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1. Introduction
Cyber performances are internet based live musical or theatrical events where the performers are split between two or more locations [1-3]. Audio and video from the performers are merged in real time in front of an audience. The collection and merger of the audio and video is typically enabled with specialized applications, such as UpStage [4]. Even with such applications, the collection and mixing of multiple audio and video feeds in real time remains complex.
As part of an ongoing effort to test new cyber performance capabilities, the APAN eCulture Working Group [5] has organized several past cyber performances [6]. In these events, the members of the performance and engineering team are constantly trying to find the best solution to overcome obstacles in performing arts over network. Issues include main-sub relation between stages and/or actors due to network delay such as latency, eye contact with actors, music synchronization between remote sites, communication with audiences.
Our attempt this time was to create a virtual stage using only one screen that will ‘gather’ all performers from remote sites in real-time with synchronized music.
The event occurred on August 12th 2014 began at 17:30 in Nantou, Taiwan. It was 11:30 in (Prague, Czech), 11:30 (Barcelona, Spain), 05:30 (Miami, USA). This cyber performance is known as Dancing Queen 2014: Dancing in Space (dQ14).
2. Methods
2.1. Participating Organizations
The APAN e-Culture Working Group depends on the tremendous support from engineers and artists who converge from all sites at the same time. This refers to network connections, video and audio transmission systems, music, choreography and the stage. This kind of cyber performance needs collaboration with partners and their engineers and artists to produce global-scale performance.
An e-mail group list was considered essential for partners and members to discuss issues on technical and aesthetical aspects. H.323 or Skype were used for the communications either in separate groups or together in a large group.
The list of partners, organizations and participants for this particular cyber performance are presented below in Tables 1-3.
2.2. Network
Connecting sites needs global collaborations. Figure 1 shows how the four participating sites were connected. Taipei to Amsterdam was connected with 10G for TX and 20G for RX through Chicago. Then each site (Nantou, Miami, Barcelona, and Prague) was connected from those
42
sites. 10G bandwidth was reserved for the 4K uncompressed video transmission between Nantou and Prague.
Table 1. Partners
Country Code Name Roll/Affiliation
NL Valentino Cavalli Acting Secretary General, TERENA
NL Peter Szegedi Project Development Officer, TERENA
BR Michael Anthony Stanton Network Engineer, RNP
BR Iara Machado Network Engineer, RNP
BR Leandro N. Ciuffo Network Engineer, RNP
BR Ivani Santana Choreographer, UFBA
AU Andrew Howard Co-chair of APAN e-Culture WG
AU Jeffrey Campbel APAN
AU George McLaughlin APAN
Table 2. Participating Organizations
Country Code Organization Full name
TW ASGC Academia Sinica Grids & Clouds
TW NCNU National Chi-nan University
TW ASCC Academia Sinica Computing Centre
TW MOE Ministry of Education
TW NCHC National Center for High-performance Computing
CZ CESNET Czech Research and Educational Network
CZ HAMU Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
ES i2CAT i2CAT Foundation - Audiovisual Unit
ES Kòniclab Kòniclab Association, Arts and New Tech.
US Internet2 The Arts and Humanities
US NWS New World Symphony
KR KAIST Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
KR KISTI Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information
43
Table 3. Participants: Network Engineers and Organizers
Country Code Name Roll/Affiliation
TW Dr. Kenny Huang The Chair of Network Sub-committee (LOC)
TW Hsin Yen Chen TWGrid
TW Vicky Huang TWGrid
TW Ms. Isabel Song TWGrid
TW Ms. Stella Shen TWGrid
TW Ethern Lin ASCC
TW Y.C. Chang NCNU
TW Yu-Hsiu Chuang TANet
TW Min Chen TWAREN
ES Sergi Fernandez Head of AV dept I2CAT
ES Gerard Castillo Lasheras Network Engineer, I2CAT
ES David Cassany Viladomat Network Engineer, I2CAT
ES Rosa & Alain Choreographer & Programmer, Konic Thtr/Koniclab
US Justin Trieger Technical Director, New World Symphony
CZ Jiri Navratil Network Engineer, 4K Expert, CESNET
CZ Sven Ubik Network Engineer, 4K Expert, CESNET
CZ Jaroslav Hrb Network Engineer, HAMU
CZ Ondrej Urban Sound master, HAMU
KR Buseung Cho Network Engineer, KISTI
KR Min-Ki Noh Network Engineer, KISTI
KR Sung-il PARK Videomaker, KAIST
KR Boncheol Goo Composer, KAIST
MY Faridah Noor Mohd Noor Chair of APAN e-Culture WG, University of Malaya
KR Dae-Young Kim Chair of the APAN Board, CNU
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Figure 1. Network Topology
The list of end points and IPs are presented in Table 4. Korean site was used to test video and audio transmission system at the beginning of the test procedure.
Table 4. End Points
Country Code
Organizations End-sites IP addresses Bandwidth
TW ASGCNet/ASNet/TWAREN/TANet
NCNU 140.109.1.10 : route monitoring 10 Gbps
CZ CESNET HAMU 195.113.75.241 (gw)
195.113.75.x (4K Gateway) 10 Gbps
ES i2CAT
Kòniclab Castelldefels Lab
Fabra i Coats
84.88.37.189 (UltraGrid transmitter) 84.88.37.187 (Video receiver and mixing)
84.88.37.179 (Audio rx/tx - JackTrip) 10 Gbps
US Internet2 NWS 67.17.206.128/27 subnet
67.17.206.147(TBC) : host 10 Gbps
KR KAIST Prof. Goo’s Lab 203.253.137.91 203.253.137.92 203.253.137.81
1 Gbps
2.3. Video and Audio Transport System
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Figure 2 shows the configurations of video and audio transmissions. The video and audio of Prague were transmitted through a 4K Gateway (Figure 3). The HD video of Nantou was sent to back to Prague for the reference. The Czech (CZ) team used a 4K Gateway that was developed by vuMedia. It can send and receive uncompressed 4K videos with very low latency (1.5 ms). It also supports Jpeg 2000 compression [7].
Another solution used for video transmission was Ultragrid which was developed by CESNET and SITOLA. It can send and receive HD videos between different types of platform (Ubuntu Linux, OSX, and Windows). It supports Blackmagic Decklink video cards therefore professional videos connections such as HD-SDI or HDMI can be made available. It is also possible to transmit 4K video through Decklink Quad with tiled videos [8]. The videos from Miami and Barcelona were transmitted by Ultragrid (Figure 4).
Figure 2. Audio and video configurations.
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2.5. Music and Dance
The main stage had two parts: Stage 1 and 2. Stage 1 was traditional Taiwanese dance called Seediq Bale while Stage 2 was the trio music from Prague. The cello player from Miami and dancers from Barcelona and Nantou followed the music with synchronization (Figure 8).
Figure 7. Final video composition on the stage.
Figure 8. Timeline of music and dance.
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2.6. Synchronization
There are two routes of music from Prague to Nantou (Figure 9). The first is through the 4K Gateway and the second is through Jacktrip and Ultragrid.
Figure 9. Audio sync path.
In order to synchronize these two routes, we needed a synchronization system that can delay the faster signal (Figure 10). If the system were synchronized, then a ‘clap’ sound from Prague should arrive at Nantou at the same time. Max6 calculated the time difference between the two signals and then it added some delays according to the result.
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Figure 10. Synchronization Process
3. Results
All videos and audios were transmitted and received with synchronization between the sites. An audience of more than 200 spectators enjoyed the cyber performance at the Nantou venue on August 12th, 2014. Global audience were watched the performance online at and participate live via their mobile smartphones (or other network-connected device) [11].
Figure 11. Final video composition of the stage 2 in Nantou, Taiwan.
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51
52
4. Conclusion
Cyber performances are rare events and require cooperation from performers, audio and video technical staff, network engineers, and mixing specialists. This paper describes a successful cyber performance involving a single screen virtual stage ‘gathering’ all the performers from remote sites in real-time with synchronized music. By recording the details of the infrastructure and methods, we hope that others can plan and conduct even better cyber performance events in the future.
This project was produced by the Internet2 Arts & Humanities Group and the APAN e-Culture WG and organized by the KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology (KR) in collaboration with the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) and CESNET association of Prague (CZ), the Konic Thtr and i2CAT Foundation of Barcelona (ES), New World Symphony in Miami (US), Seediq Bale and Academia Sinica Grids & Clouds (ASGC) in Nantou (TW). APAN e-Culture Working group is planning future projects with international collaboration for cultural exchange.
Acknowledgments
Our appreciation goes to all members and partners of the e-Culture Working Group of APAN for giving their full support to this Cyber Performance, in particular the members of Taiwan Team (the host of the 38th APAN Meeting).
References and Notes
1. Landon, B., 1988, Bet on It: Cyber/Video/Punk/Performance. Mississippi Review v.16 (2/3), p. 245-251
2. Jacobs, S., 2007, Virtually Sacred: The Performance of Asynchronous Cyber-Rituals in Online Spaces. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication v. 12(3), p.1103–1121.
3. Papagiannouli, C., 2011, Cyberformance and the Cyberstage. The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, v. 6(4), p. 273-282.
4. Jamieson, H.V., 2007, UpStage: A Platform for Creating and Performing Online," IEEE MultiMedia, v. 14(3), p. 8–10.
5. Noor, F.N.M., 2011, Chronicling eCulture WG and Charting Future Activities
Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network v. 31, p. 41-48.
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6. Howard, A., Goo B.C., Noor, F.N.M., Kim, D.Y., 2012, DQ12 Dancing Across Oceans: Barcelona (ES)-Salvador (BR)- Daejeon (KR) @Chiang Mai (TH). Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network v. 33, p. 1-14.
7. http://www.4kgateway.com/product-highlights/
8. http://www.ultragrid.cz/en
9. http://cycling74.com/
10. https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/soundwire/software/jacktrip/
11. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/apan-cyber-performance
© 2015 by the authors; licensee Asia-Pacific Advanced Network. This article is an open-access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).