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Musicians play choro at a distance during the 19th SBRC

During the official opening of the 19th Brazilian Symposium of Computer Networks (SBRC),in Florianópolis,on May 22, one of the experiments carried out was unprecedented in terms of scientific events in the country. Two guitar players performed live. The novelty lay in the fact that one of them was in an auditorium at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, where the event was held, whereas the other was miles of kilometers away, in RNP's Support Unit in Brasília, DF, and the show was transmitted through the Internet.

In Brasília, seventy-year-old Manuel Vasconcelos was accompanied by Mauro Ricardo Reis da Silva, in Florianópolis, while playing "Cochichando", a choro ( Brazilian music style)composed by Pixinguinha. The performance lasted about 3 minutes. The images were recorded in both places and transmitted in MPEG-2 format (the standard format of digital trasmissions on cable TVs) by RNP2, using a differentiated service in order to prioritize the transmission traffic. The experiment involved the PoPs in Distrito Federal and Santa Catarina as well as the ReMAV in Florianópolis.

In Brasília, Manuel Vasconcelos, one of the founders of the local Choro Club, watched and listened to his partner by using the computer. In Florianópolis, Manuel's image was projected on a big screen while the sound system in the auditorium reproduced both players' audio.

A dialogue between Manuel Vasconcelos and a technician, minutes before the beginning of the performance, made the audience laugh.

- The sound comes after I play, claimed Manuel, while strumming the guitar, and wearing the headphones which would allow him to follow the return of the transmission.

- There is a difference because the sound is going and returning, explained the technician.

Manuel hesitated. Afterwards, he gave up the headphones and said he was ready, showing confidence in his music timing. In Florianópolis, the audience applauded Manuel's determination, while he started playing Pixinguinha's choro, accompanied by Mauro Ricardo in the sequence.

The technology, still premature, benefitted from the musicians' artistic courage. They faced their lack of familiarity with the resources and played, in spite of some timing flaws. At the end, they were applauded by the audience and made the experiment successful.

Two versions of the show are available, in RealVideo format. One has lower resolution so as to facilitate narrowband access, and the other has high resolution, for the users with broadband access. The files are about 6 minutes long and are in RealMedia format. The presentation has been published only to make the academic experiment known.

Watch the video with Pixinguinha's "Cochichando", played by Manuel Vasconcelos and Mauro Ricardo Reis da Silva during the official opening of the 19th SBRC, in Florianópolis, on May 22, 2001.

high resolution (alta resolução) (9.6 Mb)
low resolution (baixa resolução) (2.7 Mb)

[RNP, 06.08.2001]