart glasses. Once the glasses are on a menu will pop up giving you clear instructions on how to play around with your remote. For example, you have the option of controlling the size, color, brightness, and angle of the subtitles in single or multiple lines at a time. It may be kind of fun playing around with the different variations, some people like their subtitles in black, other in green, and even pink! You choose what you like, or whatever makes you feel more comfortable during the show. The subtitling is controlled via wifi by the experts of Theatre in Paris who have translated the playwright in advance before your arrival.

 So just sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Let us take care of your surtitling needs.

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