Holographic Concerts?

[Spot's Meow]

So, it looks like in Japan they are trying to start a new trend of holographic concerts. It's literally what it sounds like. A holograph dancing around on stage in front of crowds of thousands, while the live band plays somewhere off stage.

I actually thought it didn't sound all that strange until I saw the video. You can see it in this article:

Japanese Holograph Plays to Sold Out Concert

I have to wonder, just what is the point of this? Why not just have the real band play on stage? I suppose the only real advantage that I can see is that the holograph could be broadcast in several locations at once, so that the same concert could be viewed at several different locations throughout the country or world.

What do you think?

 

[Christopher]

Hey, it's Japan. They apparently feel obligated to make reality look like sci-fi -- often genuinely, but they'll settle for superficially.

Anyway, the band is onstage. You can see them off to the sides, behind the metal frameworks.

Also, it's completely bogus on their part to call this a hologram. It's just a flat image rear-projected onto a clear screen across the front of the stage to create the illusion of a free-standing cartoon character. Sci-fi has done so much abuse to the word "hologram" by equating it with "an image that seems to float in midair."

 

[Whofan]

I'm reminded a bit of Macross Plus's Sharon Apple, myself.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

musicians not attending concert but performing live

The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated to FSOL) performed live concerts while not being at the concert venue.
They used live ISDN transmissions

By 1995, the duo had undertaken numerous ISDN broadcasts redefining the concept of a live performance through a world tour and a headline slot at the Brighton Festival - all performed via ISDN lines without ever leaving their their own studio. Each live performance that was broadcast would include more new material and so in 1995 FSOL released a limited edition black album of several of these recordings entitled ISDN.

http://www.astralwerks.com/fsol/

The Future Sound of London (often abbreviated to FSOL) is a prolific British electronic music band composed of Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_Sound_of_London#Lifeforms.2C_ambience_and_the_ISDN_tour

info on ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network
A set of communications standards allowing a single wire or optical fibre to carry voice, digital network services and video. ISDN is intended to eventually replace the plain old telephone system. There are different kinds of ISDN connection of varying bandwidth

That was 2 channels back in 1994.

Today the technology has improved greatly. It would be totally possible for an entire to play live from around the world and be mixed at one location using MADI:
Multichannel Audio Digital Interface
an interface carrying multiple channels of digital audio
originally designed as

a 56 channel transport for the purpose of linking large-format mixing consoles to digital multi-track recording devices

The basic data rate is 100 Mbit/s of data

Serial digital transmission over coaxial cable or fibre-optic lines of 28, 56, or 64 channels is supported, with sampling rates of up to 96 kHz and resolution of up to 24 bits per channel.

The specifications about fibres can provide a range of up to 2 km.
[the transmission of audio signals over 100 meters and up to 3000 meters.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MADI

So if a band really wanted to they could perform at a festival and have guest musicians performing from another stage up to 2 km away as part of that performance (think another stage at the festival)...

or if a band really wanted to they could have say 6 band members at 6 locations around the world in 6 studios and all perform live together and be mixed at one of the locations and sent out via ISDN to a concert venue.
and with HD video sent you can have visuals of the whole band performing.

It can happen.