THE first 24 hour dance station on the Net is to begin transmissions at the end of this month. Called 28.8, it's the creation of music promotions company Slice Promotions (whose clients include Dorado Records and the 53 label) in conjunction with software developers Netmare.
28.8's first broadcast will coincide with the rescheduled Tribal Gathering outdoor dance festival in England next Saturday. It will feature real time music from clubs and one off dance events worldwide, as well as live and pre recorded shows by such bigname DJs as Carl Cox, Todd Terry and Sasha, all of whom have already been signed up to appear on the station.
28.8 will use a variety of existing software (including RealAudio and CUSeeMe), new project specific" Netmare applications and live feeds via satellite and ISDN lines.
"The station will cover all dance areas, not just house and techno," says Adam Freeland of Slice Promotions. "There will be classic shows where DJs will play sets they would have played five years ago, and global shows featuring people like Todd Terry and Kenny G live from New York or Australia. We will also be able to broadcast big dance events as they happen and we also plan some very special oneoffs.
"As regards visuals, there will be random, computer generated patterns to go with the sound. As the beats or pulse change, the patterns will also change. It will be quite crazy."
All the software required to receive 28.8 will be available to download for free in one complete package from the station's Web site (at http://www.slice. co.uk), while the set up and operational costs will be covered by sponsorship and advertising.
Sasha, one of the DJs who will be featured on the station, is quite excited about 28.8's potential: "I have been wanting to get involved in the Internet for some time - I have a page on the Slice site but wanted to get more actively involved. With this new technology, it looks like now is the ideal time. The idea of being able to broadcast live music to anywhere in the world is a very exciting one. It will also be a great promotional tool for what I am doing."
He plans to broadcast his forthcoming mix album Northern Exposure live from Alaska prior to its release at the end of the summer. "It will be of sufficient quality to enjoy but not good enough to bootleg - I am told the quality will sound like an AM radio," he says. "That is a totally mad concept! If I can play a part in spreading underground music around the globe through the station then all the better.
VIRTUAL DRUIDS: A tribal gathering of a very different kind began last Thursday, on the eve of the summer solstice: Intel unveiled its "Virtual Stonehenge" on the Web (at http:// www.intel.com). The ancient monument has been rendered as a photorealistic model, which users can navigate as a virtual reality environment.
A four mile exclusion order around the actual site was granted in 1986, but the area has seen many protests and arrests each summer since then. Sir Jocelyn Stevens, chairman of English Heritage, praised the computer model for "high tech tourists from around the world", arguing that "to walk virtually is better than not to walk at all."
Virtual tourists can use a sundial icon to move forward and backward in time, and mouse driven directional controls allow them to approach objects from any angle or fly over the VR scenes. It requires Superscape's 3D Viscape plug in for Netscape Navigator 2.0+ (free copies are available from Intel's site).