REMOTE CONTROL WITH RICH COSTEY

THE DEATH OF AN INDUSTRY - CV19 LOCKDOWN 

The one positive thing that has come from the global CV19 pandemic is how people are forced into being more creative in the way we function and approach work. The challenges that the Governmental CV19 Regulations have introduced have presented huge challenges for the music industry, making any long-term investment insecure. This has killed the live music scene dead, from folk clubs, to theatres and festivals, all being unable to operate. Whilst there are many who’ve received substantial grants to support them through the experience, many like ARC have for whatever reason have not been eligible and have fallen through the system without any financial support whatsoever. The live music scene is largely the lifeblood of the many people who work in the music business. These include people such as music producers, studios, managers, agents, promoters and crews etc. The associated employment within the venues, theatres and festivals is significant and extensive. The damage to our industry has been exponential. This impacted me personally three weeks prior to lockdown where I experienced a number of projects being cancelled. This included an album project in Rome. Yes,Italy in-spring, cancelled...This horror was followed by the fast realisation that the year to follow would be completely written off. What I didn’t foresee is that 2021 could be impacted to a similar degree. Now being January and 2021 is still under review with no immediate sign of investment into live music and touring whatsoever. My personal losses run into tens of thousands of pounds. Due to my personal situation with family members contracting CV19, I was forced to go into self isolation. This term of isolation extended to 8 weeks with the prospect of no work for the foreseeable future. I also lost my elderly father during lockdown, unable to visit him in his care home. Nor was I able to attend his funeral. I imagine I’m not the only person who experienced challenges like this during lockdown. The one redeeming factor was the spring weather was spectacular. That combined with my rural location allowed me to socialise with my family in the garden and spend my days walking in the woods, gardening and making hazel hurdles. This rare sense of calm and no work demand felt very appealing, albeit for a few weeks. Then came the stark reality of this situation, together with the lasting damage it would cause to the music industry. This thought was bracing to say the least. I approached the CV19 situation no differently than any other challenge in my life; take small steps necessary to slowly progress forward to a more positive position. 

CREATE A FUTURE 

The team at ARC Studios agreed that rather than rest on our laurels and wait for something better to evolve, we would make the change required to allow people to work. We worked consistently throughout the CV19 lockdown designing a video streaming service for musicians to promote ​Pay Per View​ streamed events on a geolocation basis. Together we moved forward, albeit slowly and not without many technical challenges in order to produce comprehensive live streamed concerts. I’ll be writing a blog that features our Pay Per View streaming service in greater detail in the near future. 

We believe this product will only grow and develop beyond CV19 and become an integral part of an artist’s roster of work. The internet is definitely here to stay, and the technology that surrounds it is developing at an exponential rate, particularly where the interactive aspects of live streaming are concerned. 

Artists often dismiss the live and on-line experience as cold and not interactive. Whilst I recognise the weaknesses and the limitations, the technology is there to be developed and embraced. Our team here at ARC Studios are currently developing technologies to support a truly live experience for ​Pay per View​ Streaming. I’ll be writing updates and blogs about this shortly. As with attitudes in other fields of business, the announcement on todays new that business managers will no longer hop onto to flights for one-day meetings that could otherwise be conducted using on-line technologies. We’re witnessing quantum changes in many different businesses, utilising new approaches that embrace on-line technologies. The music business is no different.

DIGITAL PIONEERS 

“Imagine a high-quality audio feed, together with a video feed, chat, talkback and a screen share of Pro Tools being fed to your chosen destination, be it a car, or a high spec recording studio thousands of miles away?” 

The greater situation surrounding CV19 develops daily and as a result it’s hard to determine the duration and long term impact as a result of CV19. Rather than give up, ARC have embraced these unsettling changes and largely due to our associate company ​Span Networks​ who manage our high-spec networking, clouds and custom built computers, I consider ARC Studios to be pioneers in the field of remote music production. This new approach that we’ve embraced in the early days of lockdown proved worthy, embracing and exploiting new techniques and technologies that allow musicians and artists to function viably and economically outside of their traditional business models. Thankfully the constant demand for content and music is a huge part of that. A world without music would be unimaginable & I think people are realising this more now than probably ever before. 

So having received an enquiry from ​Polydor Records​ asking us if we could support a fast, and high resolution audio feed with a low ping rate that we could say “yes, no problem”. And we knew how to do it, and had it functioning immediately. I’m sure it’s been done before, however this is the first time I’ve heard of exactly this experience being utilised on a recording session with an American producer working from his studio in the US, with a band in a UK residential studio. It worked very well; The producer being grammy award winning ​Rich Costey​ working from his own SSL equipped studio in Vermont, receiving two high resolution audio feeds into his studio. Video coms were utilised via an Ipad with Facetime. To quote Rich Costey; 

“...It was great. It was completely fine...One of the things I liked about it was, I’m in my own control room, instead of some room in the UK that I’m not familiar with, so I can really hear what’s happening... I feel like when this all over, to a large degree things may go back to normal. But they might not... I think to a significant portion people are spread all over the place and they might just stay there...” 

I agree with Rich; witnessing the session operate and function without issue was reassuring. Nobody expressed any issues and communication was as rich and functional as a normal session. It may have even placed some time restraints on the session in that Rich was logging in to work and therefore his time was of a premium and everybody adhered to the daily schedule. This experience feels like it’s the future, and the technologies will only improve. I’m very proud that ARC have been pioneers in this field of transatlantic music production.As these technologies develop, so will the understanding and techniques of studios and producers allowing global opportunities that were previously unattainable.