Brussels, November 7, 2012 – What happens when a prestigious symphonic orchestra and an innovating technology multinational meet? A musical revolution takes place! Brussels Philharmonic is the first orchestra in the world to replace its paper sheet music by Samsung GALAXY Note 10.1 tablets. This unique cooperation was launched at a world premiere in Flagey, in the centre of Brussels. Culture, craftsmanship and technology joined forces in ways that have never been seen before.

Since the 19th century, the way symphonic orchestras work has barely been touched. Think about it: every piece of sheet music has to be handed out to each of the more than hundred musicians participating in a play. This takes a lot of time, paper and meticulous work. It goes without saying that these documents are carefully kept for future use. As you can probably imagine, they have grown to take up quite a lot of space over all these years.  All in all, it’s a very labour-intensive, complex and ecologically unsound process.

Brussels Philharmonic goes 10.1
That is why the trend-setting, renowned orchestra Brussels Philharmonic set out to find a solution to optimize the way it works. Their search led them to NeoScores, a young Belgian software company that develops software specifically aimed at orchestras. Combined with Samsung’s GALAXY Note 10.1, the only tablet on the market that offers the necessary features to meet the high creative demands of a symphonic orchestra, this makes for a technological and musical world premiere.

A revolutionary step ahead
Brussels Philharmonic is the first orchestra in the world that will replace its paper sheet music with tablets. Samsung is giving each of the hundred musicians a GALAXY Note 10.1 with NeoScores’ software installed. The Galaxy Note 10.1’s smart S pen can be used to change the sheet music and share it between the conductor and the orchestra, the orchestra leader and the orchesta or individual musicians. From now on, they’ll be able to effortlessly switch back and forth between their sheet music with their GALAXY Note 10.1. What’s more, they’ll always have their sheet music at hand, wherever they go!

Making ecologically sound choices
This not only increases the orchestra’s efficiency in a substantial way, it also helps them cut down on paper. Thanks to the GALAXY Note 10.1, Brussels Philharmonic can now save a huge amount of paper - worth about 25 000€ ! This evolution also adds to the musicians’ comfort: all their sheet music is bundled in a 600 gram tablet that they can take wherever they go. From now on, Brussels Philharmonic travels light!

But these aren’t the only advantages the Samsung tablets offer the orchestra. Before, the people working for the orchestra spent several hours a day preparing and copying sheet music. This process has now become much more efficient, winning them precious time that they can use to optimize the daily activities of the orchestra and to work on new, progressive projects. The result? Better prepared musicians, and more musical quality. Another plus is that Brussels Philharmonic will be able to save all its sheet music digitally from now on, saving them a lot of storage space and money. 

Galaxy Note 10.1
Samsung’s GALAXY Note 10.1 is the most creative and smart tablet on the market. It is perfectly suited to the most graphics-intensive applications and the most demanding users. The GALAXY Note 10.1 comes with a smart S Pen that allows you to take notes and make sketches with utter precision. It can also be combined with digital content (S Note). And when you’re done, Shape Match will turn all your scribbles into a beautiful presentation or a neat report.

The GALAXY Note 10.1 comes with 16 GB of memory; more than enough to store ca. 1000 digital pages of sheet music and easily use several programs at the same time, even the more demanding graphic applications. Thanks to the Multiscreen, you can even use two applications side-by-side. And AllShare Cast allows you to exchange data with your computer or TV in no time.

Another handy feature for our musicians: Smart Stay keeps the screen active as long as they are looking at it. Their GALAXY Note 10.1 is also equipped with a special concert mode (similar to flight mode) to prevent distractions during the concert. What’s more, they can flip the page on their sheet music with a secured swype, which prevents them form accidentally skipping 10 pages or zooming.

The GALAXY Note 10.1 can be purchased from all general consumer electronics stores for a suggested retail price of 499 Euro.

High res images can be downloaded here.

Click on te link below to download videos about the current work flow of Brussels Philharmonic and the announcement of the collaboration:

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user : samsung
pass : event2012

Please don't delete images from the ftp.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2011 consolidated sales of US$143.1 billion.

Employing approximately 206,000 people in 197 offices across 72 countries, the company operates two separate organizations to coordinate its nine independent business units: Digital Media & Communications, comprising Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, and Digital Imaging; and Device Solutions, consisting of Memory, System LSI and LED.

Recognized for its industry-leading performance across a range of economic, environmental and social criteria, Samsung Electronics was named the world’s most sustainable technology company in the 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index. For more information, please visit http://www.samsung.com or call +32 (0)2 201 24 18.

Brussels Philharmonic was founded in 1935 and has played with world-renowned conductors, soloists and composers like Stravinsky, Messiaen and Bartok. The orchestra works from Flagey’s famous Studio 4 and performs concerts in Brussels, Belgium and the whole of Europe: the Amsterdam Concert Hall, Cité de la musique in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna, Salzburg, … Over the years, Brussels Philharmonic has gained an internationally recognized expertise in recording and playing film scores. It’s even received an Oscar for Best Soundtrack for its work for the film The Artist.

Brussels Philharmonic is a contemporary and progressive ensemble that keeps reinventing itself, not only as far as its artistic projects are concerned, but also in the way it works. The orchestra aims to be a pioneer on all levels. Its choice to partner up with Samsung, the world’s leading and most innovative technology brand, shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Brussels Philharmonic is performing concerts in November and December in Belgium (Bruges, Brussels, Ghent) and in France (Paris, Le Havre) and it will be touring in Germany (10 concerts, with a final concert in Berlin). More info can found on www.brusselsphilharmonic.be.

Follow Brussels Philharmonic on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, SoundCloud and the blog of Brussels Philharmonic.

Founded in 2009, neoScores is the first Internet Application that is capable of dynamically rendering Sheet Music in an ordinary Internet Browser without the use of any plugins. It is created by musicians, for musicians and will work on any device. The company's vision is to provide a tool that makes it easy to distribute, use, buy or sell Sheet Music, while keeping it's eyes on copy-right-infringements.

As a user, you can make and share annotations, select parts, customise parts (scaling, colors), define system-breaks, ... . In future, features like group-navigation, footpedal-pageturns (or even automated by audio) and score-editing will be implemented.

For more information, please visit http://www.neoscores.com and follow us Twitter.