The hybrid stage: Assessing the enhancement of live performances through volumetrically captured video

Live music is increasingly intersecting with immersive technology. Pre-recorded volumetric video is an emerging immersive experience technology with significant creative potential for the live music and events sector. In this setting, a real artist performs on stage alongside digitally 3D-video captured content. High-profile cases (Madonna’s Billboard Music Awards performance, ABBA Voyage) demonstrate its creative potential, but no scientific research has examined how audiences actually experience it. SME producers increasingly encounter the technology yet lack the empirical knowledge and validated methods to deploy it effectively. This project addresses that gap through demand-driven, practice-oriented research conducted in close collaboration with SME partners across the full live music production chain. The project explores to what extent concert attendees experience and accept pre-recorded volumetric video elements in a live performance, and under what conditions this enhances their experience. The project employs a mixed-methods design across six work packages. A co-design phase develops a hybrid performance concept with artists and production partners. Two volumetric video prototypes (2D LED presentation and 3D cylindrical projection) are implemented and tested in a controlled experiment at BUas’ XR stage, using psychophysiological measurement (bodily emotion measures), quantitative self-report, and qualitative interviews. Public values considerations, including transparency toward audiences and responsible use of performers’ likenesses, are treated as design criteria throughout. Findings inform an evidence-based design revision, subsequently validated at the TURF Event in Breda. The consortium unites Breda University of Applied Sciences, volumetric production specialist 4DR Productions, creative studio Live Legends, business developer Angle of Impact and music rights technology company Copyright Delta. Beyond generating empirical knowledge about audience experience, the project produces practical production guidelines and validated measurement methods designed to make volumetric concert enrichment accessible and scalable for SME producers, with findings being largely transferable to any organization seeking to evaluate the experiential impact of immersive experience applications.