Online Orchestra: Connecting remote communities through music

Self Cite

Any attempt to perform music over a network requires engagement with the issue of latency. Either latency needs to be reduced to the point where it is no longer noticeable or creative alternatives to working with latency need to be developed. Given that Online Orchestra aimed to enable performance in community contexts, where significant bandwidth and specialist equipment were not available, it would not be possible to reduce latency below the 20Ð30ms cut-off at which it becomes noticeable. Instead, OnlineOrchestra developed new software that controls network latency, locking it to musical tempo. This in turn enabled musicians to perform precise rhythmic music in a latencyrich environment.

Section: Latency In Community Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Telematic performance and the challenge of latency

Rofe

Reuben

2017

Self Cite

“…These benchmarks emerge from a range of starting premises within the Online Orchestra project overall, as detailed in Rofe et al 2017b. As such, a starting assumption was that the higher the quality of audio and visual streams, the greater the sense of connection and immersion would be.…”

Section: Design Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Understanding what musicians needed to see and identifying and obviating impediments to them doing so -particularly in regard to their following the gestures of the conductor -became an important point of focus in the research. A final consideration was equipment cost: as described in Rofe et al 2017b, Online Orchestra aimed to design a solution that was repeatable and scalable, so preference was given to low-cost equipment or equipment that potential users might already own.…”

Section: Design Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, peripheral equipment clearly plays a significant role in enabling a high-quality experience for users (see Braasch et al 2009;Chabot 2016;Naugle 2002). This article reports on peripheral equipment used for Online Orchestra, including details of a range of trials undertaken during the design phase of the project, and the decision-making process that led to the final design solution deployed in the Online Orchestra pilot performance (see Rofe et al 2017b, for an overview; see Rofe et al 2017a, for an evaluation by participant performers). In all cases, decision-making was informed either by the specific requirements of the project, as detailed in the design principles section below and in Rofe et al 2017b, or through a process of action research (see Kolb 1984), often involving participant musicians, in which iterations were made, reflected upon and then reiterated, until a suitable solution was reached.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing a system for Online Orchestra: Peripheral equipment

Prior

Reeder

Rofe

et al. 2017

Self Cite

Online Orchestra is a telematic performance project, aimed at enabling young and amateur musicians in geographically remote locations to make music together over the Internet. This article reports the processes by which the audio and video peripheral equipment used for Online Orchestra was chosen and how the system was designed and used. Starting with an overview of guiding design principles, a description of methods for choosing, integrating and configuring audio and video hardware is presented. Following the development of the project from initial workgroups to the pilot performance of Online Orchestra, this article compares the 'ideal' test scenarios of workgroups with the reality of deploying the technology in a performance context and concludes with an account of using the system on site.

“…It also enabled the absorption of network latency within the improvisation. However, one of the aims of Online Orchestra was to enable a large-scale ensemble to play notated, pulsed music over the network (see Rofe et al 2017b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Notes from the podium of an Online Orchestra

Hargreaves

2017

Online Orchestra placed significant demands on its conductor, with a role that included rehearsing and directing remote musicians over the Internet. This article presents a firsthand reflective account from the conductor of Online Orchestra, including details of trials, rehearsals and the final performance. Practical considerations such as conducting technique, visual framing and ensemble seating are considered, as are reflections on conducting in a latency-rich environment. This leads to the conclusion that many traditional approaches to conducting apply in telematic performance, and the suggestion that there is significant scope for musicians to learn and grow in ability when making music online.Telematic performance has vast potential to enable music that has previously been impossible. On the Internet, musicians can simply disappear or pop up out of nowhere, 1 in a way that they cannot in traditional, offline performance; or sounds might be re-routed so as to appear in one node but not in others, for example. This offers whole new territories in which and with which composers can work. However, the history of telematic performance is somewhat dominated by improvisation (see Rofe et al. 2017a), and this implies a more egalitarian ensemble than the traditionally hierarchical 'orchestra'. In essence, improvised music is an ongoing re-negotiation of the roles played by the musicians, and this is far more akin to the quintessentially distributed quality of networks than orchestral music, in which instrumental sections, under their leaders, play prescribed roles in relation to one another, all under the direction of a conductor, who interprets a composer's score. At the outset of the project, these background issues posed questions to the technologists, composers and performers of Online Orchestra, and the collaboration between these groups has been crucial in achieving online orchestral performance. Early trialsIn the early stages, as we explored various network structures and their implications for composition and performance, we varied approaches to conducting, exploring a range of hand signals that might work well in an online environment. As shown in Figure 1, trials were undertaken with four musicians, located in different rooms that were connected over the network. Improvisatory 'conduction' proved to be particularly effective from the