Digital Concert Hall

The Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is a user-friendly active web site which stores and offers (rsp. transmits on demand) the concerts of the Berlin philharmonic orchestra to users, for passive participation with the concert quasi-online on the orchestra's stage. This is of course liable to pay costs, but these are quite moderate, although the quality of the transmitted concerts is very high.

The transmission is per livestreaming on a high-definition video basis.

History

The Digital Concert Hall was founded at the end of 2008. ^[1] The Berlin Philharmonic has done pioneering work by establishing this institution. There was support by powerful economic companies (the "Deutsche Bank", the "Sony Ltd.", the "Deutsche Grammophon", and others).

The institution has been awarded with the LeadAward 2009 in the category 'WebTV', in gold, and with the DMMA OnlineStar 2009, in bronze.

Purpose

Almost all of the typically 40 concerts per year of the Berlin Philharmonic in their famous Hans Scharoun concert building (called "Zirkus Karajani" by the Berlin people, after the conductor Herbert von Karajan, because the musicians of the orchestra are here surrounded on all sides by the auditory, similar to the artists in a circus) are stored by this digital concert hall. Then, after some postprocessing as with a Hollywood product, they are offered to (or transmitted to) the web audience. Also concerts at other places, e.g. in Japan or Taiwan, are included.

There are additionally short documentations as, e.g., the films Rhythm Is It! and Trip to Asia, and also contributions from the educational program of the Berlin Philharmonic, or interviews with the conductor or soloists of the concert.

The additional documentations, and also the concert "trailers", are usually free of fee, whereas for the genuine concerts there are fees on a several-day basis, either for a 7-day, or for a 30-day, or for a 365-day period.^[2] There is also an "abonnement" ticket which is automatically prolonged from one month to the next, unless one cancels the arrangement.

The comprehensive all-included concert-archive (more than 800 pieces!) contains mainly the current concerts (most often led by the present chief conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, but also by guest conductors). However, it also contains less recent concerts, e.g., many concerts led by Claudio Abbado, who was chief conductor of the orchestra until 2004. ^[3]

Since July 2014, the archive of the Digital Concert Hall also contains, besides livestreams of more recent concerts of the orchestra, also a collection of archived concerts (reinforced films of highest acoustical and optical quality) of the 1960s and early 1970s, where the orchestra is led by Herbert von Karajan, then the chief conductor. These archive concerts fully display Karajan's masterhood, as well as that of his musicians. And one can compare different acoustical and optical interpretations; e.g., of Beethoven's "Pastorale" by Karajan (1971), by Claudio Abbado (2001) and by Sir Simon Rattle (2013).

Technology

To get the moving images, e.g. of the musicians and/or of the conductor, during the concerts, seven high-definition video cameras have been installed above the orchestra's stage of Hans Scharoun´s Berlin concert hall. These cameras, and also the microphones for the sound, can be moved by computerized programs.^[4]

The audio is transmitted at a rate of 256 Kilobit per second, the code corresponds to stereo Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) at 48 Kilohertz. For the image reconstruction the optimal choice for the user is automatically and instantaneously selected from five qualities offered. The coding corresponds to the H.264 standard (see below).^[5] The quality selection is performed automatically according to the available momentary rate of the internet connection.^[6] The automatically selected quality is one of five possibilities:

• Very high: 2.5 MBit/s
• High: 2.1 MBit/s
• Medium: 1.5 MBit/s
• Low: 1.1 MBit/s
• Very low: 0,7 MBit/s

The transmitted concerts can thus be "enjoyed" (or not) as quasi-live events from the orchestra's stage, simply with all usual web browsers with two loudspeakers, or by television receivers or Blue Ray-players with the appropriate equipment.

External links

• The Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic: a typical extremely long example with costs (Bruckner's completed Symphony No. 9, 3/2 hours)
• The free online-AudioVideo of a complete concert of the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle with Beethoven's 4th and Mahler's 1st sinfonies (Aug. 2010)

References