From the concert hall, to the world
3 April 2025.
How much do you know about our concert livestreams?
Our CEO Caroline Sharpen recently had the pleasure of sharing some little-known facts about what it takes to beam our performances around the world.
Caroline's speech to concert goers emphasised that the TSO’s home at Federation Concert Hall in Hobart is much more than just a live-performance venue.
It is also one of Australia’s most important cultural export hubs. Below is an excerpt from Caroline's speech and some context relating to Hobart’s proposed stadium.
Read on to discover more about the TSO’s far-reaching impact, the specialist team that makes it possible, and why it needs protection.
Caroline Sharpen
Thanks for joining me. There are a few interesting, quirky and not-so-obvious things about tonight’s concert that I thought I’d share.
First, there are 800 square metres of absorbative acoustic material (essentially high-tech woollen drapes) in housings around the walls of the hall.
They’re like individual electronic blinds and we configure them to suit the ‘sound world’ for every piece of music we perform.
There are 32 microphones positioned around the orchestra and the set-up is different for each concert.
Our ABC sound team spends hours configuring the microphones during rehearsal to achieve the right blend of sound for broadcast and streaming via ABC Classic.
We also have eight cameras dotted around the auditorium, giving our online viewers more than 300 viewpoints of the orchestra, conductor and soloists.
All of this, we installed during Covid – making Federation Concert Hall one of the finest concert halls in the world and one of Australia’s most important cultural export hubs.
This orchestra is the most recorded, broadcast, filmed and streamed orchestra in the country.
In a few months, tonight’s concert will be available on ABC iView – free to watch for every Australian.
And it will be sent to Amsterdam, where the TSO is the only orchestra representing Australia on the global streaming platform Symphony.Live.
TSO concerts are streamed live and available for delayed viewing.
Multiple cameras give our online viewers more than 300 viewpoints of the orchestra, conductor and soloists.
In the week before each concert, our Stream Team meets to plan the visual capture of the concert.
This is a highly skilled team that includes a musician, a producer, a vision switcher and subtitler.
Their job is to take the audience inside the ensemble, so our online audience can see the crucial moments up close.
When a musicians has an extraordinary solo, the Stream Team’s job is to be ready with the perfect shot, so you see the soloist’s face, fingers and every breath they take.
The video stream is the only opportunity an audience will get to see the face and gestures of the conductor in the Federation Concert Hall front-on.
The Stream Team has coined some fantastic names for some of our Chief Conductor Eivind’s best moves (my hot tip – watch out for the ‘light sabre’ in moments of high drama!).
The specialist Stream Team captures crucial moments in close-up.
The team has nicknames for Chief Conductor Eivind Aadland's signature moves.
When you come to a TSO performance in our concert hall, there are some things you won’t see, such as:
- Audiences joining us around Tasmania in Uniting AgeWell residential care,
- The NW community joining us at the UTAS campus in Burnie,
- Live screenings in community halls around Tasmania, in places like Deloraine, and Whitemark on Flinders Island,
- Or all the viewers dotted around Australia and overseas who are tuning in from home.
This facility and the people in it are what makes all of this possible.
The TSO adjusts the acoustic absorption and microphone set-up for each concert, to suit the ‘sound world’ for every piece of music we perform.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, I reckon it’s pretty interesting. But also because everything here is at risk.
You may have seen media reporting around the Macquarie Point Multipurpose Stadium Project of State Significance Draft Integrated Assessment Report (draft IAR), which is open for public comment until 8 May 2025.
You can read the full Draft IAR here.
In the draft Impact Assessment report, the Panel finds the operation of the stadium may affect the Federation Concert Hall and operation of the TSO’s varied activities. It also finds that construction noise is ‘likely to be incompatible with the activities occurring at the Federation Concert Hall’. It further notes that noise mitigation approaches outlined by the stadium proponent ‘may not be sufficient to mitigate the effect construction stage noise has on the current operation at the Concert Hall’.
Our sincere hope is that the Panel’s final report includes a strong recommendation that: the TSO, its concert hall, recording studio and cultural export hub activities, are protected during and after the construction of a stadium.
Everyone can make a representation to the Commission until midnight on 8 May 2025 via the online representation form on the Commission website.
Representations may also be submitted by post to Tasmanian Planning Commission, GPO Box 1691, HOBART TAS 7001.
Further information:
In the coming weeks, we hope our friends and supporters will join us in advocating fiercely for the protection of our cultural export hub here in Hobart.
Let me assure you that there could be no more talented, dedicated and passionate ambassadors than the musicians, choristers and staff of the TSO.
We’re 77 years young and standing on the shoulders of giants. Dancing at the intersection of discipline (every skill we’ve honed since childhood) and daring (stretching the edges of what’s comfortable or even possible).
Thank you so much for joining us.
Support Your Orchestra.
Learn more about the potential impacts of a Macquarie Point stadium on the TSO.
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