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Category: Announcements

08Jul 2009

L2Ork Hemis Spotted in the Wild

Posted in Announcements

This being the last week of our summer project, I feel rather good as we’ve accomplished most if not all of the goals set back in the Spring of 2009. We’ve:

Researched the most cost-efficient version of the L2Ork hardware and supporting infrastructure;
Designed, prototyped, and developed L2Ork version of the hemispherical speakers;
Produced mono and 6-channel versions of cables so that the 6-cone speakers can be driven as a mono or multichannel sound system with simply swapping the speaker cable;
Optimized Ubuntu 9.04 Linux distribution for L2Ork use;
Overhauled Linux GUI for the Pure-Data rapid multimedia prototyping and development software platform (no worries, we’ll be posting source soon);
Prepped 12 out of 17 MSI Wind netbooks for the Fall L2Ork curriculum (we should hopefully take care of the rest tomorrow);
Developed a threaded version of the wiimote Pd external that is Pd-audio-thread safe and dramatically lowers latency for the LED and vibration feedback (source distribution coming soon);
Designed branding logo and produced the L2Ork website (based on the amazing WordPress);
Shot tons of instructional footage, and photos, some of the said footage has been already produced (thanks Maya!) and is available on the DISIS Youtube channel and L2Ork media pages (and more coming soon!);
Painted tons of wiimotes and nunchuks black (yeah, we also heard about the E3’s big announcement regarding upcoming release of the black wiimotes but we simply did not want to wait until the end of the year for the cool stuff to hit eastern shores of the Pacific);
Designed and prototyped cost-efficient netbook performance holster, and
Secured additional partners and sponsors.

Finally, as promised, we are sharing our first photos of the L2Ork hemispherical speakers with the World. Enjoy!

07Jul 2009

Light at the End of the Tunnel…

Posted in Announcements

Is It a Hemi or an IKEA Salad Bowl?

It’s been a while since we posted anything, and with a good reason–we’ve been tremendously busy building speakers and supporting infrastructure. By Friday (June 26th) we had our first speaker up and running and the excitement was at an all-time-high. Once the rest of the cables, faceplates, and other supporting hardware were prepped, the remaining speakers progressed at a staggering pace. Consequently, last week we built the remaining 15 L2Ork speakers in less than four days. Special thanks go to all L2Ork worker bees for such a fine job! We should be posting photos shortly, so stay tuned!

17Jun 2009

And so it has begun…

Posted in Announcements

Greetings all L2Ork enthusiasts! I am pleased to report that as of May 25th, 2009, DISIS has embarked on its implementation of what is to the best of my knowledge the first Linux Laptop Orchestra in the World. Despite a shaky economy, over the past year we’ve been extremely lucky in securing funds and sponsorships for this project. Apart from our external sponsors who at this point include MSI Computer, Roland Corporation, and Sweetwater, I would like to extend special thanks to the Virginia Tech Stakeholders who have made this project a reality.

Our summer research consists of the following milestones:

Identifying optimal configuration for speakers and other supporting hardware
Design, prototyping and production of hemispherical speaker systems
Optimization of the Linux platform
Development of the supporting software infrastructure

Inspired by the successes of the Princeton (PLOrk) and Stanford (SLOrk) Laptop Orchestras, our main aim is to produce the infrastructure necessary to support a 15-member Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork), while pursuing cost optimization and maintaining of a maximum compatibility with the two existing orchestras. While in the long-run we anticipate using Chuck and Supercollider, in the short-term we are focusing primarily on Pure-Data as our DSP platform of choice.

It is indeed my great pleasure to announce that the project has attracted an interdisciplinary team, consisting of Faculty from Art (Prof. Eric Standley), Engineering (Dr. Tom Martin), and Music/DISIS/CCTAD (yours truly), as well as Students (Art, CS, Engineering, Music).

In addition to our internal and external sponsors, L2Ork is also in part supported by the NSF’s Research Experience for the Undergraduates (REU) program. I am also pleased to announce L2Ork’s partnership with the Linuxaudio.org consortium that offers invaluable resources to the Linux audio community.

Our summer project is set to end on July 17th, 2009. Coming this fall, we plan to introduce a pilot curriculum in support of the new found ensemble. We hope to have a public debut sometime in early December of 2009. In the meantime, we will use this blog to share our progress with the World. So, if L2Ork is your cup of tea, stay tuned for updates as we continue to fill this site with content.