AUDIOVISUAL SYSTEMS AND THE AV++® TECHNOLOGY FAMILY

Build the experience.
Keep the possibilities open.

Start with the audiovisual system your venue needs: sound, video, projection, show control and interaction. Explore conventional AV integration, the QuickSilver® computing foundation and the AV++® capabilities that can extend a defined installation. Each capability page distinguishes implemented work from development.

Looking for a particular name? Browse the complete A–Z technology reference

FROM A BRIEF TO A WORKING EXPERIENCE

Choose a starting point that fits your project.

A new experience: bring the brief, intended audience and creative direction. Explore Design.

An existing installation: assess the peripherals worth retaining, retrofit the playback and control foundation with QuickSilver, then consider the AV++ capabilities it can support. Explore the retrofit sequence.

A technical integration: define the interfaces, current capability, operating limits and verification needed. Discuss an engineering requirement.

The family below includes established tools, implemented components, working demonstrations and continuing development. The chosen project scope identifies which apply.

PURPOSE FIRST. A CONNECTED FAMILY.

One purpose. The capabilities to keep delivering it.

Mad Intelligence™

Patent pending

The designer sets the purpose. Mad Intelligence keeps it active.

Mad Intelligence is the overarching layer for purpose and continuing engineering. It brings the intended experience, the capabilities that can realize it and the evidence of the result into the same operating picture. The aim stays active through everyday operation, changing conditions and future upgrades.

Governed operating architecture

Patent pending

WorldModel™

The WorldModel™ architecture defines governance, consent, multi-system coordination, safety intervention and accountability for intelligent physical environments. Shared operational state supplies context within that wider design; it is not the complete architecture.

Explore WorldModel

Realization and technology family

AV++®

AV++ brings together the technologies that make the experience happen: media, sound, personal storytelling, language, access, show control and operator tools. QuickSilver® provides the distributed computing foundation.

New from Mad · Part of AV++®

Patent pending

Mad Hatter™

A DSP with a much wider role. Hatter brings its processing foundation together with soundscape authoring, spatial listening, listener context and acoustic evidence. Mad Intelligence connects that acoustic work to the purpose of the whole experience.

Meet Mad Hatter

Explore the complete AV++ family

TECHNICAL DETAIL

What each part contributes.

Open the engineering detailClose this sectionLook for the red circuit symbol for engineering detail.
From project delivery to continuing engineering
Part of the systemIts roleExplore
Mad Intelligence™The overarching layer for purpose and continuing engineering: retains the designer's intent, relates capability to that intent and uses evidence to direct the next permitted action.Continuing engineering
WorldModel™Shared context, relationships, consent, governance and operating boundaries supporting the wider environment.Governed environments
AV++® technologiesThe realization and technology family, bringing together DSP, media, personalization, language, accessibility, show control, digital surfaces and operator tools.Experience tools
QuickSilver®The distributed computing foundation within AV++, using standard computer hardware for software-based AV and interactive capabilities.Compute architecture
Mad Hatter™New from Mad, within AV++: a programmable audio DSP and acoustic experience engine that connects the sound brief, realization, evidence and continuing correction.Sound that meets intent
Traditional AVDesign, engineering, integration, commissioning and support for reliable audiovisual experiences.AV delivery

THE AV++® FAMILY

Personal stories and recognition

Alice®

Media tailored to each visitor’s age, interests and chosen depth. Alice® uses venue-approved knowledge to personalize the story, with language, accessibility, local intelligence and opt-in continuity.

Explore Alice®

Alice® OnBoard

Age-appropriate, interest-led media on the visitor’s own device. Choose the content, depth and pace, with language and accessibility as part of the same personalized experience.

Explore Alice® OnBoard

Alice® Avatars

Digital guides that adapt explanations and stories to visitors’ ages, interests and chosen depth, guiding, educating and entertaining across participating touchpoints.

Explore Alice® Avatars

THE AV++® FAMILY

Language, access and the physical environment

Lory®

Personal media and accessible formats alongside the shared experience, including supported audio, captions and sign-language content.

Explore Lory®

THE AV++® FAMILY

Show, venue and operational control

TruCheck™

Umbrella verification combining visual evidence from the developing CheshireTracks™ system, acoustic checks from Mad Hatter™ with MTCL™, and authorized operator inspection through TruView™.

Explore TruCheck™

CheshireTracks™

In development: local camera processing for aggregate occupancy observations and configured checks of display and projection output. This venue-scale role is distinct from CheshireCat® recognition and CTCS™ listener head-pose sensing.

Explore CheshireTracks™ ↗

WITHIN MAD HATTER™

Audio processing, spatial listening and purpose-limited sensing.

These are capabilities and development paths within the Mad Hatter family, not four independently released products. Confirm the relevant software, hardware and acceptance conditions for the installation.

Mad Presence™

Spatial loudspeaker listening connected to the listener’s head position. The detailed page identifies working software and the conditions for a particular configuration.

Mad Nulling™

Ongoing work to reduce unwanted sound between neighboring exhibits. Results depend on the room, listeners and the defined acoustic objective.

MTCL™

The Microphone That Cannot Listen™: purpose-limited acoustic sensing for measurement and verification, with dedicated sensing development distinguished from implemented software.

CTCS™

The Camera That Cannot See™: a developing dedicated head-pose input for Mad Presence, distinct from venue-wide CheshireTracks observations.

Check the current Mad Hatter capability status ↗

THE AV++® FAMILY

Infrastructure and renewal

SPECIFY THE EXPERIENCE

Bring the needs together before choosing the parts.

A capability list becomes an installation through design and engineering. We assess the site, audiences, content, accessibility requirements, network, operating responsibilities and the physical results that must be achieved.

Some technologies are established delivery tools; others are developing capabilities or published architecture. The individual pages explain that scope. The project specification and commissioning evidence establish what is included and demonstrated at your venue.

Our IP register distinguishes issued patents, registered marks and pending work. You can also explore the published architecture or arrange a focused visit to Wonderland.

LET’S BUILD WHAT COMES NEXT

Bring us the experience you want to create.

Tell us what matters, what must stay exact and what the venue needs to become.

Start a conversation

Why Are We Doing This?

Five monkeys parable illustration

Five New Monkeys

There is a well-known parable about five monkeys. It is not really about monkeys. It is about what happens when a group keeps enforcing a rule long after the original reason for that rule has disappeared. In AV and Location Based Entertainment, that pattern shows up all the time.

Five monkeys are placed in a habitat with a ladder in the middle. At the top of the ladder hangs a bunch of bananas. Naturally, one of the monkeys climbs the ladder to grab the bananas. When it does, the researchers spray the rest of the monkeys with cold water. After a few attempts, the monkeys quickly learn the connection.

Banana = Cold Shower.

Before long, whenever a monkey even tries to climb the ladder, the other monkeys pull it down and beat it up to stop it.

  1. One original monkey is replaced. The new monkey tries to climb. The others attack. It learns not to climb - even though it has never been sprayed.
  2. Another original is replaced. Same result. The new monkey learns the rule.
  3. This continues until all five originals are gone.

None of them have ever been sprayed. None of them know why.

But none of them will climb the ladder. And if a new monkey tries, the group will still beat it up.

Why?
Because that is just the way things are done.


That is how large parts of this industry still operate.

Too many teams inherit technical assumptions from the last project, then production assumptions from the last technical stack, then budget assumptions from the last production model. Eventually those assumptions stop looking like choices and start being treated like physics.

Much of that behavior comes from designing around proprietary black box hardware. Once a system is built on closed, single-purpose devices, everything downstream begins to conform to their limitations. Workflows. Support models. Spare strategies. Upgrade paths. Before long, entire organizations are protecting the ladder - without asking whether the ladder still needs to be there.


We chose a different starting point.

We built a system that bases AV hardware on non-proprietary compute node hardware rather than on closed black box endpoints. That decision changed the problem space.

  • Hyper-personalization became possible - behavior no longer had to be locked inside fixed-function hardware. Experiences could become adaptive, contextual, and individualized in software.
  • Spares were minimized - standardized around a smaller family of node types instead of a growing inventory of specialized proprietary devices.
  • Upgrades became easier - increasing capability often means increasing compute available to a node, not replacing entire subsystems.

We did not set out to defend the old ladder. We set out to remove the reasons people thought they could not climb it.

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