Acoustic transportation

Acoustic transportation is a process that was developed by John Maxwell Hobbs and David Hykes.

In 1995, Hobbs and Hykes worked together with Lauren Dyer Amazeen, Michel Redolphi and Luc Martinez to created the Virtual Abbey. The Virtual Abbey was the first realization of acoustic transportation a process in which the acoustics from a distant location are applied to source signals in real time. In this case, a performance by Hykes and the Harmonic Choir at The Kitchen was placed in the acoustic space of le Thornet Abbey in southern France using ISDN lines and a low-latency hardware audio codec. A camera crew from French television transmitted video of the abbey to the performance space in New York, while images of the group were sent to France. There were audiences in both locations for the performance. Additionally, the ambient noises produced by the audience in New York were transmitted as well in order to create the sense of the concert being completely located in the abbey.