Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Shrinking the carbon footprint with a "virtual" tour

Using technology only available at certain universities, jazz musicians are performing together from different geographic locations.

UCSD's contrabass virtuoso Mark Dresser strikes boldly into the world of technology in a series of concerts coordinated from the UC campus, with a core quartet featuring flutist Nicole Mitchell, trombonist Michael Dessen, and pianist Myra Melford--performing live in real time with groups based in Amherst, MA, (April 5, 7 pm with saxophonists Jason Robinson, Marty Ehrlich & drummer Bob Weiner), Zurich, Switzerland (April 6, 12 pm, with drummer Gerry Hemingway & flutist Mathias Ziegler), and Stony Brook, NY (April 7, 4pm with trombonist Ray Anderson, Pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, drummer Matt Wilson and laptop musician Doug Van Nort).

This concept is called "telematics" and it involves live performances between musicians in different geographic locations via the Internet2 and super-bandwidth, high-definition audio and video hardware. There are large screens and high-fidelity audio systems at each location to enable the performers to see and hear each other, and these shows have been dubbed: Virtual Tour: A Reduced Carbon Footprint Concert Series.

Imagine Skype on steroids, with a little Star Trek tossed in for good measure and you're on your way to getting the idea. It depends on the kind of high-speed networks and highly trained audio/video personnel currently only available at select universities.

"Telematic music requires coordination of technology, administration and artistic levels," says Dresser. "There were literally three months of tech testing before our first musical rehearsal. 15 musicians over 4 cities, 2 continents, 3 different time-zones as well as the 9 different composers who have generated 12 new works for these concerts.

"When we're rehearsing the music or testing the technology, we're using the same high bandwidth, high-speed fiber optic networks available to us at UCSD. But for multi-site meetings to discuss logistics or talking through scores we use Skype or Google chat."

Telematic concerts operate at a transmission frequency just below the speed of light, so the farther away the geographic locations, the more pronounced the latency, (delay). I asked Dresser how that plays into a live performance.

"Even with the super-bandwidth, delay is a reality of distance and we have employed different musical solutions to minimize and embrace that delay. More often than not, we find solutions to create the illusion of synchrony."

"Just as recording technology transformed jazz in the early 20th century by allowing improvisations to be captured and shared outside of local regions," says co-producer Dessen. "21st century advancements now provide options for musicians to mine the environmental benefits of networking technologies--by rehearsing via the internet over a period of many months, a body of music can be developed that would otherwise require multiple flights, saving thousands of dollars, scores of travel hours and much fossil fuel."

Photo by Anthony Cecena

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Mang Tomas, banana ketchup barred in San Diego

What will happen to Filipino Christmas here?
Next Article

Time’s up for Doubletime Recording Studio

Owner Jeff Forrest is trading El Cajon for Portugal

UCSD's contrabass virtuoso Mark Dresser strikes boldly into the world of technology in a series of concerts coordinated from the UC campus, with a core quartet featuring flutist Nicole Mitchell, trombonist Michael Dessen, and pianist Myra Melford--performing live in real time with groups based in Amherst, MA, (April 5, 7 pm with saxophonists Jason Robinson, Marty Ehrlich & drummer Bob Weiner), Zurich, Switzerland (April 6, 12 pm, with drummer Gerry Hemingway & flutist Mathias Ziegler), and Stony Brook, NY (April 7, 4pm with trombonist Ray Anderson, Pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, drummer Matt Wilson and laptop musician Doug Van Nort).

This concept is called "telematics" and it involves live performances between musicians in different geographic locations via the Internet2 and super-bandwidth, high-definition audio and video hardware. There are large screens and high-fidelity audio systems at each location to enable the performers to see and hear each other, and these shows have been dubbed: Virtual Tour: A Reduced Carbon Footprint Concert Series.

Imagine Skype on steroids, with a little Star Trek tossed in for good measure and you're on your way to getting the idea. It depends on the kind of high-speed networks and highly trained audio/video personnel currently only available at select universities.

"Telematic music requires coordination of technology, administration and artistic levels," says Dresser. "There were literally three months of tech testing before our first musical rehearsal. 15 musicians over 4 cities, 2 continents, 3 different time-zones as well as the 9 different composers who have generated 12 new works for these concerts.

"When we're rehearsing the music or testing the technology, we're using the same high bandwidth, high-speed fiber optic networks available to us at UCSD. But for multi-site meetings to discuss logistics or talking through scores we use Skype or Google chat."

Telematic concerts operate at a transmission frequency just below the speed of light, so the farther away the geographic locations, the more pronounced the latency, (delay). I asked Dresser how that plays into a live performance.

"Even with the super-bandwidth, delay is a reality of distance and we have employed different musical solutions to minimize and embrace that delay. More often than not, we find solutions to create the illusion of synchrony."

"Just as recording technology transformed jazz in the early 20th century by allowing improvisations to be captured and shared outside of local regions," says co-producer Dessen. "21st century advancements now provide options for musicians to mine the environmental benefits of networking technologies--by rehearsing via the internet over a period of many months, a body of music can be developed that would otherwise require multiple flights, saving thousands of dollars, scores of travel hours and much fossil fuel."

Photo by Anthony Cecena

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mark Dresser keeps on steppin'

Jazz bassist puts a bicoastal band together for this year's Sedimental You
Next Article

Record-release roundup

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader