I actually was the sole developer who wrote all the software that “networked” the custom hardware together. This project was so ahead of its time and yet required some rather arcane programming knowledge. So much fun though. AMA!
There's a really interesting movie called "We Live in Public" that documents one of the early tech pioneers Josh Harris as he sells his internet radio company and then creates an underground CCTV community. It's fascinating and equally frightening how people behaved towards one another while sharing space and constantly watching each other. It reminds me a lot the relationship many twitch streamers have with their viewers. You can find the movie for free on Tubi (in the states at least).
The video by one of the creators (at the very bottom of the page) is super interesting: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3db-QgHYE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3db-QgHYE</a><p>I was too young for this when it happened, but it reminds me a bit of when randomized video chat sites (Chatroulette and others?) first got popular in ~2009. I was a senior in college at the time, and we'd have big house parties during which we'd sit a webcam on top of a TV in the living room and just let it run, connecting to random strangers. Fun and interesting dynamic as people milled around the party and had brief interactions with people from around the world.
Very cool. I wish I could have visited. I miss wacky theme bars like this.<p>One of my favorite theme bars was a place in Mexico City called "Bang Bang" (closed down years ago).<p>It was Stanley Kubrick themed. There were little black and white TVs everywhere playing weird stuff. Then in the back was a replica 2001: A Space Odyssey bedroom; from the end of the movie. With a glowing white floor. Many people would pile into the bed to smoke, drink, and make out.
Neat! In case anyone else is curious where it was, apparently it’s the present-day location of the Bowery Electric. <a href="https://www.theboweryelectric.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.theboweryelectric.com/</a>
I know the source article had misspelled "its" and it's policy here to keep the original title, but can we change it to:<p><pre><code> Way ahead of [it's] time: The Remote Lounge NYC (docpop.org)
</code></pre>
or<p><pre><code> Way ahead of it's [sic] time: The Remote Lounge NYC (docpop.org)
</code></pre>
so it doesn't hurt readers' brains so much when they try to parse the sentence?
This submission comes from this comment from yesterday: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36854960">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36854960</a><p>People in 1920s Berlin nightclubs flirted via pneumatic tubes (2017):
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36854061">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36854061</a> (307 points, 1 day ago, 123 comments)
An earlier (1968) venue with a similar concept was "The Birds Nest", a pub / nightclub in the UK.<p>> They renamed The King’s Head, an almost brutalist post-war booze bunker at 2 King Street, installing a state-of-the-art steel dance-floor, light-show projectors and a high-end sound system.<p>> They also installed an in-pub telephone network so that if you saw someone you liked the look of, you could dial their table and have a chat across the room.<p>Source: <a href="https://boakandbailey.com/2020/10/watneys-birds-nest-pubs/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://boakandbailey.com/2020/10/watneys-birds-nest-pubs/</a><p>[This information comes to me entirely second-hand, through articles and an episode of a podcast, so I can't vouch 100% for the accuracy.]
Wow that place looks rad.<p>Another early one was @Cafe! They broadcast using CU-SeeMe when it came out for testing from Cornell. Back in like 94? smth like 256x256 greyscale, 1-10fps if we were lucky, but a pretty reliable audio channel and text console for group chat.<p>Anyone here from there? I was critt34 from CMU.<p>A memory.. I met Seal on it once! He was at a party in LA and the host had CUSeeMe opened on the same reflector @cafe usually hung out on. I was DJ'ing Ministry on the channel from my dorm room at the time and then someone came to comment on the music.. and I suddenly recognized him.. OMG, you're Seal! He laughed and we talked a bit about Koyaanisqatsi and then he said he was helping on the soundtrack for Naqoyqatsi.<p>Early web/internet days were so enchanting
I went here in November 2001 right after it opened. It was my first time in NYC. I loved it, thought it was so cool. After that trip I decided I’d have to live in this city at some point. Moved here in 2005 and been in NYC ever since. Remote Lounge always reminds me of how magical and full of possibility the city felt (indeed still is!)
Why no "tour" or replication? I understand that night entertainment is in part a novelty industry - but this took a lot of effort and was apparently hugely popular in NYC. Any insight as to why it didn't "tour"? or wasn't replicated? Did it, in fact, loose money overall and/or from the start? What's the deal with the (apparent) lack of replication of bar or nightclub themes?<p>This is an open question - not specific to Remote Lounge or Meow Wolf or Audium (San Francisco "sound experience") or the several other creative ideas mentioned in the thread. To be fair, one format that was endlessly replicated is the game arcade - without bar initially and with bar now.
I had heard about this place, but sadly never visited. But after it shut down I was part of a startup that built a way for people to do this with audio only -- via phones and a web browser. We intentionally avoided video and images after studying the way strangers interacted across different formats. Remote Lounge looks fun, but for us it was more about long conversations where you didn't care about the other person's looks. I sometimes feel nostalgic for this type of thing.
The most interesting thing to me is the timing: this opened just one month after 9/11, the event that ushered in a new era of state-sanctioned surveillance.