International. UpChord Music, a training school for music productions based in Beijing, has broadcast its courses to students from all over the world with different ATEM Mini Pro and ATEM Mini mixers.
Founded in 2016, UpChord Music is dedicated to providing training on musical productions, within which are arrangements, composition, soundtrack and sound design for those who want to be professionals in this discipline.
UpChord is not like other traditional schools, in which teachers play the keyboard and not all students have the possibility to see their hands, or teachers cannot write the musical notes on the board while improvising on the piano. To solve these types of problems, UpChord employs an in-house developed system, JoyChord, which captures the teacher's hands and fingers, converts them into musical notes and displays them on screens, all in real time.
"We didn't offer online classes until, in 2019, the Shanghai Theatre Academy asked us to teach their students musical performance, because we didn't want to waste a lot of time traveling between Beijing and Shanghai," said Zhiheng Wang, founder of UpChord Music.
When we started with online classes, UpChord's main concern was to make sure that the quality of teaching was the same as that of classroom classes. "Online classes are not simply video conference calls. As a professional facility for music training, we need to show our students 1080p HD images with optimal quality stereo sound and low latency, which would not be possible when using a smartphone or webcam."
With the help of alumni of China University of Communications, where most graduate students are professionals in the film and broadcast industries, Wang created an online teaching system by combining the JoyChord method with an audio-visual mixer.
"The first AV mixer we used cost over $15,000 and offered support for 1080i60 formats. But we realized that interlaced images do not meet our requirements, because the lines in musical notations appear moved in this type of format. We discovered a solution to this problem, but soon realized that the scores did not look nice. So, we started looking for a better mixer that supports the HD 1080p format."
"In addition, we wanted it to be as compact as possible, since the idea was to have the opportunity to put it in a backpack and take it anywhere we had to make presentations in different universities and schools. We chose Blackmagic Design's ATEM Television Studio HD model, which supports 1080p formats and is so compact that, together with the HyperDeck Studio Mini recorder, they only occupy one rack unit."
"When they announced the ATEM Mini, it surpassed everything I thought such a small mixer could offer. Also, what caught my attention the most was the ability to convert and sync fonts automatically, which is great for beginners. Simply connect the cables and the device takes care of the rest. Even the audio tools are exceptional. Therefore, we bought it without any doubt."
The launch of the new ATEM Mini Pro model caught his attention again in April, when innovative features such as live webcasting, H.264 recording and simultaneous image monitoring were incorporated. "We added it to our work dynamic as well. The way it is operated is the same as the original ATEM Mini. When we gave them to our teachers, who had been streaming online with the ATEM Mini, they quickly became familiar with the new model."
"With this online teaching solution created with the ATEM Mini Pro model, when the coronavirus outbreak forced most institutions to pause their classes, we had the possibility to move all courses online immediately. Live streaming also helped us jump geographical barriers, allowing more exceptional teachers from around the world to come together via the Internet and share with their students more top-quality content and greater diversity," Wang concluded.
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