Interesting, where do you get this service?
It is from the Berlin Philharmonic
Digital Concert Hall.
This all started before the digital era. Their long time principal conductor Herbert Von Karajan, was a techy, and predicted the Internet, before anyone I know of. So he had all the concerts recorded on videotape from the earliest days of that technology. Those concerts are now in the archive of the Digital Concert Hall. He was also a pilot, and had a fondness for fast cars, and drove them fast.
15 years ago the BPO stated streaming their concerts on the Internet. It was difficult back then, and there were lots of problems especially with buffering. I joined in 2012, and it was hit and miss if you had a good experience. However over 12 months or so there was rapid improvement.
I have have had an interest in digital audio going back 40 years now. I stated recording concerts digitally back in 1984, and I think one of the very first to make digital recordings for broadcast in the US. I built my first DAW in 2002, which was really cutting edge back then to do digital editing. Prior to that I adopted dbx 1 outboard to me 15 ips reel to reel recorders in 1973
I had two massive surgeries in 2007, and spent at least a month and a half of that year in hospital.
After that my colleagues thought I best retire due to the pressure cooker of the ICU. So I retired to our lake home on Benedict Lake where I had moved my equipement and built my first AV room 2005/6.
Once I got there, I had time on my hands and I was approached by some UK CD labels. How they tracked me down I have no idea. Anyhow the problem they wanted solved was the download a perfect CD image. Streaming was not practical then. The problem was making sections seamless, without a break, and at the same time able to be selected from an Index. For instance in a Bach cantata the numbers have to play seamlessly without a break, but you need to be able to find them from the index on the case.
With a huge help from my eldest son, who is an expert programmer and chief of that department at the company he works for, the problem was cracked. Strange as it may seem the first CD image to allow this was uploaded deep in the woods of the Paul Bunyan Forest on the shores of Lake Benedict MN.
The big problem was that the connection was copper, and fiber connections uncommon at that time.
So I worked with the local phone cooperative, Paul Bunyan out of Bemidji and we came up with the design of a passive optical fiber network for Internet and TV. This was a PON (Passive Optical Network). Much to my surprise we had this whole vast area of Minnesota connected in no time in 2010. This was the first network in the US to have all customers on fiber.
This is the cable layer at our Benedict Lake home.
But the cable layer broke down on the steep slope next to my neighbors home. Now the thing was hydraulic drive and when the engine stops the wheels don't move! Anyhow it happened at the right place. I pulled it up the hill with the powerful winch I had installed in my 1948 Willys Jeep CJ2A. I managed to get it up to my shop.
I soon established that it needed a new mechanical diesel lift pump. The fuel hoses were in bad condition so I replaced them. While waiting for the new fuel pump, I redesigned and modified the cable release in the rear. The cable needed to be taken in and out often, and it required wrenches and made the process laborious. So I designed and built a lever snap in/snap out attachment. It worked beautifully and the crew were thrilled with it.
So they got a free repair and an upgrade.
So in September 2010 we had a fiber connection to the house. It was faster than what I can get from Comcast here in Eagan in the Twin Cities.
Paul Bunyan needed far less roadside booster units and the system was much more reliable. They also could provide cable TV service to this region, where terrestrial coverage was poor, and the other option a satellite dish. That is not the best option in heavily wooded areas.
So that has been some of my involvement in digital transmission.
