On the 29th of April 2015, an audience gathered at the Gothenburg Concert Hall in Sweden to watch 14 musicians at five locations all around Sweden playing live together over the Telia fibre optic network. The “Play Apart” experience was one quite unlike any other for the audience, who were presented with a unique partnership between the Swedish mobile network operator and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, which was brought together by DDB Stockholm.
The “Play Apart” experience saw musicians all across Sweden playing live together over the Telia fibre optic network
The project wasn't without its challenges. Orchestral music, of course, is a very complicated and delicate art, so to perform a concert online with members of the orchestra scattered across the country, the transmission of sound is absolutely vital, so the slightest delay could result in a mistake that would completely destroy the experience. Also, the sound had to be of a quality comparable to a CD and the image of the performers needed to be in perfect HD in order to provide the audience with a realistic and convincing concert experience. Telia decided, however, that the experiment could be an ideal platform from which to demonstrate that it is possible to work remotely with the right tools and a decent fibre optic connection.
Playing Apart
The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra does not normally send its musicians all over the country of course (they are called the Gothenburg Orchestra for a reason), but they couldn't pass up the opportunity to take part in a project this unique and this ambitious. Telia project manager Karolina Hülphers, said “We knew that putting the musicians in different places where they would not be able to see one another and asking them to perform the music with the same precision as if they had been sitting in a concert hall was a major challenge. As far as we know, this had never been done before.” The video footage (above) leads us to believe however that they were more than up to the challenge!
The sound had to be of a quality comparable to a CD and the image of the performers needed to be in perfect HD
Jörgen Odh of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, explained that the members of the orchestra were then sent to places as far apart as Åreskutan in Jämtland, Slottsskogen in Gothenburg and Smögen in Bohuslän. He said: “The musicians had to be able to hear the sound with absolutely no delay – easier said than done when they are more than 800 kilometres apart. And the quality of the audio and visuals had to be high enough to present the audience at Gothenburg Concert Hall with a realistic musical experience. These were two major challenges, and Telia did an absolutely fantastic job.” Malin Frenning, CEO of Telia in Sweden, added: “Digitisation is key to the strength of Swedish companies in the face of competition. This is why we are investing billions in the expansion of both fixed and mobile networks (primarily 4G and fibre) all over the country over a number of years.”
