The SAT and the OSM collaborate to create new immersive music listening experiences
For the past three years, the Metalab, SAT’s research lab, and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) have combined their expertise to investigate new techniques for listening to classical music outside the concert hall. The research aims to create immersive experiences of spatialized audio navigation in a symphony orchestra or any other context of sound diffusion, whether real or virtual.
Project Timeline
2020
The Metalab visits the OSM to conduct initial tests of ambisonic sound capture in order to record the acoustic response of the amphitheatre and the orchestra led by Kent Nagano.
Read the article about this phase of the project (in French)
2021
The research team is working to transpose the audio renderings of the 2020 recording into a virtual environment. It is now possible to navigate in a sound space with 6 degrees of freedom, i.e. with total freedom of movement and orientation in space, and to hear the music that has been recorded in a spatialized way.
2022
A visual dimension is added to the project with the creation of a 3D representation of the sound content. The goal is to enhance the user’s experience of navigating the 3D environment of the Maison symphonique. This addition brings the audience closer to the movements of the musicians and allows them to understand the relationship between the recorded music and the musicians’ performance in the hall.
Read the article about this phase of the project (in French)
What's new in 2023
A new phase of the project began in 2023 incorporating new research themes, including immersive audio and visual broadcasting in real time in a virtual environment. For this purpose, technical tests conducted by the Metalab were carried out in March during two full days with 12 musicians of the OSM specially gathered for the occasion. The orchestra performed a piece that was captured live, both from a spatialized audio point of view and in terms of the musicians’ movements. Steve Reich’s Sextet was chosen for the occasion.
“The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is proud to collaborate with the SAT’s Metalab for this research project that will allow us to reach our audience in an innovative way. The new technologies developed as part of this research will allow us to test new formats for concert broadcasting, and thus explore new relationships between the music, our musicians and the public.”
– Marianne Perron, Senior Director, Arts Sector, OSM.
With this collaboration, the Metalab intends to push the limits of immersive broadcasting and take up the challenge of reproducing, live, a symphonic concert in the virtual space of the SAT, Satellite.
The future of the project
“Imagine yourself navigating a symphony orchestra that performs from the Maison symphonique, remotely and from your own home! This is exactly what the Metalab aims to accomplish in this research project with the OSM.”
– Alexandra Marin, OSM project manager, Metalab, SAT.
Compared to a conventional music listening experience that offers a one-dimensional recording of an orchestra, the project develops an immersive sound and visual experience out of the ordinary. You will be able to walk around the stage, among the musicians and the conductor. You will also be able to settle somewhere in the virtual concert hall, all the while experiencing the sound quality of the music as it is at that precise location. This experience would therefore offer a listening experience that cannot be experienced even when attending a concert at the Maison symphonique.
Multidisciplinary collaboration
This project involved various expertises and required the collaboration of several innovation departments. We would like to thank Metalab members Nicolas Bouillot, Bruno Colpron, Emmanuel Durand, Alexandra Marin, Jean-Yves Munch, Émile Ouellet-Delorme, Thomas Piquet, Zack Settel, and Carl Talbot, as well as Olivier Gauthier and Rachel Germain, from the Valorisation sector.
We would also like to thank our partner, the OSM, for their contribution, especially Yumi Palleschi and Ana Barrett, as well as the musicians who took part in the recording: Chris James (flute 1), Catherine Chabot (flute 2), Alain Desgagné (clarinet 1), Ludovic Lesage-Hinse (clarinet 2), Jean-Sébastien Roy (violin 1), Abby Walsh (violin 2), Zachariah Reff (cello 1), Elie Boissinot (cello 2), Corey Rae (vibraphone 1), Josh Wynnyk (vibraphone 2), Brigitte Poulin (piano 1), Pamela Reimer (piano 2).
