London Symphony Orchestra

When the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) was joined for a concert by two of Kazakhstan’s most famous musicians, the worldwide interest was so great that record label Decca Classics asked NEP Connect to stream the concert live online.

London Symphony Orchestra NEP Connect is the go-to company for high-quality, simultaneous multiplatform live broadcasts, making internet history when it delivered the first ever high-def inition (HD) stream of a live classical concert for Decca Classics in 2012.

In January 2015, Decca Classics asked NEP Connect to film and host a live HD stream of the 60-piece LSO and Kazakh violinist Marat Bisengaliev performing Inception, the new album by renowned Kazakh composer Yerkesh Shakeyev.

The concert, held at St Luke’s, a Grade One listed former church in central London, was to be streamed live to Kazakhstan and around the world. The acoustics had to be of the highest quality to meet the expectations of classical music fans.

St Luke’s is surrounded by trees, which potentially makes satellite links hard to establish, and has limited on-street parking, so NEP Connect’s project managers spent time liaising with the local council to establish the best places to site its uplink trucks.

NEP Connect’s team carefully planned the lighting inside the church to make the performance more visually exciting and brought in a director who was familiar with orchestral performance to ensure its cameras captured the right shots.

There would be only limited time to complete the rig, as the venue was in use during the morning, and afternoon rehearsals were necessary so that the LSO and visiting Kazakhstani musicians could practice together.

“The skills, experience and professional attitude of the NEP Connect team meant that even in a complex scenario we achieved a first-class result.”

NEP Connect provided five-camera coverage, lighting, sound and uplink facilities, and hosted the event on its own website. This was achieved using its exclusive streaming and encoding farm, developed and hosted in-house, which allows online viewers all over the world to watch live streaming events as they happen, in the superb broadcast quality which makes NEP Connect the connectivity partner of choice for critical media content.

LSO-orchestra Martin Evans, IP sales manager, NEP Connect, said: “This new album and concert were big news in the classical music world, so it was vital we got both the sound and the camera shots absolutely right for an exacting live global audience.

“Nothing can be left to chance in one-off live streamed performances like this. Companies come to us because they know we have a resilient and strong network, plus the infrastructure and expertise to deliver.

“Our wide broadcast experience means we plan for every eventuality and it shows in our success rate. Everything went entirely to plan and the concert was very well received.”

“The evening was very much a success and enjoyed by both those at St Luke’s in London, as well as those streaming the concert worldwide.”

Alexander Van Ingen, producer for Decca Classics, said: “Marat Bisengaliev and Yerkesh Shakeyev have a significant, devoted following both in Kazakhstan and around the world. The skills, experience and professional attitude of the NEP Connect team meant that even in a complex scenario we achieved a first-class result with apparent ease. The evening was very much a success and enjoyed by both those at St Luke’s in London, as well as those watching the concert worldwide.”

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