Return to Brian Shepard's page. In the fall of 1999 while a professor at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Brian Shepard, pioneered the use of Internet2 to conduct private music lessons as well as master classes and performances at a distance. Since then, Internet2 videoconferencing technology has provided an extraordinary opportunity to develop musical and academic programs of instruction for a wide of range of educational and professional settings. Dr. Shepard is recognized as the world leader in the development and artistic implementation of this exciting technology and has been featured on CNN's Technology Week In Review and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as in Discover and Symphony magazines. With his move to USC, the Thornton School of Music can now reach out to students, professionals and music aficionados of all types in virtually any geographic region of the United States and abroad. Internet2 is a consortium of more than 200 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies to accelerate the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today's Internet in its infancy. Part of that development is in the arena of high-quality videoconferencing. As anyone who has spent any time on the Internet knows, the quality of audio and video is still rather primitive. Audio streams are usually thin and weak sounding, not to mention monaural, and the video quality is even worse. The typical video file on the Internet opens in a small window on the computer monitor and features grainy and jerky motion. The incredible bandwidth of Internet2, however, allows for real-time, bi-directional, full-motion, broadcast-quality video on a full-size television monitor with full fidelity, stereo--and even multi-track--audio. With that quality, comes the potential for finally using Internet videoconferencing for music applications. Ironically, when most people think of high-performance networking, they think in terms of the sciences. However, the arts and humanities have been one of the greatest benefactors of Internet2. If a scientific file is delayed a fraction of a second in moving from one location to another, there usually isn't much of a concern. However, even a few milliseconds of delay in a video or audio file can have catastrophic results. With Internet2, we can send and receive "DVD-quality" audio and video simultaneously. Thus, the quality allows a student and teacher to be in remote locations yet still see and hear each other well enough to make critical aesthetic judgments. Chronology of Dr. Shepard's Internet2 Activities October 12, 1999 Demonstrated the first Violin Master Class at the Internet2 Member’s Meeting in Seattle, Washington. In that demonstration, Felicia Moye, Professor of Violin at OU, taught one of her students located back in Oklahoma. October 20, 1999 Repeated the Violin Master Class Demonstration on the OU campus so faculty and administrators could see the possibilities of the technology. October 25, 1999 With money from the Provost’s Office at OU and EPSCoR, the OU School of Music was able to purchase a complete Litton CAMVision-2 Node unit. December 8, 1999 As a result of the Seattle presentation, he was asked to make a similar presentation at the Internet2 Technical Meeting in Miami, Florida. Additionally, Dr. Brian Shepard gave a talk on the capabilities of using MPEG-2 videoconferencing via Internet2 for teaching music. December 15, 1999 Conducted a videoconference demonstration with the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University. One of the initial goals in developing this technology was to expose students to some of the world's finest musicians and teachers. This demonstration gave us the opportunity to work with Patinka Kopec, Professor of Violin at the Manhattan School of Music, who worked with a several of our string students. It also gave us the opportunity to fully test the audio capabilities of the system, since we had audio engineering experts at both ends. Our final assessment was that the audio quality was quite good. January 19, 2000 Felicia Moye participated in the University of Delaware's Internet2 Awareness Day. She performed and collaborated with Lloyd Shorter, Professor of Oboe at UD, through the Litton CAMVision-2 codec. Part of her presentation was to explain to the audience how she taught using the technology and to give them ideas about how they could use it. February 2, 2000 Dr. Brian Shepard made several Internet2 presentations to the faculty and administration at Temple University on behalf of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). March 8, 2000 The School of Music participated in OU's Internet2 Awareness Day. We presented our Videoconference Master Class and fielded questions on its capabilities. April 27, 2000 Felicia Moye coached violinists of the New World Symphony in Miami via videoconference and several of her students auditioned for the New World Symphony's Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas. Summer, 2000 Dr. Eugene Enrico, Dr. James Faulconer and Dr. Brian Shepard along with undergraduate students Hunter Cadzow and Justin Moser, conducted further research on the musical applications of Internet2 with the help of a National Science Foundation "Research Experience for Undergraduates" grant. Specific areas studied were the streaming of high-quality video and the real-time streaming of MIDI data. September 25-28, 2000 The OU School of Music provided streaming video and audio content to the iLabs portion of the Networld+Interop technology show in Atlanta. October 28-November 2, 2000 Dr. Brian Shepard presented a talk entitled "Musical Developments on Internet2--Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going" at the annual Internet2 Member’s Meeting in Atlanta. In addition to his talk, the OU Symphony Orchestra made a virtual appearance at the Rialto Performance Event performing Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and the Oklahoma Brass Quintet performed two selections with four players in Norman and one in Atlanta via Internet2 Videoconference. November 20, 2000 Dr. Sally Faulconer, Dr. Kenneth Fuchs and Dr. Brian Shepard demonstrated the capabilities and potential of Internet2 in the teaching of music at the NASM conference in San Diego. Dr. Shepard’s article "Teaching Music Through Advanced Network Videoconferencing" was subsequently published in Proceedings, the official journal of the National Association of Schools of Music. May 10, 2001 Erin Dunn, Master’s Cello Student participated in an Internet2 private lesson taught by David Geber, Professor of Cello at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. This lesson was subsequently featured on NY1 Television and in The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 7, 2001 Dr. Brian Shepard, along with other members of the Internet2 community, participated in a panel discussion on “Arts and Humanities Uses of High-Bandwidth Internet Videoconferencing” at the INET2001 conference in Stockholm, Sweden. July 11-12, 2001 Dr. Brian Shepard taught “Videoconference Audio Techniques” to participants from approximately 40 Internet2 Member Universities at the Internet2 Video Production Workshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. July 18-19, 2001 Dr. Brian Shepard made several “virtual” musical and verbal presentations to visitors at the Ann Arbor Arts Fair in Ann Arbor, Michigan via Internet2. October 1-5, 2001 Due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Fall Internet2 Member’s Meeting was replaced by a Virtual Member’s Meeting conducted over video and telephone conference. Dr. Brian Shepard was scheduled to participate in several presentations and discussions at the meeting in Austin, Texas. One of his presentation concerning the archiving and dissemination of non-traditional theses and dissertations via Internet2 was given in a telephone conference. January 29, 2002 The OU School of Music collaborated with the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University for Broadway Local -- Exploring The Nitty-Gritty of a Musical Theater Career and the Auditions It Takes to Have One. September 1, 2002 Dr. Brian Shepard received a grant from the OU Research Council to upgrade the Litton CAMVision-2 codec to a Star Valley codec offering inter-compatibility with other MPEG-2 codecs as well as the ability to stream uncompressed audio and video, thus nearly eliminating the delay inherent in most videoconferences. October 29, 2002 The OU School of Music presented Stomp Dance--the Gathering of the Tribes to the 2002 Internet2 Member's Meeting in Los Angeles. In this demonstration, Creek Tribal dancers in Oklahoma taught the basics of the "Stomp Dance" to Native American youth living in the southern California area, and then danced together with them. January, 2004 Dr. Shepard presented a session on Audio for Musical Videoconferences via Internet2 to the 2004 Performance and Masterclass Production Workshop hosted by the New World Symphony September, 2004 Dr. Shepard presented his research on Echo Control in the Musical Videoconference to the Internet2 Fall Members Meeting in Austin, TX. January, 2005 Dr. Shepard presented workshops on Audio and Echo Control to the 2005 Performance and Masterclass Production Workshop hosted by the New World Symphony February, 2005 Sponsored by the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, Dr. Shepard made a series of presentations to faculty and staff at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the subjects of High-Bandwidth Videoconferencing and Audio for Videoconferencing. August, 2005 Dr. Shepard joins the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He brings with him his connections and expertise in musical videoconferencing and begins developing a distance learning program at USC. September 30, 2005 Dr. Shepard presented part of the keynote address on "Internet2 Applications in Teaching and Learning" to the Georgia State University System Southeastern Scholarship Conference on E-Learning. November, 2005 The Thornton School of Music purchases the necessary equipment to conduct very-high-bandwidth musical videoconferences over Internet2 from within the School of Music facilities. December 2, 2005 Dr. Shepard and the Thornton School of Music conduct their first Internet2 videoconference between Los Angeles and Miami, FL, connecting architect, concert hall designer, and USC alumnus, Frank Gehry (in LA) with filmaker, director, and actor, Sidney Pollack (in Miami) for the screening of Pollack's new documentary on Gehry at the Art Basel International Art Festival in Miami. January 30-February 1, 2006 Dr. Shepard presents classes on "Audio for the Musical Videoconference" at the Internet2/New World Symphony Masterclass Production Workshop. March 23, 2006 Dr. Shepard produces and directs From the North to the Future, an Internet2 Day for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. That event features presenters and performers from the USC Thornton School of Music, the New World Symphony, the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as from the Los Angeles and San Diego areas. April 26, 2006 Dr. Shepard is awarded the inaugural IDEA Award from Internet2 for his research in developing the protocols for teaching and performing music via high-performance networks like Internet2. May, 2006 The USC Thornton School of Music's ASI Auditorium is chosen as one of the sites for the USC Provost's Technology Enhanced Learning Initiative. The auditorium has been outfitted with audio, video, and videoconferencing equipment allowing us to dramatically increase our Distance Learning capabilities and take full advantage of the possibilities of Internet2 networking. October 13, 2006 Renowned composer Joan Tower discussed and played musical examples of her works for the USC Composers Forum in anticipation of the performance of her Violin Concerto by the Thornton Symphony Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Joan came to us via Internet2 from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. October 19, 2006 Conducting students and faculty participated in a conducting masterclass with Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas, Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony; via Internet2 from the New World Symphony's home in Miami Beach, Florida. January 28-30, 2007 Dr. Shepard presents classes on "Audio for the Musical Videoconference" at the Internet2/New World Symphony Masterclass Production Workshop. February 22, 2007 The Thornton School of Music joined music schools around the country in a national masterclass with cellist Yo Yo Ma presented from the stage of the New World Symphony in Miami, FL. March, 2007 The Thornton School of Music's Internet2-based Distance Learning Program was featured in EdTech Magazine. March 22, 2007 The Thornton School of Music presented it's Internet2-based Distance Learning to the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) CIO's conference.
Brian K. Shepard, DMA Assistant Professor of Pedagogical Technology Thornton School of Music University of Southern California 840 West 34th Street, MUS 308 Los Angeles, CA 90089-0851 Phone: 213.821.4152 Fax: 213.740.3217 Office Location: LPB G103 Email: brian.shepard@usc.edu www-rcf.usc.edu/~bkshepar/