sitesakamoto-DISCORD

"An interactivity by the simplest action with Streaming Media: Approach to the Broadgathering System"

Naozumi Takenaka
digitiminimi inc.
2-19-14 Sotokanda, Ochanomizu Miwa BLDG. 5F,
Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101 Japan
E-mail: <naozumi@takenaka.com>
Tel: +81-3-5298-6073
Fax: +81-3-5298-6074

Normally, we think that the "Internet-Live Broadcasting" is similar to the TV and the radio systems. It's possible to enjoy the video performance on the computer display monitor because the quality of the moving image and the sound is becoming higher and higer with the rapid progression of the streaming technology.

But it was impossible to return the response via cable for the remote users even if they were getting excited by a performance with the atomosphere which had brought them by clear streaming video and they wanted to do screaming, clapping, applausing or so. These problems are caused by that streaming system has been still passive.

So as we concerned it, we experienced the "Clapping System (Named RemoteClaps)" as the best way we thought on the Ryuichi Sakamoto's concert which held at Yokohama Arena on January 23, 1997 in Japan. It was the final show of the Playing the Orchestra "f" tour.

The system reflects the "remote-claps" from the network users to the big screen projected in the forms of the letters "f" with the minimum delaying. The users can translate the emotion by hitting the "f" key on the keyboard if they want to do so.

And the system consists of:

Java Applet	-	senses the key hitting
"Ear" Server	-	receives the claps from Java Applet
"Gather" Server	-	gathers the information from "Ear" Server
Renderer	-	displays the Claps visually.

The three sets of the applet and the ear server were prepared. The Claps would be distributed to reduce the network congestion and the server load average. As a result we built the system which can receive the really many claps concurrently from 1800 clients.

Using this system, we could see surely the claps come at the each end of the performances. The 'real' and 'network' claps were mixed indeed and effected together. This was the appearance of the new live-environment. The peek of numbers of the claps are the 1004/.4sec. It indicates that we, --- the performer, the audience in Yokohama Arena, the audiences on the internet, and the programmer --- can remotely share the mind excited at the same time.

It made us recognize enough the simplest key-hit system we made are more effective, impressive and efficient than the other feedback system such as the "CHAT" or the "Web BBS" or some.

Also technically this would be a totally new approach of the internet application. Because the system took the reverse approach from opposite side of the normal broadcasting system such as StreamWorks or RealVideo. So that we would like to call this way "Broadgathering" in contrast with the "Broadcasting".