A recital by Lang Lang, considered the best pianist today, kicked off the commemorative events for Telefónica’s centenary, which will be celebrated this year. For more than an hour, and before about 1,200 guests, the Chinese maestro performed pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Manuel de Falla on February 26. The setting: the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
“Barcelona has always been a framework for innovation for Telefónica, and we feel at home every year, when the Mobile World Congress (MWC) brings together the entire technology industry here,” explained the president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, before inviting the audience to “enjoy a unique concert full of technology. “Let’s imagine the future together, a future in which Telefónica will continue connecting people.”
Thus, technology and classical music went hand in hand in a recital in which Lang Lang shared his artistic world, his emotions and even the beat of his heart through a jacket with sensors and loaded with LED lights (like the legendary Steinway piano & Sons), with the company of drones and holograms connected to the powerful 5G network of Telefónica and its partner Ericsson, partner in this unprecedented action.
Barcelona has always been a framework for innovation for Telefónica, and we feel at home every year, when the Mobile World Congress brings together the entire technology industry. Let’s imagine the future together, a future in which Telefónica will continue connecting people
José María Álvarez-Pallete, president of Telefónica
Likewise, they had the collaboration of Igor Studio, in charge of the creative and artistic direction of the concert, and Musion 3D, a company specialized in holographic reproduction.
In the final part of the recital, the pianist involved the audience in artistic creation through interaction with their mobile phones. The highlight of the performance was a powerful technological experience based on the fusion of the real world with the virtual world, through a visual game of two pianos and two pianists – some authentic and others holographic – practically identical.
To play the twin For Lang Lang, several cameras were used to film every detail of his performance. The images were then transmitted in 4K format to create a high-quality holographic representation in real time. “On the occasion of Telefónica’s centenary, we have worked with Ericsson to offer this innovative experience, fusing music, video and immersive experiences in the same show,” explains Telefónica’s Global CTIO, Enrique Blanco.
“To do this, we have relied on the unique characteristics of Telefónica’s 5G network, its high capacity and low latency. We have shown how it is possible to combine technology and art, integrating the real world and new communication formats, such as holograms, breaking barriers between the physical and virtual worlds,” concludes Blanco.
We have relied on the unique characteristics of Telefónica’s 5G network, its high capacity and low latency. We have shown how it is possible to combine technology and art, integrating the real world and new communication formats, such as holograms, breaking barriers between the physical and virtual worlds.
Enrique Blanco, Global CTIO of Telefónica
The Liceu concert – in the vicinity of the MWC in Barcelona, in which Telefónica participated with numerous presentations and activities – will be followed by various events to celebrate the company’s first century. In the coming months, with special intensity in April, when the centenary marks, Telefónica will commemorate this unique milestone with its employees, customers, shareholders and with society as a whole.
Music will also be the protagonist at the Centennial Gala – the great institutional event that will take place on April 19 at the Teatro Real in Madrid – and at the solidarity concert that Telefónica will offer to its employees at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium on May 18.
Fundación Telefónica actively participates in the centenary with the inauguration of exhibitions such as ‘Windows to the Future’, now open at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid, and with the digitization of more than 60,000 pieces from the company’s photographic and documentary archive
The Telefónica team deployed around the world will simultaneously toast on April 19 those first hundred years of history, and also the next ones, in which the company maintains its commitment to improving people’s lives through technology.
Fundación Telefónica actively participates in the centenary with the inauguration of exhibitions such as Windows to the futurenow open at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid, and with the digitization of more than 60,000 pieces of the company’s photographic and documentary archive.
A good part of this digitized archive can be enjoyed on the centenary website, a journey through time that allows you to visit, one by one, the hundred years of Telefónica’s history through milestones, anecdotes, photographs and unpublished documents.
