For years, the mdw has been a leader in the testing and implementation of new streaming technologies. Considerable technological investment and quite some willingness to experiment on the part of all those involved are necessary in order to make possible and utilise high-quality audio and video transfer with the lowest possible latency for concerts, for remote lessons, and especially for musicians playing together live in different locations.
In October 2024, the full extent of what technology now permits in terms of streaming concerts live was impressively demonstrated at the Joy of Music Festival. Recent years had already witnessed cooperation between the mdw and this Hong Kong-based festival on live streams for concerts and competitions. But this time, some pivotal new facets were added: the Modular Video Transmission Platform (MVTP), a technology developed by the Czech provider CESNET, made it possible to stream musicians playing together in two European locations live to a concert hall in Hong Kong for the first time ever. mdw students at a studio in Vienna and students of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU) at a studio there joined forces to play excerpts from works by Haydn, Brahms, Martinů, and Šesták. Thereafter, this concert’s second part saw performances by an ensemble in the hall in Hong Kong streamed to spaces at the mdw and the HAMU. In order to enable truly live music-making across multiple locations, a low degree of latency—the time delay involved in digital transfer, measured in milliseconds—is essential. And while the MVTP already works quite well for playing together live within Europe, a shared performance by musicians in Vienna, Prague, and Hong Kong would still lie beyond what this technology can currently do. “With the distance to Hong Kong, the speed of light plays a role—and the rate of transfer becomes too slow. When you clap on such a stream, you hear an echo,” explains mdw faculty member Volker Werner, who bore primary responsibility for overseeing the mdw students and employees of the mdw’s AV Center.
For the Joy of Music Festival, mdw student Felicia Bulenda performed a clarinet duet with a colleague from the HAMU. “I had a headphone on one ear and nothing on the other so that I could hear myself reasonably well. I saw the Prague-based student on a screen. It was an unusual experience, playing in one room with lots of cameras and having zero perception of the concert hall,” says Bulenda. Where everyday musical life is concerned, she views streaming options as being relevant above all to prepping for auditions and working with accompanists who aren’t present onsite.
Streaming is no replacement for the classic concert experience. However, “Digital auditions where musicians stream from comparable acoustic settings in a number of worldwide locations would help make things a good deal easier and fairer,” thinks Werner. Moreover, eliminating travel from the equation by switching to digital participation would also eliminate CO2 emissions as well as social barriers stemming from the cost of travel.
To facilitate remote coaching sessions, the mdw offers a space that is specially equipped with the appropriate technology. “If students and faculty members have an easy time using technology to connect digitally with musical partners, it helps lessen scepticism towards remote coaching. Which is not to say that this could ever replace personal encounters,” remarks Christoph Stuhlpfarrer, Digitisation Coordinator for Higher Education Didactics at the mdw. Expanding infrastructure and conducting research with an eye to enhancing the quality of streaming systems are matters with which all major arts universities are currently being confronted. To this end, the mdw is currently involved in a research project together with London’s Royal Academy of Music: “Here, we’re analysing interactions between musicians as they make music together via the MVTP. Bodily movements and non-verbal reactions are documented in detail in order to get a better impression of how usable this technology is,” explains Stuhlpfarrer.
The mdw’s participation in ongoing projects pertaining to low-latency technology such as the MVTP and expanded live streaming possibilities is owed above all to its development strategy: “In the European Universities Alliance IN.TUNE, in collaboration within the Global Conservatoire initiative, and in several bilateral cooperative efforts within and outside of Europe, optimising digital collaboration options at the highest artistic level will play a crucial role in meeting the associated objectives,” says Johannes Meissl, Vice Rector for International Affairs and Art. “And in view of the climate crisis,” he adds, “our ability to provide students with a broader range of studies-related options and enhance mobility within these alliances and instances of cooperation will hinge largely on the functionality and availability of crucial resources such as these.”
