ZURICH, Switzerland (Top40 Charts) At 6 pm on 13 January, Swisscom was hosting Switzerland Connected, the first decentralised live music experiment in Switzerland, featuring famous
Swiss artists BLAY (Bligg and Marc Sway), Flavie Léa and a host of up-and-coming artists. The experiment was successful: Musicians from six locations all over the country were connected virtually over the Swisscom network and created a unique live music experience.
On 13 January at 6 pm, BLAY (Bligg and Marc Sway), Flavie Léa and various other up-and-coming
Swiss artists were performing together from six separate locations. The world premiere was successful: Swisscom was able to broadcast the song «Denkmal» performed by
Swiss Artists BLAY and various newcomer bands for the first time - decentralized live and synchronized in one livestream. From their respective bases in Bellinzona, Montreux, Klosters, Zurich, Bern and Volketswil, the musicians' voices and instruments came together over the Swisscom network and created a shared and unique live experience.
At the press conference prior to the Event
Swiss Artist
Bligg (BLAY) explained: "The big challenge is bringing everything together at the same time. If the artists in Ticino, for example, are just a beat faster than those in Zurich, you will be able to tell." Exactly this synchronicity has been successful at the live experience. After a long hiatus from live performing, the artists were particularly looking forward to the live music experiment. They were really missing the whole live experience and the audience. The prospect of taking advantage of Swisscom's technological capabilities to join other musicians and create a unique, emotional and live-like moment for everyone was very appealing to them.
Explaining the joint project, Dirk Wierzbitzki, member of the Swisscom Group Executive Board and Head of Residential Customers, said: "We were pushing the limits of Switzerland's network and were hoping to leverage the opportunities of the networked world to bring our community a shared and enjoyable music experience. We are far beyond happy that the experiment succeeded." The live music experiment represented a major challenge for Swisscom's engineers and experts. For physical reasons, the network, transmission from the individual locations and signal processing had different response times - so all audio and video signals needed to be perfectly orchestrated to bring the performance together. And it worked out perfectly. As far as Swisscom is aware of today, no similar setup has succeeded worldwide in a public broadcasted event so far, which makes «Switzerland Connected» a successful world premiere.
Switzerland Connected aimed to ascertain whether and to what extent the digital sphere can create genuine live experiences and shared moments despite physical distance and at the very limits of modern technology. In the Panel Discussion after the event
Swiss Artists BLAY, Flavie Léa, member of the Swisscom Group Executive Board and Head of Residential Customers Dirk Wierzbitzki, media psychologists and organisers addressed these questions. «Switzerland Connected » aimed to explore what new digital formats will be possible in the longer term and whether one can bring together the best of both worlds in the future.
