Violins over video - violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman uses videoconferencing technology to teach music - includes related article on The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's usage of interactive videoconferencing - Company Business and Marketing

Communications News, July, 1996 by Mary Ellen Foley

Today, when education dollars are spent, they go not to the arts but towards technology. Fully interactive videoconferencing, however, in the hands of internationally renowned violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman, provides an example of how technology can widen and deepen not only arts education, but any kind of instruction. At the same time, video extends the reach of the arts to new audiences that were, until now, inaccessible.

While it is not unusual for world-class violinists to perform in Paris one day and rehearse in San Francisco the next, being in two or more places at once is a virtuoso trick regularly employed by Zukerman. a top violinist, violist, conductor and music educator.

Needing a way to interact with students thousands of miles away despite his continuous touring, Zukerman co-founded MasterVision International, a firm committed to developing technology applications that further the reach of the arts.

"Videoconferencing is all about human interaction, which of course is the impetus behind all art," Zukerman says. "With videoconferencing, we touch each other in the abstract through the medium of technology. This is no mere substitute for physical interaction. Rather, the technology actually enhances and heightens our encounters and reactions."

The immediate beneficiaries are Zukerman's master-class students at the Manhattan School of Music, as well as students in Georgia, New Jersey and Minnesota. These hand-picked pupils receive personal instruction from Zukerman even as he tours the globe. According to Zukerman, the two-way interaction fostered by videoconferencing is so intense that his students typically derive as much value from 30 minutes of video instruction as they do from an hour of traditional on-site teaching. This mirrors the experience of many business users who find the medium helps focus their meetings.

In large part, this is due to the extremely high quality of the interactive video image. Students and teacher need to see clearly the exact fingering of the strings, the angle of the violin, the tilt and precise draw of the bow, and even facial expressions and other visual cues.

To deliver this quality, MasterVision teamed with Compression Labs, San Jose, Calif The CTX Plus compression algorithm delivers a home TV-quality frame rate up to 30 fps at half-T1 band-width or above. It has near-broadcast quality resolution of 480 lines by 368 pixels. Images are crisp. Motions are smooth, natural and non-distracting.

The Radiance video systems used by MasterVision are equipped with two 27-inch monitors, one of which can be used for the students to see exactly how they are standing, bowing and so on. This gives them the opportunity to compare themselves side-by-side with Zukerman's stance and attack.

For Zukerman, who carries forward the tradition of teaching through example, this closeness and intensity is priceless.

"When I teach, I try to be objective and I typically use a mirror so the students can see themselves," he explains. "But to see yourself and the teacher on adjacent screens is much more immediacy, a real double whammy. You get objectivity and subjectivity all at the same time, which greatly enhances the teaching. The students get so much more."

When touring, Zukerman draws on the conferencing resources of local Compression Labs offices or universities. Although the codecs support the H.320 standards, including H.261 video, MasterVision prefers to use the CTX-Plus compression mode because it provides 75% higher video resolution.

Often, Zukerman involves multiple sites in an interactive conference--including a recent performance over AT&T-provided ISDN lines with Zukerman in St. Paul, violinist Itzhak Perlman at New York's Lincoln Center, and additional audiences in Denver, Reston, Va., and San Jose. The audiences interacted with the artists, who fielded questions after their performances.

"If society is a train, then commerce and culture are the parallel tracks on which it runs," explains Zukerman. "Interactive video allows the arts to reach out to many more people who physically or financially can't make it to the concert halls, theaters or universities. The technology lets you put people into the curriculum at a very low cost. And the lower the price, naturally the more people you'll reach."

Concludes Zukerman, "What will put it all in focus for the consumer is fiber-optic capacity. When businesses and communities make that investment, we'll witness a technology-driven revolution that will benefit both the arts and business, and consequently society as a whole."

In the meantime, imaginations are being sparked--from university-based distance learning networks in the United States to European theaters. Obviously, Zukerman is hitting a responsive chord.

RELATED ARTICLE: VIDEOCONFERENCING TAKES A BOW

Members of The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), recently under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman, are pioneering use of interactive videoconferencing to reach out to secondary school music students. Along the way, they have discovered the ancillary benefits of conferencing as a community relations and audience-building tool.