Virtual Orchestra
Starting in the late eighties, the Bianchi and Smith team was one of the earliest implementors of live performance, tempo flexible virtual orchestra systems in major productions. Systems using this design have been deployed in hundreds of thousands of performances and on all continents (except for Antartica)
Patents
Three patents in Music Performance Systems
Realtime Music Solutions
Founding Partner and Director of R&D for this company which offers a variety of products developed around the underlying technology.
Timeline
A listing of important events in the development of the Bianchi and Smith virtual orchestra technologies.
ES042 Do Synthesizers belong in the Pit w/ Professor David Smith
A discussion about the genesis and philosophy of the virtual orchestra.
Die Zauberflöte 2003
Collaboration with Opera Company of Brooklyn and NYC College of Technology
Standalone virtual orchestra provided 100% of instrumental playback
25 channel immersive sound system with 32 discrete speakers
orchestral control of lighting and projection
Experiential learning project using Students from Entertainment Technology to crew and design the show.
Le nozze di Figaro 2004
Second collaboration with OCB
Virtual orchestra in preferred embodiment: enhancing a reduced ensemble of 10 acoustic instrumentalists by providing the other 24 instruments.
Students designed and built set, lighting, installed sound system, and handled all technical and management elements.
Cirque du Soleil
Extended VO capabilities to respond to the unpredictability inherent in circus acts.
Implemented these systems on four different Cirque productions
Telecom 99
Collaboration with Lucent Technologies in gestural control experiments
Use of a virtual orchestra system in a massively-multichannel immersive environment
321 audio speakers distributed around and within the audience seating to simulate the experience of sitting in the middle of an orchestra.
Produced by Phil Ramone
Performed by Natalie Cole