Next Week at NAMM: Live Video Sampling with Brian Hardgroove
Spaceage.tv founder Jeff Robbins is heading to NAMM 2025 to demonstrate a new way of thinking about visual performance—treating video like samples.
At this year's show, Jeff will be running live visuals for an interview with Brian Hardgroove, longtime bassist, drummer, and music director for Public Enemy. Instead of a traditional slide deck or pre-programmed video sequence, he'll be triggering clips, photos, and archival footage in real-time using Visibox and a Stream Deck XL—responding to the conversation as it unfolds.
Think of it as an improvisational video soundboard.
What we're testing
The setup is simple: a curated library of visual content from Brian's career—performance footage, studio sessions, photos with collaborators, album artwork—mapped to physical buttons. When a topic comes up in conversation, the relevant visual appears. No clicking through slides. No timeline to follow. Just reactive, improvisational visual storytelling.
It's the same approach podcasters use with audio soundboards, applied to video.
Why this matters
We've always thought of Visibox as musical performance software, but this collaboration is pushing us to think bigger. The same low-latency triggering that makes Visibox work for live music performances turns out to be perfect for interviews, presentations, and any situation where you want to respond visually to what's happening in the moment.
We'll be sharing a full write-up after NAMM with details on the setup, what worked, and lessons learned. For now, if you're at the show, come find us.
NAMM 2026 runs January 22-24 in Anaheim, CA.
Want to try video sampling yourself? Download Visibox at spaceage.tv.