Filming the Fest

The Hypergrid International Expo is a bit like a tornado - a whirlwind of cultures, languages, with different styles of presentation, and wildly different subjects, all needing to be filmed so that people who can't be inworld can watch Live, but also to create an archive of videos on the HIE YouTube channel. Setting up, preparing equipment and researching the performances, filming, and editing - it's all a huge amount of work, and the team that does this is led by James Atlloud  with Sofee Supermarine and Petlove Petshop lending a hand for HIE 2025.  

First up, James - how did the new region work out this year, and can you tell us a bit about recruiting videographers? If anyone reading this wants to join the team, what should they do?

James and his Dinkie alt sitting at the Streamer's Table at HIE

James Atlloud: The var region simplified so many aspects of moving around, setting HUD, scripts and more.  Craft grid was so kind to us in the past, but it was quite the pleasure to work on a grid that is largely dedicated to the expo. As for recruiting a team, it can be hard. We are all adult volunteers with complicated demands outside of the expo.  Fortunately every person I ask to help is very considerate, which is consistent with the larger open simulator community.  I value the different styles and aesthetics of the video team members. Filming is a creative expression of our enthusiasm for living and working on the hypergrid. If people are interested in participating the best way to reach me is a direct message to ' jamesatlloud ' in Discord.

Kelso's Keyframes for HIE

This year, as you know HIE moved to a new home on HG Safari grid and got a facelift with a new auditorium on a 3x3 VAR that allowed us to have everything on the same sim, rather than four separate ones. 

Another huge change was the way that the speakers and presenters were animated. This work was done by Kelso Uxlay who developed a special set of scripts and HUDs to make it happen. Why was that needed?

Kelso Uxlay:  We needed something more reliable and dynamic to replace the antiquated, ugly poseballs used in the first years of HIE. 

Thirza Ember:  What was wrong with them?

Viva Subtitles!

From the very first Hypergrid International Expo back in 2017, we have been using a unique system to allow our audience to follow the main points of the talks being given, even if they don't understand the spoken word. It's a Subtitle system using Group Chat. You join the inworld group for your language, and during the event, the group Chat will light up with paragraphs of text that reflect the things being said onstage. 

Loru Destiny - our first speaker at HIE 25

Making these subtitles ahead of time involves a series of steps - getting the speakers to submit the main points of their talk, editing these for length, and then translating them into different languages. Of course, AI can help with that to some extent, but it takes the eye of a native speaker to check that idiomatic expressions, the jargon of virtual worlds, grammar, syntax, and the context of the talk are all respected. This year's team of translators and subtitleists included Rosa Alekseev for the Portuguese, LadyKa 007 for the French, Tosha Tyran for German and Spanish, plus Lux Tergeste and Snowbody Cortes. Thirza Ember worked on the Italian translations, as well as the editing, formatting, of the subtitles, and organized the team. 

Subtitle Group joiners in the Expo Park.
During the conference, subtitles appear in Group Chat.

But what was the experience like from the point of view of these volunteers? Would they recommend it to others? Lux Tergeste has been helping with subtitles for at least three years now, and has often also helped with translating from Italian to English. 

HIE 2025 Spanish Session

 On Sunday April 6 the final session of this year's Hypergrid International Expo was all in Spanish - with voices from around the world - from Barcelona to Puerto Rico, and of course we also had the magnificent retelling of the Four Worlds of the Hopi people, who came into contact with the Conquistadores. 

AnaMari Maggi

The session was beautifully introduced by Ana Maggi,  who speaks Spanish, French and Italian, so is a little bit of a symbol for our multilanguage event. She first introduced Xirana Oximoxi, author and artist, from near Barcelona. Xirana has been exhibiting her art inworld for a long time, both in SL and in Opensim, on her region on Craft, called Karnac. Her talk then was all about inhabiting two realities and making art in both, it's a story of hard work and practical challenges to overcome, so it was both an autobiography and a bit of a how-to speech. Very interesting! Remember, all the sessions of HIE were filmed and streamed live on our HieExpo Youtube channel and you can see the Live session in our archive - in coming days, there will be all the individual talks on the same channel.

HIE 2025 Italian Session

 The Italian session this year was dominated by educators and what a thrill to hear them speak with such optimism and enthusiasm about their passion for teaching and for technology.

The Italian session was moderated by Lorenza Colicigno, who is herself an educator and whose sim NoiLab on craft is a magnet for any thoughtful hg traveler.

Our first speaker was Luciana Mattei. She teaches primary school in Latina, Italy. Her project unAcademy is an absolute joy - she is teaching children not only science, and English, but also all about their digital identity. Luciana's joyful approach to her work is infectious, and the whole audience felt the thrill of seeing how she has combined the virtual school in Craft-world, with the concrete school, in the real world.

If you missed her talk, remember you can watch all the sessions of HIE on our Youtube channel, HIE Expo. Use the Settings button to get the auto generated subtitles for your language.

HIE 2025 French Session

The second session of this year's Hypergrid international Expo was the French part, once again three presentations on three different themes. 

Minord Loup peeps out at the crowd during Nadir Rae's talk

To introduce the French part, Minord Loup and LadyKa 007 did an absolutely delightful  conversational that set the mood for a great session.

HIE 2025 German Session

 This year's HIE event kicked off with a big Welcome from the five person panel - Em Jannings spoke in English, Richi Rizzoli in German, Minord Loup welcomed everyone in French, Lorenza Colicigno in Italian, and finally Ana Maggi made some comments in Spanish, just to give the event a fully international feel right from the start!

I you missed the event, you can watch the whole thing, as it happened, over on the HIE YouTube channel, and in days to come there will also be videos of each individual performance. 

The German session was ably moderated by Richi Rizzoli. Richi, a DJ inworld, with his deep rich voice, was a perfect choice as moderator.

Hie Is Underway!

 Yes, the Hypergrid International Expo 2025 is well and truly launched! Yesterday from 11am SLT we had three wonderful hours of live singers. First up the one and only Zoree Jupiter - follow her on Facebook!  and here's her performance schedule, so you know when and where to catch her concerts inworld. SHe sang a divine set perfect for our international event, with a bit of everything from fado to We Are Family... couldn't have been better. Thank you Zoree!

As you can see we had a great cohort of Dinkies at the party - you can see behind them, the Group joiner boards... what are they for? During our 2 day conference, beginning today, Saturday 5 April, the talks are given in German, French, and then tomorrow in Italian and Spanish. If you don't speak all these languages, no worries, we provide subtitles in English, Italian, Portuguese, French German and Spanish throughout the event, in Group Chat... just join the group for your language, and during the event the subtitles will show up in your IMs. Magic!

Following Zoree, we had a power hour of songs from the 80s with Khiron Ametza as always pumping up the mood of the party and getting us all singing and dancing at home as well as inworld! Khiron, a soprano singer from Brazil, has a great repertoire - a good way to keep in touch with what she's up to is to fave her page on Facebook .

The party continued into a third hour, as people came and went, about 60 plus attended the musical evening, many of them took full advantage of the inworld ability to stay by the singers and dance like crazy, while at the same time camming out into the Expo and pick up LMs, Notecards, and the many many freebies donated by a multiplicity of grids and individuals. We have 130 publicity booths at the HIE Expo this year, and there truly is something for everyone in that wonderful miscellany!

Our final singer was the wonderful Wolem Wobbit - here's his YouTube Channel, be sure to subscribe! A native of Germany, with excellent English, Wolem is a bluesman, a guitarist of great talent, a songwriter and of course a great singer. His original songs are all hits, or ought to be - they have heartfelt, thoughtful lyrics - his latest composition which he played for us is all about the Hypergrid, and the importance of a sense of community and acceptance in this ever more divided and hateful real world. 

Thanks to our wonderful singers, and to everyone who attended the Opening event for HIE 2025 - hope to see you all at the Conference, today starting at 9am SLT (6pm in Europe)  Saturday 5 April and tomorrow 6 April!

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Testing for HIE

 The past days have been busy on the HIE region as we complete the final run-throughs and tests for our many speakers, artists, and moderators. 

We've been testing animations, talks, slideshows, art experiences, outfits, and NPCs - a whole world of informative entertainment about what it means to inhabit this very special platform.

Practicing the 5 person panel for the opening talk

As you know, the talks are given in a range of languages, not English. If you have been to the OSCC conference, held every year in December and organized by Avacon, you will know that the English speaking community is well served by this opportunity to share their innovations and projects at that event. The idea of the Hypergrid International Expo to give voice - and an opportunity to listen - to opensim residents who aren't English speakers.