Digital Concert Hall rendering

I tried to post this the day of Berliner Philharmoniker’s live-streamed concert, but I ran out of time.  Anyhow, here is a little run-down of the live show a few days after the fact:

At the start of the show they presented this image (above), which is how they have been representing the Digital Concert Hall’s “Any Place, Any Time” concept.

Do they have internet connections in the mountains? This image and the accompanying copy makes me feel like I should be able to experience the concert in this picturesque setting if I desired, but my guess is that that may not be possible just yet… at least not until they start streaming to mobile phones. Either way, it looks pretty cool.

The house is filling up… And so the concert begins…

Sir Simon Rattle

The conductor for the evening, Sir Simon Rattle, and others (including a cellist from the orchestra who said the desire for the concert hall came from the players) discuss the concept of the Digital Concert Hall and thank their sponsors.

This went on for quite a while, in the middle of the concert, but the length was partially attributable to the fact that everything was said in both German and then English.

I wonder if they will get into subtitles eventually… what about the people watching from Japan?

Robots!

Box camera with robotic camera controls… got to play with ones like these at NAB last year. Really amazing stuff.

Unfortunately on faster pans, the image became a bit jerky, but not sure if that was related to the robotics or the video compression for the stream. Something to be considered when shooting something other than seated musicians.

The audience

Evidently the Berliner Philharmoniker often enjoys sold-out shows, which means there are people who want to go, but can’t, purely because they can’t fit in the theater. Now they can! (Kind of).

All in all, the concert was nicely shot, the picture quality was great (I was on Time-Warner Cable’s RoadRunner service) and the sound was very nice too (sound was streamed wirelessly to our airport, which was connected to a good amplifier with two small B&W speakers.). Definitely worth the 5 euros, and there really is something extra exciting about viewing the performance live - particularly one that is so far away.

What I wonder about is continued interest in the visual element, when we’re talking about a symphony orchestra. Without feeling a personal connection to the musicians or the conductor, the excitement and novelty of seeing classical musicians playing their instruments in HD could most likely wear off a bit over the course of many performances. I would venture to say that the most costly and complicated part of this presentation is the visual element (for both the presenter and the viewer), but the most essential and important part of this performance is the sound. If the visuals aren’t as engaging after seeing a few concerts, then why would an audience continue to choose video over a pure (and potentially less compressed, as it is not carrying video) audio stream? (Dont’ get me wrong, I am in full support of putting the audience right in the theater, both aurally and visually, I’m just asking the question.)

One thing I missed (which could also help make the case for viewing full video over audio) was any kind of special or additional content for the remote audience. I love when The Met shows you additional material on what you are about to see, before the show starts. You’re getting people even more excited for the show, even more prepared to enjoy it and connect with it… People may not seek out this kind of bonus material on your show on their own (no matter how much you try to make it available), but while the show is streaming, you have an eager and attentive audience and the ability to present valuable entertainment that might help them form a deeper relationship with and knowledge of your organization, your artists, your art form, and of course the performance they are about to experience. I’m intimately aware of many of the challenges and production resources required to create and broadcast this type of material, but I hope they (and future media streamers) will continue to find ways of incorporating some of these extra elements. Update: Looks like they are starting to build up this kind of material, which can be found on their main website here. Would love to see this content more easily accessible from the Digital Concert Hall site (maybe it’s there, I just can’t seem to find it).

And finally, at the end, an ad for Sir Simon Rattle’s CD of the Brahms work which was just performed. Assuming this was something negotiated with EMI for the ability to stream the work and/or Sir Simon Rattle’s performance of it?

Kudos to the Berliner Philharmoniker for venturing into this new territory (hooray!), and to their sponsors for supporting the project and therefore facilitating my remote viewing of the lovely concert!