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Realtime Concert Program Notes on a PDA
PoisonousPhat writes "NPR has an article on a new idea for concertgoers at the Aspen Music Festival. Dubbed the 'Concert Companion', the concept used a PDA (a Sony Clie PEG-NX73V for those of you that MUST know) as a 'listener's guide...that updates you with information about what you're hearing, in real time.' The concept seems similar to the audio headsets available in museum tours. Read the bleeping article here."
the Sony Clie PEG-NX73V can be found here
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Yeah and theatre geeks are upset.
I sit on the fence. On one hand, I would find it horribly distracting to have a gadget in front of me. However, it's nearly as distracting as all of the other people in the world who are so important that they need to be fucking with their cell phones at every moment of the day. Perhaps the PDA would at least turn their attention away from a device that does a poor rendition of Beethoven's Fifth everytime someone calls.
A billion PDAs beeping while I'm trying to listen to an orchestra. I hope they take the speakers out of these things.
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
you are still listening to crap...
EOL
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
http://www.globalzone.se/ and
http://www.wip.se/mobiletourismo/
have almost the same product but in Sweden.
Get a bloody booklet about the concert before the concert and read that. Keep your shitty, glowing, backlit crap out of theaters. Cell-phones are bad enough
if you took the TIME to go all the way to a concert, you're not going to have to have a PDA tell you what you're listening to... It's not like the guy standing right next to you won't know, either...
Next thing they are going to stream you the video of the concert to you PDA!!!
-- are there any games on it in case the performance sucks?
My favorite piece from the concert was "Your Battery is Low!" but I also liked "Unexpected Application Error."
I suppose this will appeal to the same sort of people that like to go to big concerts and watch the band on video screens.
Reality is so much better.
Before you know it the same people will be checking their email on these devices at the same time.
Read Epic the first RPG novel.
preload the score on the devices and broadcast a synchronization signal? (you'd probably need somebody to follow the score somewhere and, say, tap a key every 8 measures, don't think it could be done automatically).
The screen is a bit small but with a half-vga resolution (320x480) in landscape mode it should be feasible to show 2-3 staffs and at least 3-4 measures.
The user would probably also be able to select what instruments they're interested in (say, violins & brass, or choir & organ, or whatever) because you wouldn't obviously be able to show all the staffs at the same time.
I'd find this much more useful than comments like the ones written in the article.
-- the cake is a lie
With an increase in pdas, the guys tuning into sports (whatever the wireless tech) when their wives take them out to get some culture won't stand out so much in the crowd now.
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
into a concert once PDA microphones come into market.
not sure Beethoven would write his symphonies if he knew what texts in realtime will accompany their performances 200 years later...
We could have saved sixpence. We have saved fivepence.
I'd certainly prefer it over one of those little hand held talking things like you can get at the National Gallery in DC. :\
But what was wrong with paper? guess their just trying to save a few trees.
I've seen PDA's used for guides for conferences, seminars etc.. and they always seem like overkill. But I like the techy stuff as mutch as the next guy and I've been looking for a reason to use those little dinks so bring on the toys hehe.
[stupid]
Wonder if the'll be supported at the next metallica concert 'round here
[/stupid]
"Oh... There it goes... my brain stopped" - Ed from Ed, Edd, and Eddy.
I got a few things to put on there.
In former times people would have had a pamphlet, now they will have a $400 (retail) backlit display. When epaper becomes commonplace, I can see this taking off. Until then, I can't believe that this is more than a gimmick (which they seem to admit in the article.)
Too expensive ($450), too many features, and not too well suited for renting out (not especially rugged, too desirable for theives).
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
...make going to an opera more bearable, as you could read the subtitles, possibly get a whole page of the script so you could glance down at the translation to understand what's going on.
But then again, it's still opera.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
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for classical music this seems like a distraction (to you and those around you). On the other hand translation for opera seems like a natural for something like this - sort of personal subtitles ....
they do something similar at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. you are offered a handset that resembles a phone and each peice of art in a given exibition has a number you can key in to hear some info. my wife loves these as she feels she's getting more of the 'art experience.' i'm lukewarm at best as i'd rather just look at art--and by extension listen to music. but to each his own....
except for the bastards that turn the volume up all the way so they can hold it a foot away from their heads like a nextel phone. thne i'm walking through having to listen to 3 or 4 of these things, all set to different messages by people that aren't really even paying attention. and i'm sure these pdas will be the same....an inordinate amount of time will be spent adjusting displays and gabbing with the person in the next seet about how to do something.
!(^((ri)|(mp))aa$)
Listen to this...this is where the violin section can never quite get the staccato right. Hear that? See, it should sound like this...[MIDI plays, loudly]
Oooh, now here comes the soloist. Did you know she's having an affair with the conductor? And they're both married! Can you believe it? I KNOW!
Ahhh, I love this next part. It reminds me of the time I went to Aspen. It's SO nice there. Have you ever been? [Click here to book a flight now!]
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I go to a museum to see the art, not be annoyed by loud, stupid people. I go to a show to hear the music, not be annoyed by flashing PDAs and stupid people.
for me anyway, is heading to the bowl during the summer with my wife and a picnic basket containing a good bottle of wine, some bread, cheese and roasted chicken.
Turn off your damn PDA/cell/pager and if you are so important that you HAVE to be reachable at least set it to vibrate, nobody needs to know that somone is trying to get ahold of you, but you. And walk away before starting your conversation, answer it and tell them to hold while you exit the performance area.
Courtesy of Mr. Tulip
Geeks start raising their PDA's over their heads with the backlights on as a safe alternative to using a lighter.
I want to read the article, but it's going to take me a few minutes until I figure out which of the dozen hyperlinks in the story submission actually GOES to the article.
Hyperlinks are like drugs; they can be addictive, they can make your life happier or worse, and perhaps most importantly, abuse of them ought to be punishable by law.
I do think real-time data delivery to some sort of handheld device is a very good piece of functionality. They [maybe used to] do it at Giants games at PacBell (SBC?) park. You could get stats on the current batter and pitcher as well as scores from other games around the league on your Palm. Very nice service.
The other day I was at the ALMS race at Laguna Seca and was craving a real-time view of the leader-board and lap times since we were too far away from the screens they have there to be able to see things. Turns out ALMS does offer a product that uses the Gameboy Advance to give you that information over radio-waves. Why not just send the same data over WiFi or GPRS?
The thing they use is icardus. Sorry for the plug. Never used it, and no affiliation.
--D
I'd steal the PDA, personally. Someone said these things cost $450. If that's true, why is it so expensive? Just buy a few used PDA's off ebay, I'm sure they would be less expensive. And no, these things in an orchestra would be too distracting, but using a PDA to display subtitles in an opera would be terrific.
...you will get to download kiddy porn during the bass solos!
I work at the Colorado Music Festival, and this year we implemented a similar concept. Our conductor was aware of the Aspen system, but hadn't been impressed with it. He felt that it distracted from the musical experience to have that much going on... I suspect it also had a little to do with people looking down instead of up at the orchestra.
At any rate, we elected to use a subtle projected numbering system that corresponded to each movement or theme. In the paper program for the concert, these themes/comments/history were listed. We called it "Keeping Score". (Yeah, I know...)
It was a brilliant success, however. The festival saw something like a 10% attendance/revenue increase this season. For a Colorado arts organization, that's huge: Our governor removed all funding for the arts this year, including blocking millions of dollars in matching funds from the National Endowment. Arts orgs in the state have been collapsing left and right.
I think that having a cheap solution like Aspen implemented is fantastic for smaller orchestras. Don't get me wrong, CMF is pretty big, but it's no Aspen. I'd love to see both options next season though -- a subtle projector *and* a handheld option. We had a few pieces this year that had opera or spoken parts which we were able to project English translations for; I'd love to be able to push different languages to our international attendees.
++
In my local newspaper, I think.
Canthros
Unless, that is, you want a SWAT team ready to jump anyone who takes little CoCo to the bathroom.
With a $450 piece of hardware, the only solution is to get a credit card deposit. This presents its own set of hassles.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
If orchestras buy this new technology, you may be able to rent a Concert Companion PDA for $7 or $10 at a concert hall near you as soon as the fall of 2004.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Let's take the idea we had to get people listening to the music in the first place, and then charge people extra money for it. With marketing sense like this I'm not *surprised* they're going out of business.
It'd be like an airline proclaiming "Now, all our seats have TVs mounted in them, so you can watch video without straining your eyes, or play video games! Note: TVs require a $25 fee to use." Yeah, wonderful. If you were offering it for free I'd be interested, and more people would use your airline (wasn't that the reason to install them in the first place?), but as it is, why bother?
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
chances are their PDA's and Cell phones will be one and the same, so they will simply look at the program notes while they are talking on their phone (in speaker phone mode of course) while setting their ringtones to match the song that is currently playing.
Personally I like to read the program notes before the orchestra starts to play, and somehow I'm thinking there's not much you need to add on-the-fly to your notes about the Symphonie Fantastique. What's the breaking news?
This sort of thing would make tons more sense for sports events, where drilling down to see someone's stats against this pitcher (or whatever) would add to your experience without detracting from others'. For concerts? We're replacing rustling paper with the chit chits of styluses scrabbling over PDAs, but what did we gain, again?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I know I'm a cultureless slob
Extended Warranty? How can I lose!
Tech Geek: "See, honey?"
PDA: "Foul ball"
Tech Geek: "It's cool because you can read in realtime..."
PDA: "Headed for the stands."
Tech Geek: "... about what's going on in the..."
[Thunk]
Announcer: "Oooh, that's gotta hurt."
We miss your longer rants! Please, oh please, bring them back!
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It's a good, valid question.
Related to this, it might be nice to have instant access to interactive statistics and scoring at during games in real time through a PDA.
Why not just provide an ebook of the program guide and let people look at it at their leisure. Man this makes going to a concert so clinical and sterile. Use your fucking imagination for once!
"Presented on a PDA (personal digital assistant), the Concert Companion's key feature is the "loser's guide to the music" that updates you with information about what you're peeing on, in real time. As the music plays, a computer hidden in a corner of the hall uses wireless technology to transmit signals to your T&A..."
The EMP in Seattle uses this mechanism and it works rather well.
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I'm not surprised at all that the orchestras are going bankrupt. If the music's so complicated that people need Cliff Notes to figure out what to listen for during the piece, something's wrong. Either the orchestra sucks and the parts are not standing out on their own, or the sound system sucks and we can't hear what they're doing. I don't think a little PDA guide is the way to go. However, it's a neat idea and would be good for other events, like maybe opera or baseball, like some other posters suggested.
Note: I'm not a classical music fan really, I'm not the target audience. But I will say that the concerts I go to are fun enough without an explanation as to what to enjoy. I can figure that out on my own. Even really complicated music that I would go see, like Dillinger Escape Plan, can stand on its own without notes. I guess, in summation, I wouldn't rent these PDAs, but heck, if some people want to, why not.
hmm. not exactly flamebait. this guy's got a point you know...
Why not show the comments alongside or behind the orchestra on a projector screen? Tastefully done, it could even become part of the performance (suitable colors, scenes, or shapes). Sort of like pop/country concerts do with bigscreens, except these would actually intertwine interesting facts instead of the artist's latest video.
Seems like a single screen would be much cheaper than loaning everyone a PDA.
What worked better the next year was a Kiosk-style computers setup at a booth where we created a website that had infinitely more data than a program notes could hold.. including extended bio's, video's of selected scenes from that same night (we had a killer fast rig for video editing and we took in certain scenes via firewire and compressed them lightly (because the site was on a local server) and then quickly threw them onto the site.) THAT was the best feature that the judges really appreciated. They loved the ability to review scenes of the play they had just watched.
That was a USEFUL blending of technology with an ancient artform. As a result of that, the judges were able to better write an accurate review and they typically only wrote about the scenes that we video-taped for them. :) It was an exercise in marketing and "suggesting" what people remember about the plays!!
ControlBooth.com
Technical Theater Made Easy!
Take a look at what Purdue Univeristy has done:
o ttum.eathletics.html
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/030906.B
Should be no spaces in the actual URL
"Boilermaker football fans at Purdue University's Ross-Ade Stadium this fall will be able to score up-to-the-minute statistics, player and coach biographies and other electronic "infotainment" using personal digital assistants (PDAs) while cheering on the home team."
This information seems more useful to me.
According to the FCC, you can say 'fucking' now... (pdf)
How about you listen to the music, watch the band, interact with those around you... that's the reason for going to a concert, afterall.
The glow of a PDA wouldn't bother me, but the asshole using it would. For example, I was at a concert in July, and some douchebag was complaining that I was blocking his view. The jackass was actually sitting down (he's lucky not to have been trampled) and talking on his cell phone. Sitting down is bad enough, but to actually be on the phone at a fucking concert defies all reason. So, without discussing it, me and this big fat guy both hammered him really good. Everyone nearby was pleased with that.
Also, I'd never bring my PDA (assuming I would ever own a PDA) to a concert, since I wouldn't want it getting broken.
Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
This is a great concept that will probably take a while to mature. Probably all of you have heard Beethoven's 9th, but how many of you know that the surprising F major cadence in the Scherzo was the first time that harmonic change was presented in a major work? My point is, if you have that in a printed program, you'll never be able to locate it during the hour+ performance, but if you have a text message that states it will be heard in the next 30 seconds or so, you give the listener a possible scaffolding for creating a richer listening experience.
You can put down museum audio guides, and I personally find many people spend more time reading the description than looking at the painting it refers to, but 30 years ago paintings often didn't even have title/artist placards. It was not art presented for popular consumption but for the proles.
The museum education movement is wonderful-at SFMOMA, there are kiosks to sit at beside exhibits, they often have a few copies of the catalogue, along with several computers to allow interested patrons to learn more. Some may find it distracting, for them I say go early on a weekday when you're more likely to have the place to yourself.
At it's root, this movement holds that perception must be educated, that you don't just soak in great art like a hot tub. Although you may enjoy works you see and hear, part of what makes them great is the ability to enjoy them many times, on many levels.
As for music, I think that, particularly with new works, there are many things that could be presented to subtly and tastefully enhance the experience of the listener. One could follow the form, or receive information about subtle harmonies or aspects that were then unconventional.
I'll concede that it might help new concertgoers or people trying to learn about a given piece of music for the first time. I can really see a place for it in music-appreciation classes or even some music theory classes.
For myself I'd have to rank the idea right down there near the bottom with those projected subtitles they give you at the opera. I don't even think I'd enjoy it at a football game.
One good way to attract concertgoers and stave off bankruptcy for any more symphony orchestras might be to spend an equivalent amount of money on putting a little music education back in the primary and secondary schools.
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First, this will only go somewhere with people who are aficionados of the music they are listening to. Thinking that it will create new listeners because it gives them more detail is like telling me I'll like this guacamole because the salsa in it has cilantro. I fucking hate avocados, and you won't convince someone who doesn't like to listen to classical because there is some interesting part of the music, because they can watch a PDA at a concert.
Look at Metallica and their classical gig. I'm sure Metallica freaks were all over it. In terms of your general trashy Ratt listener who owns one Metallica album, the classical one is not the next one they're going to buy.
It's like trying to sell slashdot subscriptions to an IT manager with a business degree who doesn't care about tech when he gets home from his job.
Second, I go to the symphony to watch the symphony, not some cheesedick PDA screen that's going to give me error messages. I know that eventually, I'd find something that wasn't working and spend the whole concert trying to figure out what was wrong with my PDA. Or, I'd spend the time trying to get to shit I shouldn't, then my Girlfriend will punch my balls, take my PDA, and play solitaire at the concert I made her go to.
Third, I go to a concert to listen to the music cause, I like the music. Live notes would detract from the listening experience. I'd much rather have a recording with some annotations to see what is technically cool about the music I'm listening to. There are places technology and the internet just don't belong. I think this one goes in the dump with the dumb terminal on a microwave idea.
Another thing and most importantly, if there's going to be a link in a story that says read or look here, by god I want it to be a link. If everyday weren't amateur night on the front page, I imagine subscriber count would be higher.
In incomprehensible slashdot estonia, the non sig overlord's to your bow?
This isn't bad by itself, of course. Poetry with a 300 word vocabulary is pretty crappy (think nursey rhymes or bad rap). The development of this new vocabulary for music helps make it more expressive, but at the same time less accessible.
People can still respond to the purely emotional parts of a piece like Beethoven's 9th, the majority sit there twidling their tumbs waiting for the "Ode to Joy" part to start. Why spend years listening to classical music and reading music theory when you can just pop in the latest nursery rhyme (e.g. Brittany) and get instant gratification?
I guess, the PDAs just treat the symptom and gives yuppies something to say at cocktail parties to make themselves look sophisticated, but the solution is better (maybe mandatory) music education in school.
Most shows ban recording devices.. so you can just carry this with you and claim you are getting the 'notes', that you really arent recording and broadcasting back to your car via bluetooth...
:)
Get a buddy and you can do stereo
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Frankly, I prefer Professor Peter Schickele's New Horizons in Music Appreciation as a way of distributing performance notes during a concert.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
...the theft problem is definitely surmountable.
I only brought it up as one reason not to try to emulate a simple device with an expensive, complex one.
Similarly, they could use Tablet PC's for audio tours of museums and for restaurant-queue-pagers. But they don't.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I think we will see a lot more of this type of technology in the future, where PDA's and other personal devices can provide more information on your surroundings. I think we'll see more of this sort of thing perhaps with sporting events. Imagine being able to look up a players stats at a football game; or recieving evacuation instructions on your cellphone when hurricane warnings go into effect.
I really like this idea and I've been implementing it myself with California traffic Information. It makes you PDA or cellphone much more useful to get you context'ed information in real-time.
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
Any PDA/Handheld computing device that can not only stay attached but survive the impact and environment (dirt, beer, puke, various other bodily fluids, etc) would be a VERY impressive bit of engineering that I wouldn't mind getting ahold of for field work.
Well, they need to consider renting batteries or chargers as well. New Sony PDAs, even underclocked using PXA Clocker won't work for 2 hours with active wireless.
So, I could watch a concert or opera, and maybe pause it and read up on a particular section, or get notes that way.
When I go out, it's different. I may sit at home and follow the libretto of an opera to understand it better, but I do that so I can enjoy it without watching the subtitle screen when I go out.