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The classical music equivalent of opera supertitles and museum audioguides, the Concert Companion navigates audience members through a symphony performance. Created by Roland Valliere with software developed by Kinoma and Tribeworks, the PDA-based system receives information via wireless during the performance. Text that is typically contained in program notes, such as background information about the piece, composer biographies, and motifs to listen for appears on command from a technician using a laptop at the back of the hall. One could imagine that the light from the displays would be distracting to others in the audience. Response from test groups has been positive, though there are likely to be discouraging sniffs from the purists. As with supertitles, if this device can attract bigger audiences, it may be a necessary evolution in symphony performance.

Written by ltao

July 7th, 2003 at 1:20 am

Posted in Uncategorized