Gezamenlijk persbericht:
Media Contacts:
CineGrid: Darcy Gerbarg, darcy@cinegrid.org, TEL: +1-212-243-3346
Keio University DMC: Naohisa Ohta, naohisa@dmc.keio.ac.jp, TEL:
+81-3-5418-6432
Pacific Interface: Natalie Van Osdol, natalie@pacific-interface.com,
TEL: +1-510-652-7365
Waag Society: Frank Kresin, frank@waag.org, TEL: +31-20-557-9898
Holland Festival 2007: Benien van Berkel, Benien@hollandfestival.nl,
TEL: +31 20 788 2110
SARA: Marina den Hartog, m.den.hartog@sara.nl, TEL: +31 20 592 3000
SURFnet: Mariska Herweijer, Mariska.Herweijer@surfnet.nl, TEL: +31 302
305 316
University of Amsterdam: Cees de Laat, delaat@science.uva.nl, TEL: +31
20 525 7590
UC San Diego Calit2, Doug Ramsey, dramsey@ucsd.edu, TEL: +1-858-822-5825
BeamSystems, Stephanie Xenakis, Stephanie@beamsystems.nl, TEL: +31 20
427 1010
Cultuurfabriek, Egbert Fransen, Egbert@cultuurfabriek.nl, TEL: +31 20
624-6380
BeamLab, Wendy Buijsse, wendy@beamlab.nl, TEL: +31 20 624-6380
CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007
San Francisco, CA, July 3, 2007 – On June 20, 2007, the first
successful demonstration of trans-Atlantic streaming over photonic IP
networks of 4K digital motion pictures and 5.1 surround sound was
achieved by the international research consortium, CineGrid. This
demonstration, part of the CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 project,
was the latest in a series of ground-breaking CineGrid experiments
using very high quality digital media running over very high speed
digital networks.
CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 recorded a performance of “Era la
Notte” at the Holland Festival, featuring soprano Anna Caterina
Antonacci performing works of Monteverdi, Strozzi and Giramo at the
Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ concert hall in Amsterdam. The 75-minute live
performance was transmitted nearly 10,000 kilometers, in real-time, to
the University of California San Diego where it was viewed in 4K (at
four time the resolution of HDTV) on a large screen with surround-sound
by an audience in the 200-seat auditorium of the California Institute
for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Calit2
built the first CineGrid node in North America, fully equipped to
handle networked digital media at this extremely high quality.
With the permission of the Holland Festival and the cooperation of the
“Era la Notte” performers, CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 was able to
deliver an audience experience of unprecedented quality across long
distances using advanced networks. According to Tom DeFanti, Research
Scientist in the UCSD division of Calit2, “the CineGrid combination of
4K streaming video and surround sound created an astounding sense of
live presence in the auditorium, as if the audience in San Diego were
actually sitting in the concert hall in Amsterdam, seeing, hearing and
feeling the diva’s beautiful performance very directly. Collectively,
the CineGrid community learned a lot of useful lessons, both
technically and creatively. The emerging global infrastructure of
lambda-grids, networks of switchable/routable lightpaths, that is used
by CineGrid opens all sorts of new approaches to media producers and
consumers.”
“The CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 demonstrations prove that live 4K
production and networked distribution of music concerts, opera, sports
and various content genres beyond traditional theatrical-release
feature movies is not only technically feasible but delivers a
compelling new entertainment experience”, said Laurin Herr, president
of Pacific Interface and co-founder of CineGrid. “In networking terms,
‘live’ requires more reliable throughput and low-latency
responsiveness. CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 confirms that even
these most demanding types of streaming media distribution can be done
over gigabit IP networks using lightpath infrastructure today.”
The CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 team recorded the “Era la Notte”
performances on June 20-21 at the highest possible quality. With the
cooperation of the Holland Festival and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ
technical staff, the CineGrid team in Amsterdam installed two Olympus
4K digital motion picture cameras at the center rear of the concert
hall. One camera was fixed with a wide-angle lens. The other camera
followed the performer with a longer lens. The output from both cameras
was recorded uncompressed directly to digital video disk recorders made
by Keisoku Giken. In parallel, 16 channels of 24-bits/48 KHz
uncompressed digital audio was recorded to a Digidesign Pro Tools
digital audio disk recorder from 16 microphones strategically placed in
the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ especially for the CineGrid recording of the
performances.
“The concept of live recording of musical performances for transmission
to remote audiences with very high audio fidelity has long been a dream
of audio engineers,” explained Peter Otto, Music Technology Director at
UCSD’s Department of Music and a member of the AES Technical Committee
for Network Audio Solutions. “The CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007
demonstration proved that multi-channel audio streaming over IP works
well, sounds good, and is now feasible for real-world applications. And
because we also recorded 16 channels of 24-bits/48KHz uncompressed
audio to go with the 4K motion pictures, we will be able to
post-produce sound at the highest quality for experiments in audio
spatialization and acoustic simulation to experiment with new types of
immersive audience experiences”
The 4K transmission from Amsterdam to San Diego on June 20 utilized 4K
real-time JPEG 2000 codecs originally designed by NTT Network
Innovation Labs to send a compressed 4K x 30 fps stream at bit rates of
approximately 500 Mbps. In addition, CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007
also transmitted compressed HDTV between the same two sites on June 21
using a DVCPRO HD compressed audio/video bit stream packetized for
network transmission using a Qvidium HD 1394 IP Gateway at bit rates of
approximately 145 Mbps. Future CineGrid experiments will be designed to
deliver both HD and 4K compressed content to multiple CineGrid nodes
simultaneously via high speed networks. Other future experiments will
feature uncompressed transmission of both HD and 4K using even higher
capacity lightpath networks.
The 4K, HD and audio recordings of “Era la Notte” at the Holland
Festival 2007 will be securely archived in the new CineGrid Exchange,
an experimental distributed archive for digital media with both
preservation and distribution functions serving CineGrid members
worldwide via research networks. CineGrid Exchange will maintain three
full digital replicas of the “Era la Notte” picture and sound data
assets at: Keio University’s Research Institute for Digital Media and
Content (DMC) in Tokyo, Japan, at the Amsterdam LightHouse, a joint
network laboratory of SARA and the University of Amsterdam in the
Netherlands, and at Calit2 at the UC San Diego in La Jolla, California.
“Starting with these new “Era la Notte” recordings, as content is added
to the CineGrid Exchange, CineGrid members such as the University of
Amsterdam, can use these digital assets to research the technical
foundations of CineGrid which require massive storage systems,
long-term digital preservation, networked distribution and other
engineering topics that pertain equally to digital media for arts,
entertainment and culture, as well as for scientific visualization,
medicine, education and research,” explained Cees de Laat, Associate
Professor in the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam.
“To securely store the many terabytes of data recorded each day by
CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 was a challenge,” said Paul Wielinga,
manager of networking at SARA. “An equivalent of 750 DVDs of data was
transferred after each recording from the Muziekgebouw to SARA, where
it was copied to two separate high performance storage systems for
redundant protection.”
4K images have roughly 4,000 horizontal pixels. 4K offers approximately
four times the number of pixels of the 1080i HD television format, and
24 times that of a standard broadcast TV signal. 4K (and the lower
resolution 2K format) are particularly significant new image formats
because they will be widely used for future digital cinema theatrical
distribution under new specifications proposed by Digital Cinema
Initiatives, LLC, a consortium of the major Hollywood studios, and
currently being standardized by SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and
Television Engineers.)
Naohisa Ohta, Professor at Keio University Research Institute for
Digital Media and Content which built the first CineGrid node in Asia,
said, “While 4K is very challenging to produce, transmit and display
today, we believe it will become easier and more widely deployed in the
coming years. By bringing together media researchers with networking
engineers and performing artists, we are able to explore the creative
possibilities and technical limitations as part of CineGrid. Because
this is such a new field, we must “learn by doing” and in the process
train and educate the next generation of digital media professionals
who will become future leaders in arts, entertainment, culture,
education, science, medicine and research.”
CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 was made possible by the cooperation
of: the Holland Festival, the “Era la Notte” performers and creative
directors, the technical staff of the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ; Keio
University DMC which took responsibility for all 4K image capture,
recording and transmission systems in Amsterdam, including the KG video
disk recorders loaned by Keisoku Giken and NICT, the Japanese National
Institute of Information and Communications Technology; UC San Diego
Calit2/CRCA which took responsibility for all audio capture, recording
and mixing systems in Amsterdam, as well as HD transmission; Pacific
Interface which acted as overall producers; the Waag Society that made
all local production arrangements; the University of Amsterdam and SARA
which provided data transfer and mass storage support for the
production; UCSD/Calit2 which received the streaming performances in
San Diego; and SURFnet and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) which coordinated
international networking.
CineGrid team members from the Waag Society and SURFnet pulled new
fiber into the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in order to establish local
connectivity from Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ to SURFnet which was then
connected to existing cyberinfrastructure operated as the Global Lambda
Integrated Facility (GLIF) by a consortium of research networks around
the world. For CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007, a so-called
“lightpath” using dedicated lambdas (wavelengths) at 1 Gbps was
established from the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ to SURFnet’s NetherLight
GLIF Open Lightpath Exchange (GOLE) in Amsterdam, to the StarLight GOLE
in Chicago, connecting to Cisco-provided research waves on the National
Lambda Rail (NLR) infrastructure which carried the streams across
America to Calit2 at UC San Diego in California.
“The networking infrastructure used by CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007
in Amsterdam, across the Atlantic Ocean, and across America is only
available because of visionary investments by national and
international research programs starting more than five years ago,”
said Kees Neggers, Managing Director of SURFnet BV. “When the
government of the Netherlands and others made these investments in high
speed networking, the goal was to support the needs of scientists at
our major universities and research laboratories who want to
collaborate with their colleagues around the world. I am delighted to
now see CineGrid exploring new digital media applications using this
same infrastructure.”
The CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 project was the first 4K
production in the Netherlands and the first live 4K transmission from
Europe to America. According to Marleen Stikker, Director General of
Waag Society, “We hope to build upon the success of CineGrid @ Holland
Festival 2007 to establish a permanent CineGrid node in Amsterdam,
together with our colleagues at University of Amsterdam, SARA and
SURFnet. This node can be used by current and future CineGrid members
to produce, store, distribute and project 4K materials. We believe that
CineGrid is a very powerful approach to stimulating collaboration
between artists, engineers and scientists, and linking arts and
cultural institutions in Amsterdam with partner institutions in the
Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, the Americas and Asia.”
On June 22, 2007, in cooperation with Waag Society, BeamSystems and
Cultuurfabriek., CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 held a premiere
screening at Pakhuis de Zwijger featuring excerpts from the 4K
recording of “Era La Notte”. More than 85 professionals from cultural,
technical, educational, scientific and business communities watched the
first 4K demonstration in Holland. This diverse public was impressed
with the audiovisual quality of the material and sense of being present
at a live event that was evoked by both images and sound. This gave
rise to lively discussions and speculations about future use of
CineGrid.
After watching the premiere 4K screening of “Era la Notte”, Jacques van
Veen, Managing Director of the Holland Festival said, “Festivals in
Europe every year host some of the highest quality and rarest live
performances in the world, typically just for audiences who come to sit
in our halls. I am now convinced, for the first time, that it is
possible to deliver an audience experience of unprecedented quality and
enjoyment across long distances using high-speed networks. This has
important implications for the Holland Festival in terms of potentially
expanding our audience beyond Amsterdam. And I believe it will open new
avenues of creative expression for the artists we invite to perform at
the Holland Festival. We look forward to exploring these themes further
with CineGrid members.”
As a closing remark at the premiere, Frank Kresin of Waag Society said:
“The true beauty of this project lies in the fruitful collaboration of
people from different communities and countries. Technicians,
scientists, artists and performers have worked together to make this
experiment come true. While the results are impressive and very
worthwhile in themselves, the promise of future joint experiments and
the spin-off into many as yet unknown directions is the real gain. In
that sense, the capture, transmission and screening of CineGrid @
Holland Festival 2007 were just a beginning.”
More information:
CineGrid
http://www.cinegrid.org
http://www.cinegrid.nl
Holland Festival
http://www.hollandfestival.nl
Keio University Research Institute for Digital Media and Content (DMC)
http://www.dmc.keio.ac.jp/en/
University of Amsterdam, System and Network Engineering Research Group.
http://www.science.uva.nl/research/sne
SARA Computing and Networking Services
http://www.sara.nl/index_eng.html
SURFnet
http://www.surfnet.nl
Calit2 at UC San Diego
http://www.calit2.net
http://www.ucsd.edu
Waag Society
http://www.waag.org
BeamSystems
http://www.beamsystems.nl
Cultuurfabriek
http://www.cultuurfabriek.nl/
Holland Festival 2007
Jacques Van Veen
Lieven Bertels
Sigi Giesler
Ad van der Koog
Era la Notte
Staging Juliett Deschamps
Lighting Dominique Bruguiere
Scenery Cecile Degos
Costume design Christian Lacroix
Soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci
Musical director Julien Chauvin
Stage Manager Daniel Eudes
Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, soloists:
Benjamin Alard, harpsichord
Julien Chauvin, violin
Emilia Gliozzi, violoncello
Yasunori Imamura, theorbo
Nick Milne, viola da gamba
Nicholas Pap, double bass
Tami Troman, violin
Production
Naohisa Ohta, Keio DMC
Laurin Herr, Pacific Interface
Natalie Van Osdol, Pacific Interface
Frank Kresin, Waag Society
Tom DeFanti, UCSD/Calit2
Hans van der Sloot, Waag Society
Martijn van Seventer, Waag Society
4K Video Camera & Recording
Hidero Kozutsumi, NAC
Naoto Sarukata, NAC
Yoichi Watanabe, Keio DMC
Satoshi Mima, Keisoku Giken
HD Camera
Frank Kresin,Waag Society
Audio Mixing & Recording
Peter Otto, UCSD/Calit2
Tom Erbe, UCSD/CRCA
Special Creative Advisors
Kohei Endo, Moon Beams
Garrett Smith, ASC Assoc. Member
Networking and Transmission
Kunitake Kaneko, Keio DMC
Henk Buursen, Waag Society
Wouter Huisman, SURFnet NOC/SARA
Mark Meijerink, SURFnet
Alan Verlo, StarLight and UIC/EVL
Brian Dunne, UCSD/Calit2
Qian Liu, UCSD/Calit2
JP Velders, UvA
John Beer, QVidium
Javier Girardo, UCSD/Calit2
4K Back-up and Data Transfer
Ronald van der Pol, SARA
Paola Grosso, UvA
Satoshi Mima, Keisoku Giken
Kunitake Kaneko, Keio DMC
Projection - Amsterdam
Bastiaan Bus, BeamSystems
Jozef Hey, BeamSystems
Jason Malone, BeamSystems
Projection – UC San Diego
Hector Bracho
Jurgen Schulze