A hologram of Professor Stephen Hawking onstage at the Sydney Opera House
In a world-first, physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking, appeared at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on April 25 and 26 via DVEtelepresence Holographic Live Stage technology.
This was made possible by event partners Cisco and the University of New South Wales’ Big Questions Institute (UNSW’s BQI).
Technology partner, Cisco, provided a high definition video stream allowing guests at the Sydney Opera House to see and hear a seemingly three dimensional image of Professor Hawking, who was physically located at Cambridge University, UK. His daughter, Lucy Hawking, and physicist, Paul Davies, were live on-stage in the Concert Hall.
Professor Hawking talked about growing up in post-war Britain, his years at University and his life’s work, offering audiences a glimpse into the future and his hopes for humankind.
The world famous scientist also addressed (with good humour) one of 2015’s most confounding questions: what is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world? (Professor Hawking’s advice to heartbroken teens was to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics, hinting that one day there may well be proof of multiple universes, and in a different universe Zayn might not have left One Direction at all).
Lucy Hawking talked about the many sides of her father – family man, scientist, communicator and Bond villain – and what it was like to grow up as the daughter of one of the most famous and recognisable men in the world. Both addressed the portrayal of their lives in the Academy Award winning film The Theory of Everything.
An Evening with Stephen Hawking was the result of a collaboration between the Sydney Opera House, UNSW’s BQI and Cisco.
Cisco delivered the live video stream of Professor Hawking between Cambridge University and the Sydney Opera House via its Cisco TelePresence C90 Codec and Cisco Expressway video collaboration technology, which are designed for lifelike and real time visual communications.
The patented DVEtelepresence Holographic Live Stage received the Cisco livestream and enabled the remarkable real-time and life-like presence of Professor Hawking.
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