A Technical First: Kronos Quartet at Pohoda in the Air

In an article on their website, the Kronos Quartet described the challenge (especially from technical point of view) of their livestream for Pohoda in the Air at the time of quarantine. This has also been possible thanks to long-term collaboration with the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University.

21. July 2020

For this purpose they used CCRMA’s JackTrip - a free, open-source program that supports bidirectional, high quality, uncompressed audio streaming with any number of channels. It allowed David, John, Hank and Sunny to overcome the latency inherent in video conferencing softwares so that they could collaborate musically in real-time over the internet. Dr. Chris Chafe, director of the CCRMA, says, “It’s fair to say that this was a technical first: the first metro-scale very low-latency gig with an audience. Concertizing from separate locations, even in the same geographic region, at this level is still in its infancy. JackTrip’s team has been working with the Kronos Performing Arts Association for more than three months to make a performance like this possible. It was a memorable example of experimentation and dedication. We all learned a lot and no one gave up, but we also know there’s still more to do.” To learn more about latency and how JackTrip works, check out this NPR Music feature.