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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 1993Andrew Webb, “Opera Subtitle Firm Eyes New Game,” New Mexico Business Weekly, Nov. 21, 2003 [1] 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
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. Markle, Webb, and Erkman applied for and were granted 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. "A Knight at the Opera", Robert Hilferty, New York Magazine, January 14, 2002 He donated the company's electronic libretto system to European venues including the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala's Teatro degli Arcimboldi 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
Opera venues have utilized the system to display librettos in English language, French language, German language, Italian language, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian language, and Spanish language "Sandia helps 278 state businesses in 2004 through New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program," Sandia National Laboratories, Sandia Corporation, March 22, 2005 on sandia.gov although the software enables the reading of the libretto in any written language. “Giving the Opera a New Voice,” "Entertainment Engineering," Volume 4, Issue 2, p. 6 Translation is provided by one screen and delivery system per person. Figaro Systems Official Website
Typically, but not in all cases, the system is permanently installed along the backs of rows of seats. Each screen is positioned so that the text is clearly visible to each user. The displays were initially available in vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) and, in 2000, liquid-crystal display (LCD) was used. In 2004 the displays became available with OLED (OLED) screens. Each type of display provides the same text information and program annotation on eight channels simultaneously, may be turned off by the user, and is user-operated with a single button. The software is capable of supporting venues' existing systems as well as Figaro Systems' "Simultext" system. The software enables cueing of each line as it is sung, and it appears instantly on the screen.
The company builds fully Modularity systems including its wireless handheld screens United States Patent 6,760,010. "Wireless electronic libretto display apparatus and method," issued July 6, 2004: United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Full-Text and Image Database for users who cannot use seatback systems, for example people in , who may be viewing the opera in areas lacking seatback viewing, or people with compromised eyesight.
In the UK and Europe, the systems have been installed in venues including the Royal Opera House in London, the Teatro alla Scala and La Scala's Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan, Italy, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, and the Wiener Staatsoper in Wien, Austria. “Giving the Opera a New Voice,” Entertainment Engineering., Volume 4, Issue 2, p. 6, on entertainmentengineering.com
In 2008, the company's software was one of four finalists for the Excellence Award for Commercial Software awarded by the New Mexico Information Technology and Software Association.
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