World’s First BitTorrent Powered Live Streamed Concert
Written by Ernesto on October 24, 2009A unique event takes place today in a movie theater in the north of Norway. Using the Swarmplayer software developed by the EU-funded P2P-Next project, for the first time ever a live concert will be broadcasted on the Internet utilizing BitTorrent technology.
The Far North Living Lab was started by the Northern Research Institute (Norut) and aims to create a platform for digital creativity. Earlier this year the lab kicked off with a spectacular experiment in which they used the Tribler BitTorrent client to stream a 2K resolution film onto the big screen.
For that experiment the stream was only broadcasted to a select group of people and not the entire Internet. Today, however, the lab’s researchers will launch their second BitTorrent streaming experiment on a much bigger scale, as they will broadcast a live stream of a live music performance for all the world to see.
“The setup is very simple at the cinema – we have a standard computer connected to audio and video mixers, which then feeds the P2P network,” Dr. Njål Borch, a senior researcher involved in the project told TorrentFreak.
The software they use to stream the performance is from the EU-funded P2P-Next project and several of the partners are also donating bandwidth for the experiment to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
The performance will take place at Aurora Kino in Tromsø as a part of the Insomnia electronic music festival. To spice things up, the lab is also sending a live feed to the Notch festival in Beijing, which is running in parallel with Insomnia, and to Skjervøy kulturhus in the far north of Norway.
However, since the broadcast is public this time, everyone with an Internet connection can tune in. The only thing required to watch the stream is the Swarmplayer software, or a browser plugin (Windows only). Both are linked on the project’s website.
According to Borch, this BitTorrent live streaming experiment is not just a proof of concept, it might eventually play a significant role in the future of live streaming on the Internet.
“If the scalability is good for live streaming, this can increase the amount of viewers without massive bandwidth bills. Another effect, which I am currently very much a fan of, is that adding more bandwidth is very easy – put up a seedbox and hand it the torrent. No administration otherwise necessary,” he told TorrentFreak.
Anyone who would like to be part of this world premiere can tune in at 5 pm CET when the broadcast will start. If all goes well you’ll be able to see a live performance of a new soundtrack to Pudovkin’s 1926 film, “Mother”.
Update: The broadcast ended and it’s replaced by a 5 minute clip of the concert so people can still test the streaming technology. It was a great success with visitors from all over the world.
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31 Responses
It’s a coool story.
Are we supposed to be able to watch anything yet for test? :S
third party player needed
“Another effect, which I am currently very much a fan of, is that adding more bandwidth is very easy – put up a seedbox and hand it the torrent. ”
yep, I wish every person who put out torrents did that. It would alleviate the “slow seed be patient” when files first arrive. I have even seen some distribute 4 gig files stuck behind a 8KB upload and that is the releaser to bittorrent. If a seedbox is avalable, please use it if you can. There are boxes for every1.
uTorrent, TorrentFlux & wTorrent -Comparison of Seedbox Uls.
http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=47968
It’s sad that they try and claim this as some kind of first. The video streaming clients you can find in china – like pplive, ppstream, qq’s offering, etc etc – have been doing this kind of thing for years. Years. Live broadcasts, all powered by their own version of bittorrent. That it’s taken tribler so long to ramp up to this shows the glacial pace of academic development compared to what you can achieve with a skilled team of cheap programmers out in China.
6th!
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A plugin that’s made with EU backing? Uhm, thanks but I need more info, a whole lot more, before I’d even consider installing that.
“next generation Peer-to-Peer (P2P) content delivery platform, to be designed, developed, and applied jointly by a consortium consisting of high-profile academic and industrial players with proven track records in innovation and commercial success.”
High profile players eh, commercial success eh.
well I’m out.
list of thpse ‘players’
http://www.p2p-next.org/?page=content&id=264A360A217FB3FE8BD82CB9C928CBCF&mid=6BED2EAC3D127503EF53456A25D9204E
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Nice to see P2P used for purposes like these which will remove its bad name.
http://Pirlog.com
Go Norway!
It’s currently running and works like a charm
yet another way for geeks and nerds to remain in their closet, instead of, say, buy tickets and go see the concert for yourself. pathetic fools…
The demo works fine, but when I click on the live feed URL on the site for the Kino stream I get only the plain text announce URL showing up in the browser, nothing else…
I can haz DRM?
It failed miserably.
it’s a fail
@devil
and everybody lives in norway=?
Well I hope this technology will become popular!
Congratulations, BitTorrent, you’ve finally proven that you have legal uses.
Now to get rid of all the illegal uses.
Fail Troll fails
I’ve set up a 5 minute re-live loop from the concert, so even though it has finished, you can still try the player. Also put in a link to the Linux player. :)
We read all feedback, so please do drop us a line!
Wow, Live concerts, it just doesnt get any better than that dude. Nice!
JS
http://www.anonymous.ua.tc
it works :D
@Reasoned Tard
Bittorrent can’t “get rid” of illegal use. Maybe you should ask the cars themselves to stop people from speeding.
I swear you must be severely microcephalic.
@25 (DiarRIAA):
I don’t see how “Now to get rid of…” corresponds to me asking BitTorrent to get rid of them. Perhaps you missed the “to” before “get”.
22 Oct 25, 2009 at 10:33 by Njål Borch
I’ve set up a 5 minute re-live loop from the concert, so even though it has finished, you can still try the player. Also put in a link to the Linux player. :)
We read all feedback, so please do drop us a line!
you NEED to use ‘MultiCast-DHT Tunnels’ ;)
http://bamboo-dht.org/tutorial.html
“Marcel has also written a report about his experiences building a multicast protocol on top of Bamboo. It may also be useful for tutorial purposes. ”
this is just one of your potential Key bases to expand from, and bypass the majority of the worlds larger ISP’s filtering of Multicast packsts for NO GOOD REASON to and from the worlds end users kit sat on their desks….
MultiCast-DHT Tunnels are good, make them, people will come and they will use them.
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Seasoned Swine,
How about the fact that BitTorrent has had legal uses since it was created?
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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. Nice post!
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