3pointD.com

The annual installation and lighting of the huge Christmas tree that adorns Rockefeller Center each holiday season is one of the small, cool things about living in New York. This year’s tree, which went up on November 10, is 88 feet tall and weighs nine tons! It gets lit — after being strung with over five miles of lights — tomorrow, November 29, at 9pm 8:55pm Eastern time. This year, for the first time, you’ll be able participate in a virtual tree lighting in Second Life, as well, courtesy of NBC Universal and the Electric Sheep Company (sponsors of this blog). The NBC Universal headquarters in Second Life (I’m not sure exactly where this is) will host “A Very Virtual Christmas,” in a distributed event that will take place across 16 19 SL regions. According to a press release from the Sheep, “A total of sixteen regions will contain identical replicas of the NBC Universal headquarters complete with holiday decor, ice skating, live music, and a coffee shop. Elements of the Second Life event will be live in every sim while others will be streamed from a live audio/video feed coming from one of the sims.” SL musicians Jaycatt Nico and Frogg Marlowe will perform. [UPDATE: NBC now says there will be more like 19 sims, named NBC1, NBC2, etc.]

Sounds like the Sheep had to come up with some creative replication solutions to the avatars-per-sim limitations of Second Life. I’m not sure what that means for Jaycatt and Frogg’s performance, but if you want to host your own little Christmas part, a stream of the audio and video feeds of the festivities at 30 Rock will be available to stream into your parcel anywhere in SL. I think the stream details will be posted on NBC.com, though I’m not entirely sure. [UPDATE: Sounds like I had my stream reversed. From the release: “Visitors to NBC.com will be able to view a live audio/video feed of the event without having to sign in or download Second Life. In addition, audio and video feed information will be provided to venue owners and residents interested in streaming onto their parcels.” So it looks like it’s the SL event you’ll be able to stream to your SL plot. Very cool. The physical event, of course, is televised.]

The sims, built out by Aimee Weber and Bedazzle Studio, are looking good. Although where’s the tree? This must be the reverse angle. I walked through the real Rockefeller Center yesterday, and I can confirm that there is indeed an enormous Christmas tree towering over the skating rink. Skating in Rockefeller Center is another little perk of New York living, but if you can’t be here, I’m betting skating in Second Life while the virtual tree gets lit would be a fun way to spend the evening too. Festivities start at 7pm Eastern, when the sims open and the musicians go on, and the tree gets lit at 9pm 8:55pm Eastern (6pm 5:55pm SL time). Have fun!