[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":206},["ShallowReactive",2],{"case-study-piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto-en":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"client":157,"date":158,"description":12,"excerpt":159,"expertTip":160,"extension":161,"heroImage":162,"heroImageAlt":163,"heroOpacity":164,"highlights":165,"image":170,"imageAlt":171,"location":172,"meta":173,"navigation":174,"path":175,"seo":176,"slug":177,"stats":178,"stem":191,"tags":192,"technologies":198,"testimonial":159,"__hash__":205},"caseStudies/case-studies/piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto/en.md","Language is no longer a barrier. Piccolo Teatro di Milano, the Piccolo Aperto project",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":140},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,28,34,40,43,47,52,60,64,67,71,74,78,81,85,88,92,95,99,106,110,113,117,128,137],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Piccolo Teatro di Milano is Italy's first public repertory theatre and a Teatro d'Europa. Around its productions it runs dozens of side events every month: meetings with the companies, press conferences, presentations, conferences, the Piccolo Open series in the Chiostro Nina Vinchi. That is where the theatre meets the audience that is not yet in the auditorium — international visitors, students, foreign press, people with hearing difficulties.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"the-challenge","The Challenge",[10,19,20],{},"With Piccolo Aperto, the theatre decided that accessibility is not a service to be added on request, but a capability of the organisation itself. On the language side, the constraints were precise.",[10,22,23,27],{},[24,25,26],"strong",{},"Frequency, not a single event."," Around six events a month in different rooms, with changing times and formats. A classic interpreting service, booked event by event, matches neither that rhythm nor that budget.",[10,29,30,33],{},[24,31,32],{},"No hardware to hand out."," In a cloister or a foyer there is neither the space nor the staff to distribute and collect receivers at every meeting.",[10,35,36,39],{},[24,37,38],{},"Text before audio."," For someone with hearing difficulties, captions are not a support, they are the service; for an international visitor they are a way to follow without headphones. What was needed was a channel readable before it was listenable.",[10,41,42],{},"To this were added two conditions that concerned us more than the technology. The theatre wanted to be autonomous: the service had to sit in the hands of its own sound engineers, with a supplier reachable but not necessarily in the room. And there was the nature of the place — in a theatre, the relationship with language is the very material of the work, and nothing about the service could sound like a shortcut.",[14,44,46],{"id":45},"the-solution","The Solution",[48,49,51],"h3",{"id":50},"a-cautious-start-declared-as-such","A cautious start, declared as such",[10,53,54,55,59],{},"The service began on 9 October 2025 with the press conference for ",[56,57,58],"em",{},"Arlecchino"," in the Chiostro Nina Vinchi: captions translated from Italian into English on the Converso® Web App, reached by scanning a QR code in the conference space. The theatre announced the start in its own terms, \"without overrating ourselves, but with a great deal of confidence\". The recording of the press conference was captioned the same day for a point-by-point quality check.",[48,61,63],{"id":62},"floor-from-the-theatres-mixer-control-from-remote","Floor from the theatre's mixer, control from remote",[10,65,66],{},"The room signal reaches the system from an auxiliary output carrying microphones only; the Converso® AI Engine transcribes and translates; the Web App distributes captions and, from the current season, English audio through headphones as well. Governance is human: a Converso® technician monitors stream quality and acts on the causes of degradation — in the room for the main events, remotely for the others.",[48,68,70],{"id":69},"the-theatres-own-material-inside-the-engine","The theatre's own material inside the engine",[10,72,73],{},"Press kits, running orders, names of directors, actors and titles arrive in a shared folder before each event and feed Context Training: the engine knows \"Strehler\", \"Grassi\" and the titles on the programme before they are spoken.",[48,75,77],{"id":76},"handing-over-to-the-piccolos-sound-engineers","Handing over to the Piccolo's sound engineers",[10,79,80],{},"In November 2025, at Teatro Grassi, we trained the head of sound and the theatre's team. From the following month the events ran with the Piccolo's technicians at the desk and Converso® supporting remotely; the dedicated line was sorted out with the theatre's IT department. From that point the service became part of the house.",[48,82,84],{"id":83},"captions-then-voice-too","Captions, then voice too",[10,86,87],{},"Since January 2026 the events have had Italian and English captions and English audio. The same Web App, three ways to follow: read in Italian, read in English, listen in English with your own headphones.",[48,89,91],{"id":90},"human-interpreters-where-human-interpreters-are-needed","Human interpreters where human interpreters are needed",[10,93,94],{},"For the international conference of the Presente Indicativo festival at Teatro Grassi, on 23 May 2026, the headphone translation was delivered by professional conference interpreters with console, transmitter and receivers for the audience; the Italian/English live transcription on the Web App was included in the partnership. Human voice and AI text at the same event, each doing its own job.",[48,96,98],{"id":97},"from-captions-at-meetings-to-surtitles-for-productions","From captions at meetings to surtitles for productions",[10,100,101,102,105],{},"In February 2026 we produced Italian and English surtitles for ",[56,103,104],{},"Quel ladro del Lago di Como",", as part of condiVisioni teatrali: the work moved from the live of the events to the prepared text of the productions. In November 2025, at Teatro Studio Melato, the Converso® transmission kit had already carried a production's audio description to headphones — the same radio infrastructure, another service of the project.",[48,107,109],{"id":108},"an-agreement-not-a-series-of-quotes","An agreement, not a series of quotes",[10,111,112],{},"From October 2025 to June 2026 the relationship is governed by a partnership agreement: Converso® provides the Web App and remote support for the season, and the Piccolo lists Converso® among the partners of Piccolo Aperto, on the accessibility page of its website and on the card distributed in the Chiostro.",[14,114,116],{"id":115},"the-results","The Results",[10,118,119,120,127],{},"The service is live and announced by the theatre ",[121,122,126],"a",{"href":123,"rel":124},"https://www.piccoloteatro.org/en/pages/accessibility",[125],"nofollow","on its own website",": for events in the Chiostro Nina Vinchi \"an automatic translation service in Italian and English is available through Converso® technology\", with captions or headphone listening from your own phone.",[10,129,130,131,136],{},"In June 2026 Piccolo Aperto won the ",[121,132,135],{"href":133,"rel":134},"https://www.osservatori.net/comunicato/innovazione-digitale-per-la-cultura/premio-gianluca-spina-innovazione-digitale-beni-attivita-culturali/",[125],"Gianluca Spina Award 2026"," from the Digital Innovation Observatories of Politecnico di Milano, in the Accessibility category, along with the Audience Award. The project recorded over a thousand attendances at accessible activities across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. The theatre shared the recognition with us in these words: \"thank you for the work we did together\".",[10,138,139],{},"Today the Piccolo's technicians run the service autonomously, with Converso® supporting remotely and present in the room for season press conferences and conferences. For the 2026/27 season the theatre has asked for a comprehensive proposal: Italian/English live translation for press conferences and side events in all its rooms, on-site crew for the main events, simultaneous interpretation, and Italian/English surtitles for four productions on the programme. Converso® appears among the partners of Piccolo Aperto on the theatre's website, alongside AccessiWay, a.l.f.a., ANffAS and Prescott Studio.",{"title":141,"searchDepth":142,"depth":142,"links":143},"",2,[144,145,156],{"id":16,"depth":142,"text":17},{"id":45,"depth":142,"text":46,"children":146},[147,149,150,151,152,153,154,155],{"id":50,"depth":148,"text":51},3,{"id":62,"depth":148,"text":63},{"id":69,"depth":148,"text":70},{"id":76,"depth":148,"text":77},{"id":83,"depth":148,"text":84},{"id":90,"depth":148,"text":91},{"id":97,"depth":148,"text":98},{"id":108,"depth":148,"text":109},{"id":115,"depth":142,"text":116},"Piccolo Teatro di Milano — Teatro d'Europa","2025/26 Season",null,"With a client that programmes continuously, you don't start from a contract, you start from an event. At the Piccolo we began with a single press conference, a quality check on the recording that same day, and a clear rule about who does what: the theatre adopted the service after seeing it work in its own rooms. One pilot event, the verification, then the season — in that order.","md","/images/case-studies/piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto/hero.jpg","An audience member selects a language on the Piccolo Aperto Web App in the Chiostro Nina Vinchi","medium",[166,167,168,169],"Six events a month made sustainable for a public theatre's budget","Italian captions, English captions and English audio from the same QR code","The theatre's own sound engineers run the service, with Converso® supporting remotely","No receivers to hand out and collect in a cloister or a foyer","/images/case-studies/piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto/thumbnail.jpg","The Piccolo Aperto Web App on an audience member's phone, showing the language choice","Milan, Chiostro Nina Vinchi and Teatro Grassi",{},true,"/case-studies/piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto/en",{"title":5,"description":12},"piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto",[179,182,185,188],{"value":180,"label":181},"~6","Events served every month",{"value":183,"label":184},"3","Ways to follow from one QR code",{"value":186,"label":187},"1,000+","Attendances at accessible activities",{"value":189,"label":190},"2","Gianluca Spina Awards 2026","case-studies/piccolo-teatro-piccolo-aperto/en",[193,194,195,196,197],"Culture","Accessibility","RSAI","BYOD","Ongoing service",[199,200,201,202,203,204],"Converso® AI Engine","Web App","Context Training","Live Captions","Surtitles","RF system","fWZ7eAvzCUL7FgN0995rAe2Ss7HfS2SpiUxVzAenOAI",1788534343933]