The Modern Audio Network

 During this time of the COVID pandemic, technology has been pushed even further to the forefront. For safety conscious musician, engineers, producers, and artists in general, technology is being sought to bridge the distance of time and space. Musical artists in general are having an exceedingly difficult time trying top cope with the lack of live performances, rehearsal gatherings, and just plain making music with other musicians. There's always the "virtual" choir, band, ensemble, etc., but those aren't the same as playing together and feeding off each others' ideas and energy. Conventional video chat services suffer from so much latency, keeping time is impossible. With two people, it is possible to keep steady time with one playing along with the other's performance. However, that boils down to a one-way dialog. There are few options out on the internet for being able to collaborate with fellow musicians. 

Most of those options involve reliable internet connections with computer specs and software pushing the  musician out of the role of artist and into the role of IT specialist. There are promising new upstart services which are making progress in breaking down that technology barrier for artists. JamKazam is one platform which is making that headway. It has some basic computer requirements, but the one that gets most people is the wired ethernet. WiFi simply doesn't cut it. it's too inconsistent. With the proper configuration, however, it's possible to connect with band mates and rehearse. It's also possible to network (remember all my puns are intended) with other musicians on JamKazam. It's free to get started. Why not give it a try?

Another idea is something audio people have known about for a long time. It is possible to use a multi-track recording facility to keep a safe distance. Wind players and singers need iso (isolation) booths more than they have to contain the aerosols they project. Most studios with these capabilities were hard-wired and designed to isolate each musician acoustically.  This doesn't seem like it's very practical, though. These studios are usually pretty expensive and they might not want to open their studios up to just anyone. What else to do?

I happen to work in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Over the summer we were tasked with finding a way to provide a safe way for ensembles to make music. The solution we came up with centered around Aundinate's Dante audio networking technology. Dante converts digital audio into IP packets which is then transmitted over standard networking equipment. Using the existing infrastructure of our buildings, we were able to connect multiple rooms together with extremely low-latency audio (<10ms). In one building 10 separate rooms are connected allowing up to 10 wind players and singers to play music together. In another building, the main performance hall is connected with several other rooms. 

The audio quality of Dante is also very good. One one occasion, two opera singers were recording their parts in two separate rooms to be included in an animated opera production. On another occasion, a Jazz rhythm section was rehearsing with a sax player in another room. The instructors, who are also recording artists, commented on how great everything sounded. It seems we had found a working solution. 

Audinate has another level of Dante which works over the internet. They've been able to successfully connect a couple of radio DJ's in separate states with low-latency audio. There's even talk of Dante connecting multiple campuses of a state university system. Which state is unknown, but the idea is very exciting. 

The internet isn't quite at the stage where we can don a haptic suit and jump into VR space with our band mates and jam as if we were all together. I'm thrilled that it's a possibility and may actually happen in some form during my lifetime. The possibilities are endless. Can you imagine what kind of light show can happen at a virtual concert? These would make the holographic performances now on tour seem like child's play. We've got a ways to go, and I'm excited to get there!