In an earlier posting, I discussed the use of TelePresence for some orchestral auditions for the Southbank Sinfonia in London, where instead of flying musicians in for 15 minute auditions - with the consequent effect on the organisation's carbon footprint - they appeared on the other side of the screen playing 'at home' in Glasgow, Madrid, Auckland and New York thanks to some collaboration with BT and Cisco.
Here is the video of some of the auditions, including Southbank Sinfonia's explanation for how they decided to do the collaborative project.
Subscribe to this blog
I did a product launch with networking equipment partners using telepresence at Bell Canada faciliites in Toronto and Montreal over 20 years ago. The real revolution in the performing arts is taking place at the low end using YouTube and VoIP. Take for example the YouTube Symphony Orchestra (of which I'm a member) where jurors screened 3000 videos of classical musicians, out of which were chosen 200 to go before a public vote after which, Michael Tilson Thomas chose the final 96 musicians to perform on April 15 at Carnegie Hall.
There are more examples of small pop/rock/jazz bands and dance troupes using the medium to screen candidates. In music, near perfect audio or video fidelity isn't required to establish whether a musician plays in time, hits all the notes or plays with sensitivity. That can be determined asynchronously too. Audition tapes for pre-screening have been in use for decades. There are those who say that the pressure of a real-time audition is necessary - but the pressure of a recording can be just as great, if not greater than a live session with a supportive, albeit remote, audience.
There's a video of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra up on the BBC.