Setting up

The mutual concert between Oslo and Trondheim at the schools on November 27th, and it’s successful end result represents the end of a long process which we were trained in the many aspects of playing together over the portal. We have learned about sound and acoustics, about amplification and mixing, video, audio, and network systems, cognition, perception, and last and not least, team work. I feel that the team worked very well and pulled through considering all the technical difficulties. In a way, I feel we all took part in a small historical event, where two groups of high-school students, in two separate locations, managed to play together.

The difficulties we faced were mainly with the amplification systems at the Oslo School (Dante), and the IP and Port configurations and access. Each problem took its own special attention and time, but everybody was helpful and patient and we managed to solve all problems right to the last minute. We even managed to have a short soundcheck before the official concert started. Although I wish we had more time for testing and adjusting (LOLA, Sound, Visual), I am aware that this has been a real breakthrough which we learned a lot from. For future events like this I would recommend to dedicate more time for testing, to bring our own mixer or be very familiar with the equipment available at the location.

In terms of the music and playing over the portal, I think that the musicians did a great job. Even when experiencing difficulties in latency and sound, the drummer in Oslo realized that he is the driving force when it comes to holding the beat and managed to stay constant with the tempo. After telling the musicians in Trondheim to try to play on top of the beat, they were successful in doing so and the feeling of time got better in terms of synchronization, at least for us, the listeners. I would have loved to have the option to check what was the actual latency between the two locations. To my trained ear, and being familiar with the genre and the songs performed, I must add that I was very impressed with the skill and level of the musicians who performed.

Here is a short video clip I took of the phone that was controlling the 360 GoPro camera which was placed on stage.