Cody Brookshire’s “Honeycomb” (2016) was featured at the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music convocation ceremony. The composition involved over 20 musicians on stage as well as 250 mobile devices in the audience, performing together in synchronization.

The electronic sounds are all playing through audience devices, streamed through SynkroTakt. Both percussionists and the conductor listen to a synchronized metronome track through their phones as well.

The conductor, Dr. Cynthia J. Turner, is the Director of Bands at UGA and a big supporter of SynkroTakt. We are grateful for her leadership and confidence in music technology. The musicians on stage are some of the top performers at UGA, and they were able to learn this intricate composition with limited rehearsals. Their performance was a landmark achievement for SynkroTakt: a concert hall scale performance with immersive audience participation.

This opportunity has given us important information about the scalability of the SynkroTakt technology, as connections with hundreds of devices went from the simulations to reality.

We also conducted a survey asking for feedback on audience perception of synchronization, playback quality, and overall electroacoustic experience. There were about 65 responses to the survey. Results were very positive while still showing clear pathways for improvement. Next steps involve refining the technology and diving into the compositional world of spatialization.

Thank you to all of those who supported our event at UGA HHSOM!

SynkroTakt is a tool to stream many audio tracks to multiple mobile devices in synchronized playback. We are currently building a web interface so you can use SynkroTakt right here!