MusiNet

MusiNet: Comprehensive design and implementation of a networked music performance system

Dates: 04/2012 – 10/2015
Funded by: : Greek Department of Education, Thales action
Project Coordinator: P. Tsakalides
co-PIs: A. Mouchtaris (UoC)
Funding: total funding: € 600,000, UoC funding: € 150,000
Summary: The MusiNet project addresses Networked Music Performance (NMP), i.e., systems that allow geographically distributed musicians to collaborate and interact through the use of computer networks. Such systems not only lower the cost of collaboration, but they even enable collaborations which may not have otherwise occurred. NMP systems can have a catalytic effect in music creation and social interaction once they become available to the average consumer. Thus far, this research area has been investigated to a very limited extent, not only within Greece but also internationally.

The objective of the Musinet is to advance the current state-of-the-art in NMP systems. It has been experimentally shown that the time delays of the information exchange (music, video) among the musicians using such systems must be an order of magnitude lower than in teleconferencing systems. Consequently, NMP systems are currently implemented for research purposes and are not widely available to musicians.

This project aims at further improving the technology of NMP systems so as to make them more widely available to (professional and amateur) musicians. This is important both for effectively supporting collaboration among professional musicians, but also for designing an open platform that will allow for social interaction through music expression.

The proposed project is expected to advance the current state-of-the-art in:

• NMP systems architecture, network design and topology, for reducing the delays in the information exchange.
• Audio and video coding, for achieving total algorithmic delays well below 25 ms.
• Human-computer interfaces for NMP systems, by studying in depth the technological, musicological, and anthropological aspects associated with such systems.

This project is co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: THALIS - University of Crete - MUSINET.
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