Callaba Launches Dual-Camera Streaming Option
Enforced restrictions are a perfect time to learn something new. Schools that used to provide offline education began to actively explore options of working online. Most individual teachers followed the same way and for many of them it was a brand new experience. Everybody faced challenges of conducting classes, receiving and checking homework and resolving the most crucial issue — where to communicate with the students? Classes that do not not require constant student-teacher interactions avoid some of the issues by creating video lessons or tutorials for students to follow. And those where direct contact is a must have encountered difficulties in adapting to the new realities.
Drum lessons require constant interaction between the teacher and the student, and that contact is not available in a strict self-isolation regime. Learning to play a musical instrument online is really far from in-person lessons with a teacher who can control the process.
We asked Daniel Kornev, the drum teacher, about the inconveniences he faces teaching the drums in the “alone with the monitor” mode:
In contrast to in-person communication, not all the nuances can be transmitted through online. In my online lessons, I have to talk a lot more than I’m used to and maintain a quite intense interaction. This makes the process more complicated, but on the other hand, some issues can be discussed in a really great detail.
As a drum teacher, I need to see students’ hand moves to highlight their errors in technique and show how to fix them.
So I need some way to interact in real time as if me and my students are in the same room. I manage to cope with these challenges with Callaba.
How did you come to use Callaba service for teaching?
Before the quarantine, I used to live a happy offline life and didn’t delve into researching such platforms. And now I communicate with everybody solely via monitor.
From all the services that I’ve tried, I really like Callaba. This is the first free platform allowing using two cameras that I came across.
Learning to play the drums means learning to control your body. And I mean the whole body, the hands, the feet, and the head of course. And one extra thing : the time. It’s intense and if talking about online classes, there are limitations that simply cannot be completely removed, only reduced to a certain limit.
What features help to cope with the existing limitations when carrying out music lessons?
• Sharing several cameras allows seeing movement from different angles. This helps to spot student’s mistakes and promptly correct the technique. In turn, it is easier for a student to repeat the moves, since one can observe the teacher from multiple angles too.
• Additional camera can be connected via usb.
• You can also share your desktop in real time, without losing visual contact. This feature is good for online demonstrations and
Using the dual-camera mode provides the closest to an in-person lesson experience.
It seems to me that Callaba is a promising service. Everybody who has no job opportunity other than music has moved online. It’s the only market left. I think that in the near future more and more content will become paid. Paid online concerts and streams already exist. In this regard, I believe such a service has a good chance to take its niche, especially if it’s basic options will remain free.
I theorize that this isolation situation will boost the evolution of virtual reality technologies. The future is already here, large festivals are held in VR for example. Though this is interesting, I’m not excited about it. Everybody knows telecom companies and social media platforms are collecting our personal data, and now, when people are mostly interacting online, spying on people has become even easier.
I don’t want to live in a digital state. And it is nice that Callaba encrypts both data flows and sessions.
And what are the new things you’ve started learning during self-isolation? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? Please share with us in comments.
Teacher — Daniil Igorevich Kornev
Has been playing the drums since 2004, teaching — since 2016. Unalterable drummer in Pressor, Rudda Sounds, Dead Man Tells, and Svoi groups. Has a rich experience in concert and studio activities both in Russia and in Europe.
