CoSTAR Live Lab Presents a Networked Musical Performance with Marnie Glum
What does the future of live music look like? Explore our latest landmark tech trial featuring real-time motion capture and networked audio, and find out how you could secure £50k to fund your own intelligent venue prototype.
Posted: 28 May 2026
Imagine a band spread across four different locations, performing live, all connected by low-latency audio, tracked by motion capture, and rendered in real-time using Unreal Engine.
This is exactly what we showcased in a landmark tech trial featuring Yorkshire singer-songwriter Marnie Glum and her band, with an audience in CoSTAR Live Lab at Production Park and the band spread across the University of York campus.
The event was an incredible success, incorporating state-of-the-art networked spatial audio, motion capture, and game engine technology. It also allowed for novel PhD research to understand how audiences respond to such events.
About the Project
The project was led by Technical Specialist Jacob Cooper and the combined technical teams from CoSTAR Live Lab, XR Stories, and the AudioLab. It was made possible with support from AudioLab and the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. It was funded through EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account funding, and was one of several projects led by University of York researchers, lecturers, and technical staff to be funded at Live Lab this spring.
About the Artist
Marnie Glum creates an immaculate blend of the unexpected and the wholly satisfying. Her songs weave intricate guitar arrangements through unusual structures, exploring universal themes with sharp wit and calm introspection. Having been recognised for her work by BBC Introducing and recent festivals such as Live at Leeds and Humber Street Sesh, as well as supporting the likes of Willie J Healey and Katy Kirby, Marnie leaves no ear unpricked and no room unmoved.
Marnie Glum performing to a remote live audience whilst being fully motion captured at the XR Stories lab (The Guildhall, York)
About the Technology
Marnie Glum and each of her band members were tracked in separate Vicon motion capture volumes at the University of York campus, and rendered in a shared virtual environment recreating BBC Maida Vale Studio 4 using Unreal Engine. This was streamed to Live Lab along with multichannel audio of the performance, where the audience experienced the gig in spatial audio through Live Lab's L-Acoustics L-ISA system. The musicians were able to perform together across York using low-latency network audio, as well as see each other in the virtual Maida Vale. The project has potential commercial applications across metaverse and hybrid live events and connected venues.
About the Research
The showcase of the RISE MoCaP project provided an excellent opportunity to conduct some audience experience research. Questionnaire data was used to assess aspects such as the audience's emotional and social experience, as well as their overall connection to this new format of live music performance. Front and rear cameras in the audience area captured the overall behaviour and motion of the crowd. The audience members also wore heart rate sensors. This continuous physiological data from the participants is expected to provide information regarding arousal, as well as the potential for heart rate synchrony between the audience members in response to key events in the performance.
The audience in CoSTAR Live Lab enjoying Marnie Glum's performance being rendered and live streamed from York.
Feedback from the team
"It was fantastic to see Live Lab packed for this live tech trial, which brought together various teams and state-of-the-art technologies into a single event. We're thrilled with the response from the audience, and look forward to continuing to push this research direction going forward." Jack Hardwick - Technical Specialist at CoSTAR Live Lab
“The RISE MoCaP project was a fantastic opportunity to showcase the expertise, facilities and infrastructure across the University of York. Led by the technical team at the AudioLab, University of York, this project delivered a first-of-its-kind live-streamed motion capture performance to a live audience and provided the opportunity for an independent Yorkshire-based artist to engage with state-of-the-art performance technologies.” Jacob Cooper - Project Lead and Technical Specialist at University of York
"This unique project provided an insight into what could be the future of live music performance. This was also one of the largest-scale simultaneous collections of audience data at CoSTAR Live Lab so far, combining physiological, behavioral, and subjective measures from 45 participants during a motion-captured live music performance." Laney Haywood - PhD Student at University of York
The success of this trial represents a significant leap toward the future of hybrid live events and connected venues. The project has not only demonstrated the capabilities of networked spatial audio and motion capture but has also opened new avenues for pioneering audience experience research.
Do you have a radical idea that leverages the power of networked performance, spatial audio, or audience data to transform the creative industries? We’re inviting ambitious UK-based creatives to apply for up to £50k cash and 20 days of R&D time at CoSTAR Live Lab, Production Park via our latest round of Prototypes & Pilots funding.
Find out more and apply for CoSTAR Live Lab’s Intelligent Venues funding call here.
