Melford Orchestrates Real-Time Displays at Opera Houses

A world leading, globally renowned orchestra runs like a well-oiled machine. They’re carefully and meticulously led by a conductor who considers every aspect of the music and how to make it as inspiring and incredible as possible, working with the orchestra to make the music come alive.

The success (or failure) of an orchestra can be attributed to the conductor so it goes without saying that their ability to see the conductor for the duration of a performance is vitally important. Sounds simple but, when you are an orchestra comprising nearly 100 instruments it becomes increasingly difficult to view the conductor, especially when you’re in the pit of an opera house that is 300 years old.

Despite being steeped in tradition, theatres and opera houses around the world are looking to technology to overcome this challenge and provide a solution that allows musicians to see the conductor at all times wherever they are playing in the auditorium.

“We’ve worked with various opera houses over the past 5 years. We’ve designed a bespoke solution which includes a number of screens positioned throughout the orchestra that enables them to see the conductor at all times.” Steve Osborne, MD Melford Technologies.

Although this seems like an obvious solution, it’s absolutely vital that the screens display a real time image and that there is zero delay from when the image of the conductor is captured on the camera to when it’s displayed on the monitor.

The development team at Melford used a graphics card with no buffer to produce a monitor where the picture displayed is as close to real-time as the naked eye can perceive. In the world of video, the time-delay between the instant a frame is captured and the instant the frame is displayed is called video latency.

“There wasn’t a product on the market that was fit for purpose, so we designed our own! We’ve rolled these low latency solutions out to prestigious locations such as the Royal Opera House, Dubai Opera House and the English National Opera. The feedback we’ve received from the orchestras playing in these theatres is so positive that other venues are looking to install the system to help improve the performer experience.”

Melford has vast experience in working with theatres, opera houses, concert venues and stadiums. Our development team are always up for the challenge of finding a solution to any technology problem, no matter how diverse! For more information contact us on: +44(0)1494 638069, use the Contact form or email us at: info@melfordtechnologies.com.

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