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Figaro Systems, Inc. is an American company that provides seatback and wireless titling software and system installations to opera houses and other music performance venues worldwide. The company is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was established in 1993 〔Andrew Webb, “Opera Subtitle Firm Eyes New Game,” ''New Mexico Business Weekly'', Nov. 21, 2003 ()〕 by Patrick Markle, Geoff Webb, and Ron Erkman 〔 and was the first company to provide assistive technology that enables individualized, simultaneous, multi-lingual dialogue and libretto-reading for audiences. 〔(David Belcher, “Nothing Lost in Translation: Video system allows patrons to read words on chair backs,” ) ''Albuquerque Journal'', June 4, 2006〕 ==History== Figaro Systems grew out of a conversation in 1992 among three opera colleagues: Patrick Markle, at that time Production Director of The Santa Fe Opera, Geoffrey Webb, Design Engineer for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, and Ronald Erkman, then a technician for the Met. At that time, opera houses had two options for the display of libretto and dialogue subtitles: projection onto a large screen above the stage or onto smaller screens throughout the theatre. Typically, the translation was in a single language.〔(Dennis Domrzalski, "Figaro: Eyes translate when ears don't get it", ) ''New Mexico Business Weekly'', April 8, 2005〕 The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 had recently been enacted; Markle was trying to solve the problem of venues which lacked accessibility to patrons with disabilities, including the profoundly deaf. Markle, Webb, and Erkman devised the first prototype of a personal seatback titling device and John Crosby, then General Director of The Santa Fe Opera, saw its potential for opera patrons.〔( Figaro Systems Official Website )〕 Markle, Webb, and Erkman were further reinforced by their understanding of technology’s role in remediating the physical barriers people encounter, worldwide, which frustrate or prevent their access to the visual performing arts.〔(“User-friendly art: In-seat text displays that subtitle and translate”, ''Auditoria'', May 2007 )〕 Markle, Webb, and Erkman applied for and were granted patents for their invention. 〔( United States Patent 5,739,869, "Electronic libretto display apparatus and method," issued April 14, 1998. United States Patent and Trademark Office )〕〔( Los Alamos Laboratory, ''Daily News Bulletin'', May 7, 2001 )〕 Philanthropist and investor Alberto Vilar counted Figaro Systems among the companies in which he was a majority shareholder.〔(Robert Hilferty, "A Knight at the Opera," ''New York Magazine'', January 14, 2002 )〕〔( "Alberto Vilar: The Privileges of Wealth," ''The Free Encyclopedia'' )〕 He donated the company's electronic libretto system to European venues including the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala's Teatro degli Arcimboldi opera houses in Milan, Italy, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, and the Wiener Staatsoper in Wien, Austria. As a consequence of his failures to pay promised donations, most of these companies lost money. In 2005 the Met charged the New Mexico company with unlawfully using its name in advertising promoting its "Simultext, system which defendant claims can display a simultaneous translation of an opera as it occurs on a stage and that defendant represented that its system is installed at the Met." 〔(Timothy E. Eble, ''Class Action Litigation Information'' ) on classactionlitigation.com〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Figaro Systems」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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