the placard headphone festival

How do i listen to (& or) view the placard stream ?

You must first open a Listening Placard via the site. Once done you will get an email with url for receiving and some explanations on how to ; for the official way. Le placard is not a web radio , all concerts are performed live by artists performing somwhere for headphones.As an audience , you are either on the spot watching the performance , or in an other room receiving the stream , worse comes worse you can manifest your presence over the irc chat if you are alone at home (from the chat you might find some nice person who would give you the current link).

Is this festival strictly limited to headphones?

theoretically yes. but there might be cases where it is possible for certain places to have speakers (certain clubs, bars etc..) and there will be special (personally taken) derogation for that. i do beleive that headphone shows are very special in captivating the audience... it really depends on where you are planning to do your room , and what you conceive as best set up.

How do i make my own room?

You first have to create a login , you will receive your password by email. Then you will go to the 'placard(s)' link to create your room. Fill up the form (information about where the placard is physically,tech available,how many headphones etc ...) and validate. You will then be able to create as many different emmiting or receiving sessions for your placard on the 'modify placard' section, by adding sessions with 'new session' button. When you are the first to add a emmiting session , other placards may join in 'ping pong' sessions or you can decide to have yourself as the only emmiting placard. You as organiser will have to set the line up of the inscribed musicians , they will give you a prefered slot , up to you to see if it's ok with you (and eventually the second or third placard in the 'ping pong' session) .You are notified of incomming inscriptions via email as performers are notified when you set their slot or move it.

How do i subscribe as a musician?

First of all, just like for creating a placard , you must create a log and password. You will be sent an email for confirmation (just follow the link).
there are a few possibilities that might occur: 1/ You have seen a placard where it is possible for you to play : in that case you choose in the menu the concerned placard, fill in the prefered date and the time , fill in the artist info. This will send an email to the organizer of this placard, who will approve your inscription 2/ You do not have a placard available in your city: in that case the two choices are either to put yourself on listings that consider your city to be aware of the next open placard close to you when it opens, or create your own placard.

Who should i contact if i have technical problems?

The best is to go on to the irc channel where you most probably find someone to help you (link to the irc page) . you can also mail helpme@leplacard.org

How do i stream my placard to the other placards on the program?

There are different solutions , there is a pure data patch (audio & video) developped by aymeric mansoux for linux mainly (link to aymerics how to page) ; and a max patch (audio only) P8shout P8ogg for both mac osX and windowsxp ( link to ) .

What if I do not have any headphones or just a few to give out ?

Ever since the London placard , some placards are now opting into a bring your own headphones system. This is i guess up to your apreciation , if you provide slots for headphones , and tell people in advance that they should bring their own , it seems to work out well . Just keep some for the absent minded performers just in case ;) .

how long should the slots in my placard be?

This year you have the choice of slot length , your placard will be divided in a certain number of slots according to the whole time your session runs and how long the slots are. If you have many performances to add in and don't have too much time for a session (ie the place you are organizing the placard in can't be open all night) you might want to choose shorter slots ; but keep in mind the setup change , if you have short slots , you may need a few worktables. If you don't have too many perfomances , and have a minimal setup , you might prefer 1 hour slots (or even longer) , you don't absolutely need to have a no blank sound placard , just keep up with the time schedule you announced.