Go to a performance by Baltimore-bred electronica musician Dan Deacon, and you’re able to generate a light show straight from your smartphone using the Wham City Lights app.
As the Baltimore Sun reports:
In order to use the app — which debuted last July — the Wham City Lights team must work with the musician or team to program the changing lights and imagery on the phone. In other words, it won’t work if you hold your phone up to a random speaker. Instead, the app — which doesn’t require reception or a Wi-Fi connection — synchronizes phones to create a communal experience in large crowds, [cofounder Keith] Lea said.
The Wham City Lights app is the first app to do this sort of transmitting of data through sound, according to the app creators.
For cofounder Alan Resnick, it’s “surreal” for this app, branded with the moniker of a Baltimore arts and music collective, to be used on a mainstream scale by artists like Brad Paisley.
He told the Sun: “Baltimore is not Silicon Valley. We’re doing it our own weird way and it’s been working.”
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