BENGALURU: Things seem to be looking up for musicians and other artistes in the city. A new performance venue is making the pandemic ridden scenario look slightly less bleak, thanks to its audio, lighting and video infrastructure, with the addition of facility of live streaming one’s performance to a ticketed audience. Streamphony, a technology driven performance venue/cloud studio, has been founded by musician Debjeet Basu and Richard Andrew Dudley.
The idea behind the venue located in Frazer Town came about when Basu realised the shortcomings of live streaming a performance from one’s home space – inadequate sound, lighting and network issues.
On Saturday, Basu took to the stage along with his band Perfect Strangers India who performed a scintillating live set.
“We were discussing what can be done for the live music scene that has taken a halt and a lot of musicians expressed their concerns of not being able to earn due to the current situation. So we came up with this venue where musicians can come and play their show which will be streamed to an audience via a ticketed streaming platform – Skillbox,” says Basu.
He adds that the space was formerly a jam pad and was altered with new equipment to recreate a professional setup.
“We added a lot of elements with respect to lighting and sound, like a digital mixer and high quality drums in order to bring about the stage feel. It was a fairly big investment,” he says. Since opening its doors in early June, the venue has already witnessed performances featuring the likes of Cinema of Excess and Bruce Lee Mani.
“In July , we are planning a family corporate day where all the artistes will perform from the studio. This includes musicians, comedians and the families joining the live stream. So the venue can open doors for dance, theatre etc, as well. It’s all about supporting art,” asserts Basu.
City-based musicians have also expressed relief with the venue resolving their sound and lighting issues. Thermal and A Quarter frontman Bruce Lee Mani, who recently performed at the venue for a corporate event along with his band, stated that a major area of relief comes with respect to sound.
“We have done two gigs already which went really well. Earlier, sound was an issue. If we were to live stream in a home setup, unless you have a mixer, it doesn’t sound very nice,” says Mani, adding that syncing the sound to the audio and video while having a steady network connection was also an issue previously.
“All of these are crucial to stream a performance without interruptions,” he says.