Abstract:

Although music is predominantly an acoustic event, the importance of visual cues should not be underestimated. In this paper, a number of observations will be presented that were derived both from laboratory experiments and ongoing music collaborations over the Internet. Different requirements exist for networked music performances than for telematic speech conferences for which most Internet‐based telecommunication systems have been developed. For example, audio∕visual synchronicity is essential for speech applications, but it was often found advantageous to run the audio ahead of the video in networked music performances to minimize the audio delay, which needs to be below a critical value if the remote ensembles perform together rhythmically. Other aspects of speech and music applications are very similar, for example, the need to exchange documents, which are in the case of music predominantly music scores. In the common telepresence approach, it is typically asked how realistic the recreated environment has to be for satisfying results. In this paper, an alternative, more abstract approach based on virtual functionality will be discussed that also includes the integration of music scores into the virtual environment. [Work supported by NSF Grant 0757454.]