The
Future
of Live Music
Co-Founder
Mixhalo
These are the voices behind the effort to bring next-gen wireless applications to the live music experience.
Co-Founder
Mixhalo
What is Mixhalo?
From the first time someone plugged in an amplifier or a microphone, technology has been a part of enhancing the live music experience and the connection between performer and audience. Now, that connection could take a leap forward, thanks to the power of Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, which is available in parts of select cities and venues. From high-quality audio piped directly to an audience member's headphones to contactless merchandise sales that could make long lines a thing of the past, next-gen applications could bring fans closer to the music and the concert memories they love.
Verizon 5G Lab
Christian Guirnalda
Director, Innovation
Mixhalo is a sound and mobile technology company that brings high-quality, real-time audio to users’ headphones through an app on their mobile device. Conceived by performing musicians, it delivers enhanced sound to concertgoers at a venue or music festival. With Mixhalo, audiences will hear artists’ performances in their truest form.
5G technology is something we're exceptionally excited about because of the [potential for] ultra-low latency. We’re able to be extremely agile and extremely lightweight.”
What makes this all possible is 5G Ultra Wideband and edge computing. To get that heavier file size at the speed of the drum beat, you need super-low latency. That’s why we’ve worked with Mixhalo to put a lot of their computation and all their AI at the edge of the network.”
I remember the first show I went to in New York City. The line to buy the t-shirt was around the block. In a 5G world, you don’t have to wait in line. You swipe the credit card, you walk into the store, you grab the t-shirt, and you're right back into the concert.”
Buying merch can be central to the concert experience, but long lines make it onerous. Installations such as Verizon's Express Shop, powered by 5G Ultra Wideband, offer contactless payment that allows festivalgoers to pick what they want and leave efficiently, getting them back to the show quicker and easier.
We sold out of what was in that store and had to restock it throughout the weekend. We hosted 175,000 fans this year, and we had such glowing reviews and social media posts [about] their Verizon experience.”
How could 5G transform festivals?
Music festivals are unique among live music events, bringing together dozens of artists and thousands of fans for multiple days of performance and celebration. Creative minds in the festival industry are already working to integrate the power of 5G Ultra Wideband, and the future is bright.
The idea of creating a new experience for somebody in the audience became something that I started thinking about all the time. That’s what Mixhalo offers: For a concertgoer, it offers a direct connection to an artist. It doesn’t get more intimate than that.”
What are contactless merchandise sales?
What are contactless merchandise sales?
Headliners
Mike Einziger
Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger
When we had the epiphany to upgrade everybody in the audience to studio-quality sound, we knew that we would need a new technology. In order to bring this technology to life, we needed to partner with the best people. Our partnership with Verizon unlocked the final magical piece.”
It's important for Gov Ball to be on the cutting edge of networking technology. We create strong connections at Governors Ball. We need a strong connection to make that happen.”
INTRO
What is Mixhalo?
What I liked about the Express Shop was that it moved things along very efficiently. Even though they had this amazing attraction, they knew that the strength of 5G Ultra Wideband would help move as many people in and out throughout the weekend as possible.”
We think about how a festival is operating: It's a little mini-city. We can have new types of commerce. Fans can experience personalized audio. These are the things that really get us excited about the future of the whole festival experience. And it's just a starting point.”
What if you could hold your phone up to the stage and see an amazing array of fireworks, or the times your favorite artists are playing? Augmented reality makes that feasible. We know that 5G technology is going to help equip our artists and fans with more power than ever."
Concerts come and go, but when it’s done right, there’s nothing like a music festival. Multiple stages pop up in the middle of a city park or on a farm, transforming these unassuming environments into the ultimate celebration of music, culture and community. Where else can you gather under the open sky with tens of thousands of friends, old and new, listening to literally dozens of your favorite artists over the course of a single weekend? Music festivals deliver that experience, and it’s one that technology like 5G Ultra Wideband could be poised to enhance and evolve in the future.
Whether it’s addressing pain points like lines at merchandise and concessions stalls, connecting attendees in the social sphere or allowing artists to interact with their fans in new and innovative ways, 5G Ultra Wideband connectivity is already making an impact on the festival industry. It’s allowing anyone who walks through a festival’s gates to not only better curate their own distinct experience, but also to spend less time focused on logistics and more time watching performances and interacting with friends and fellow festivalgoers.
So, what does the future hold? The promoters who put on the world’s biggest music festivals are hard at work keeping their events on the cutting edge of the tech curve, looking at features such as augmented reality as a way to further connect their attendees to the creative energy they came to see. It’s an exciting, new frontier for artists, fans and the promoters bringing them together, and it stands to potentially transform what we expect a music festival to be.
Live sound at a concert or festival can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you’re hearing perhaps the purest expression of the music you love. On the other hand, you’re at the mercy of sound systems that aren’t always of the finest quality, with even changes in where you’re standing relative to the stage affecting the fidelity of the signal that reaches your ears.
The makers of Mixhalo want to remove this pain point by utilizing mobile devices and the power of Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband to beam a mix directly from the sound board to the audience’s headphones. Founded by Mike Einziger, guitarist for the rock band Incubus, and Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger, a violinist who has performed with everyone from pop stars to legendary film composers, Mixhalo deploys scalable antennae to transmit high-quality audio from a venue’s sound system to either the company’s proprietary app or the venue’s or event’s app. The result is crystal clear sound mixed to perfection and played via mobile device.
For avid festivalgoers focused on the sound coming directly from the stage, it might not make immediate sense, but the makers of Mixhalo speak often about the “Mixhalo smile”: the look on a music lover’s face when they hear the level of fidelity the application delivers. And at events like music festivals, there is a range of uses that could include allowing attendees to preview performances at stages other than the one where they’re currently situated. With Mixhalo’s signal, delivered with ultra-low latency by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, live music can sound better than ever.
A new way to
buy merchandise
How could 5G transform festivals?
* Global claim from ‘Quantifying the mmWave 5G experience in the US, July 2021’ and ‘5G Global Mobile Network Experience Awards, 2021’, based on Opensignal independent analysis of mobile download speed measurements recorded during January 1 – June 30, 2021 © 2021 Opensignal Limited.
** America's most reliable network based on rankings from the RootMetrics® US National RootScore® Report 1H 2021. Tested with the best commercially available smartphones on 3 national mobile networks across all available network types combined. Not a specific finding as to 5G networks.
This article was paid for by Verizon and created by Yahoo Creative Studios. TechCrunch editorial staff did not participate in the creation of this content.
From Verizon:
Nobody builds 5G like Verizon builds 5G. More servers for network reliability. Broader spectrum for more 5G Ultra Wideband speed. Smarter towers for better 5G coverage. 5G Ultra Wideband, the fastest 5G in the world.* This is 5G built right from America’s most reliable network.**
Learn more about Verizon 5G at verizon.com/5G.
FEATURE
LIVE audio
reimagined
FEATURE
Here’s how it’s happening, as told by those bringing the next evolution in networked music technology to life.
Mixhalo and Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband bring live sound to a new level
Founders Entertainment
Alex Joffe
Head of Partnerships
The future is 5G. It's not just in your pocket, it's in the concert hall that you go to, it's at the festival to pop up these experiences, and it's going to transform everything. How do you extend my relationship with music in a way that follows me throughout my daily life? That's the sort of frontier that we're trying to forge together with artists. When they get excited, it gets us excited. And really, what we want to do is unlock their creative vision to make it the new standard in how folks experience music with technology.”— Christian Guirnalda
Getting fans the merchandise they want without wasting time in line
Seeing a live music performance is essentially an ephemeral experience, with both band and audience sharing a moment that passes once the last note is played. One way fans can attempt to preserve the memory of what they’ve witnessed is by purchasing commemorative merchandise, and there’s a robust market for it.
With Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, venues and promoters can eliminate these negatives and allow fans to pick up their precious mementos and return more quickly to the music they came to see. In fact, contactless merchandise sales have already been activated at music festivals like BottleRock Napa Valley, Sea Hear Now in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and New York City’s Governors Ball Music Festival, thanks to Express Shops powered by Verizon 5G.
The setup is simple: Fans swipe their credit card for entry to the merchandise installation, then simply pick up what they want and exit. Their payment is processed without any direct transaction or contact with sales personnel, providing an easy, quick purchasing experience. Thanks to 5G and edge computing, picking up that limited edition poster or coveted band t-shirt can be a safer, more convenient affair that won’t interfere with catching every note of the music a fan came to the concert or festival to hear.
THE FutURE OF FESTIVALS IS 5G
FEATURE
Music festivals look to the future with 5G Ultra Wideband
Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and the future of live music
Music’s relationship with technology is constantly evolving. With the ultra-low latency of Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, which is available in parts of select cities, this evolution can take a leap forward. Applications such as Mixhalo and contactless merchandise sales could be just the first steps for artists and promoters in transforming the experience of what it’s like to attend and take in a live show. As more musicians and venues come to embrace this technology, fans stand to be connected to the music they love in ways they’ve never imagined possible.
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INTRO
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What is Mixhalo?
LIVE audio
reimagined
FEATURE
What are frictionless merchandise sales?
A NEW WAY TO
BUY MeRCHANDISE
FEATURE
FAST FORWARD
WITH 5G
How 5G Powers
Live Music