Or, using old school analog for better results!
All of my musical and dance friends have run into the same roadblock with online technology: the huge delays over the web. The delays of 100 mSec to over a second make it impossible to sing, dance, play music, or have any other kind of real time coordination. And there’s no easy solution for it; that delay (called latency) is inherent in most digital systems.
However, for some use cases there’s a simple and practical alternative: old style FM broadcasting.
Going old school offer these benefits:
Low latency
I’ve verified my sample FM transmitter/receiver system end to end latency is well below human detection, less than 1 mSec. Even professional musicians rarely perceive latencies below 10 mSec, so this small latency is more than suitable.
Simple
Analog FM radio is inherently a one-to-many system, so it’s great for teaching larger groups. There no complicated passwords or pairing to fuss with, just tune to the right station.
Sound levels are private and controllable
You won’t be blasting other noncombatants nearby, and each student can adjust their volume for their personal comfort.
Reliable
Drive in theaters have used this technology for years, as have silent discos.
Cheap
Pocket radio receivers are available for under $20, good transmitters are appx $100-$150
I’ll explain how this can work by using examples of a dance class or singing group. This gathering is typically a teacher with music and a loud voice :-), and the students who are dancing or singing along to the music and, receiving instructions & corrections from the teacher.
If you try this over the internet, you promptly discover you can neither synch with the teacher nor the other students. Usually what happens is all the students mute their mics, then everyone sings along with the teacher. The teacher can’t hear the students, nor can the students hear each other.
If you move your class outside, you need a large enough location that allows a PA. Then you have to lug it down there, power it, then you discover it has to be really loud for everyone to distance properly, then it annoys other people, etc.
However, if each student brings a FM pocket radio and a headset, you can broadcast to them silently. The teachers transmitter broadcasts the music, and bonus! you can easily add a mic for the teacher too, saving the voice from strain. If a student dislike earbuds or headphones, a smallish portable radio will suffice
For singing, the students will be spaced a bit, so it may be difficult to hear the other singers. But if the teacher is also singing, everyone can hear them and the sound will be in synch with the visual cues as well.
Last Updated on 2020-08-02 by Daev Roehr