By Tom Noda
Consumer tech giant Sony conducted its first-ever “silent” concert in the Philippines on Thursday, May 8, with hundreds of attendees trooping to the Rockwell Tent in Makati City wearing headphones.
The audience, composed of consumers, celebrities, and the media, used Sony’s new high-resolution audio headphones to listen to local rock icons Ely Buendia and Bamboo Manalac and their bands perform inside a sound-proof glass-cage stage.
Local band South Border started the ?MDR Live? concert with their hit song “Love of My Life”. Ely and Bamboo followed suit and later ended the concert performing together.
Sony said it put the event to let people hear music in its purest form, just as artists intended it to be heard, using the latest “Music Deserves Respect (MDR)? headphone series — the MDR-1RBTMK2, MDR-1RMK2, and MDR-10RC.
The company said its products bear the ?Hi-Res Audio? logo, which pertains to the latest standard in audio quality.
According to Sony Philippines, songs recorded through High Resolution Studio contain three times more sound quality than a regular CD, reaching 96 kHz/24bit and higher.
The quality was so refined that some of the listeners likened the sound to a music being performed in a recording studio.
However, the ?silent concert? was somewhat a bizarre experience since it was a live alternative rock concert yet the people were listening to the music via their headphones. The ?concert goers? were also stuck in one spot with limited movements as the headphones were connected to an amplifier device that can accommodate four users.
It could have been different if the audience were provided with wireless headphones so people can move freely while they sang along with the songs being played. Some of the audience said the experience was most of the time self-restraining.
Among all the artists who performed, Bamboo was the most emotional as he finished his turn breaking the rules of performing inside the sound-proof cage.
While still on his Sony MDR headphone, Bamboo got out of the cage and brought the house down by finishing his upbeat songs, jumping and dancing together with cheers from the crowd. Some of the hit songs he performed were “Himala”, “214”, “Tatsulok”, “Hallelujah”, and “Noypi.”
Meanwhile, Ely played and sang some of the favorite Eraserheads songs “Alapaap”, “Magasin”, “Ang Huling El Bimbo”, among others.
The fans were later told to remove their headphones as loud speakers from the soundproof cage were brought out and placed on the same stage platform in front, where Ely and Bamboo put a climax to the silent concert, singing the popular “Come Together” song by the legendary band The Beatles.
Sony also held another promo called Wanted DJ, in which it partnered with the country?s first DJ Studio, Beat Project Manila, which is geared to create the next generation of local DJs and producers in electronic music.
Sony threw its support behind Beat Project Manila by offering customers a chance to experience first-hand all the aspects of DJ-ing and basic electronic music production.
Customers who purchased selected Sony headphones were able to join the promo that ran from November 29, 2013 to May 7, 2014 and got the chance to win a ticket to the ?MDR Live? silent concert.
