1995-96 NYE Telebration Info

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Electronic Cafe International's 7th Annual New Year's Eve "Telebration": A Hybrid Videoconference, Internet Cybercast, Web And Palace(tm) Event

The Electronic Cafe International is hosting its 1995 Around-the-World New Year's Eve Telebration, a meta-New-Year's-party now in its seventh year, to take place December 31, 1995. A worldwide network of ISDN video links and analog videophones contribute to the real-time festivities, the amazing Telebration Cam will show what's going on at the current moment, the ECI Website Gallery will chronicle the event as it happens, and the ECI Palace will make its debut for the New Year's party. The day-long Telebration will be hosted by the flagship Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica, California.

The Telebration Video Bridge is graciously provided by MCI

Special ISDN-to-Internet hardware provided by Ascend Communications.

Featuring performances by artists, poets and musicians as well as collaborative cyber-experiences enabled through the use of hybrid telecommunications systems unique to ECI, the '95/'96 New Year's Eve Telebration will connect Electronic Cafes International (ECIs), ECI-Affiliates and friends at locations around the world. ECI-Tokyo, ECI-Paris, ECI-Copenhagen, ECI-Rio de Janeiro, ECI-Dublin, ECI-Toronto, ECI-Jerusalem, ECI-Austin, The Info-Zone in Telluride, Colorado, Studio X in Santa Fe, New Mexico and many others will be participating in this year's event. The Telebration will showcase ECI's Tele-Music, live collaborative musical performances and improvisations where musicians are connected through cyberspace; Tele-Poetry, where videoconferenced poetry "slams" take place between geographically separated poets; and Tele-Dance, where people otherwise separated by distance, culture and language dance together in real-time composite image space. Telebration musical performances scheduled at press time include the Bonnie Barnett Band, live from ECI-Santa Monica and Group Collective, live from ECI- Affiliate The Knitting Factory in New York City; Telebration poetry will be performed by Mona Jean Cedars, among others. Additionally, ECI will be connecting with a variety of broadband and Internet-based New Year's Eve parties around the globe, and invites links with those who are producing other cyberspace New Year's Eve events.

The ECI Around-the-World Telebration begins at noon PST on December 31, 1995, and continues well into the morning of January 1, 1996. Designed to be inclusive of both technologically-enabled and technologically- challenged communities, the Telebration features a digital bridge for the ECI Network of international ISDN compressed video links, accessible by others utilizing PictureTel or any H.320 videoconferencing systems, as well as an analog bridge for ECI's international network of Panasonic/Sony/Mitsubishi and compatible black & white videophones. The analog bridge linking the still-frame videophones around the world will be interfaced live to a CU-SeeMe cybercast, so that even those who don't have access to the Internet can cybercast video on the net. Bridges for audioconferencing will also be enabled for the Telebration. Updates, audio, and video bridge information will be posted on this website.

PARTY IN THE PALACE

The '95 Telebration also marks the launch of the ECI Palace, a 2-D multi-user interactive environment enabled through The Palace(tm) software recently released by Time Warner Interactive. Produced for ECI by As If Productions and Hands of Time Animation & Design, the ECI Palace will allow anyone with a TCP connection and the free Palace client software to explore Electronic Cafe International "rooms" and chat in real time with other party-goers. Registered Palace software users will additionally be able to create their own avatars for navigating the ECI Palace. The free client software and registration information is available at The Palace website.

CRASH THE PARTY ON THE WEB!

By accessing the ECI Website, Web-surfing visitors will be able to experience the event as it happens. The ECI "Website Gallery" will chronicle highlights of the event from the point of view of ECI Santa Monica, along with what's happening this very moment at ECI Santa Monica.

JOIN THE PARTY VIA CU-SEEME!

We'll be 'casting the party via CU-SEEME at monsters.metawire.com, so tune in and check out the action... 8 B channels, no waiting (grin)!

DO YOU WANT TO JOIN US?

Those interested in connecting their New Year's events to the ECI Telebration should contact ECI-Santa Monica before December 29th. The Electronic Cafe Santa Monica is located at 1649 18th Street, north of Olympic Boulevard in the 18th Street Arts Complex (see map). Admission to the physical space is $20 (we're buying the champagne & hors d'oeuvres); $5 off at the door if you print this message and bringing it with you. Admission via any cybermedia format is free (well, you'll have to buy the champagne). More details about the day at the Santa Monica Cafe are available at +1 310 828 8732.

ECI-SANTA MONICA INDUSTRY SUPPORTERS

The Telebration is made possible by ECI-Santa Monica's Sponsors: Apple Computer, Inc.; Ascend Commuinications, Inc.; A.T. Products; Canon U.S.A., Inc.; Colorado Video, Inc.; Compression Labs Inc.; Comtech Labs Inc.; Dolby Labs; Engage Communications, Inc.; Farallon Computing, Inc.; Genius Corp.; Hard Drive Intl.; Hayes Microcomputer; Intel-Pro Share; Interval Research; Lone Wolf; Mass Microsystems; Magnum Software; MCI; Mitsubishi Electronic Sales Motorola; Motorola Data Products; MTL Software, Inc.; Perspect Systems, Inc.; PictureTel; RasterOps Corp.; Roland; SyQuest Technology; Teleautograph Corp.; TeleSpan Publishing; Transware, Inc.; Truevision, Inc.; Viacom International; Vidicom; Yamaha; Young Chang; and many more.

KUDOS AND SPECIAL THANKS

The '95/'96 Around-the-World New Year's Eve Telebration is produced by Electronic Cafe International(tm), Santa Monica, California Node, in association with ECIs, ECI-Affiliates & Friends around the world, and: