Friday afternoon Milwaukee‘s Discover World hosted a live performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra via Internet2. The Philadelphia Orchestra Association is a member of Internet2.
The HD video concert was projected in Discovery World’s Digital Theater which provides viewers with a spectacular 27foot wide high definition image with a 2048×1920 resolution picture.
Early arrival at Discovery World
The Philadelphia Orchestra is the first major orchestra to transmit live concerts to multiple large screen venues such as Discovery World. The live broadcast uses an MPEG 2 compressed stream running at bandwidths exceeding 50 times that of conventional internet video streams. For this concert performance only 20 venues around the world participated.
Performances in the Global Concert Series provide the audience with an up-close look at the musicians and conductor, in views not seen by live audiences. The live concert is transmitted using seven high definition cameras installed in Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. The first performance was Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. I’ve blogged about Mozart before and was thrilled to watch (and listen) to his work.
This event and concert series provides proof that art performances and exhibitions belong on Internet2, extending the local reach globally to audiences in real-time who simply cannot travel, yet want the experience.
But this was not just a watch only event. Philadelphia’s concert series supports live questions to their host via email (of course) and supports questions via text messaging. Audience participation included a live interview with Orchestra musicians before the concert and included an extensive interview with particularly noted conductor Charles Dutiot during intermission.
This provides an excellent educational lesson to novices and series music students. The series provides Philadelphia an opportunity to connect with venues around the world in their supported “Continue the Discussion” forums with musicians, conductors, and guest artists on-line following the performance. Philadelphia’s Orchestra is leading and engaging a broader, global community from local school groups to retirement communities and extending their community to new patrons.
The Global Concert Series, begun in September 2007 is made possible through a partnership among the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Internet2 Consortium. Local support comes from WiscNet and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Discovery World is another WiscNet member connecting and delivering dynamic content via Interent2.
UPDATE: UDelaware is joining the broadcast for on-campus performance
Tags: Internet2, network, Philadelphia Orchestra, Concert Performance, Milwaukee, Discovery World, global education, digital theater, HD video, Mozart, trends