Performers form first 'Wi-Fi orchestra' with a remote conductor
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Musicians playing for money in tube stations may have to up their game because now there's a Wi-Fi orchestra on the scene.
Using Wi-Fi signal on the New York subway, 11 buskers performed together, led by a conductor above ground.
They used an array of connected laptops, smartphones and headphones, which took two hours to set up, to perform the musical feat.
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Using Wi-Fi signal on the New York subway, 11 musicians performed together, led by a conductor above ground. Lev Zhurbin can be seen here facing an array of laptops to conduct the musicians
The live experiment, involving musicians playing at nine stations, was arranged by Chris Shimojima, a writer, director and editor living in New York City.
They played a piece called 'Signal Strength' by Russian composer and conductor Lev Zhurbin, who is known as Ljova.
Each performer wore headphones to hear their fellow musicians and could see a smartphone screen so that they could follow the directions of the composer, while the device could transmit their work in real-time, using the Wi-Fi signal.
Each performer wore headphones to hear their fellow musicians based in other locations and could see a smartphone screen so they could follow the directions of the composer and the device could transmit their work using Wi-Fi signal. Here players of the trumpet, djembe and shekere and pictured
The musicians played a piece called 'Signal Strength' by Russian composer ans conductor Lev Zhurbin. This is the view that he saw when he was conducting the disparate groups of remote performers
Instruments included an accordion, bass, cello, viola and trumpet, as well as more unusual ones such as a beat box, Theremin, and African instruments the djembe and shekere.
A Theremin is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer using hand gestures.
The musicians were simultaneously connected to the conductor so they could see his hand movements and he could check they were playing in time and in tune.
In a square in the middle of the city in Bryant Park, Ljova conducted the 11 musicians by standing in front of 11 laptops with their cameras turned on, that were connected to Skype.
It took eight takes to get it right thanks to a few hitches with the Wi-Fi connections,Yahoo News reported.
While music fans can see the final result in the video and a Sound Cloud clip, listeners in the subway would not have got the full effect.
They would only have heard the lone sound of one instrument, meaning that the performance would have sounded different – and sparse – depending on which instrument they passed.
The musicians were simultaneously connected to the conductor so they could see his hand movements and he could check they were playing in time and in tune (pictured)
Put the internet to work for you.
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