SAFETY PROTOCOLS FOR IN STUDIO SESSIONS
Updated January 5, 2021
All in-studio rehearsals require advance attendance sign up for capacity and tracing. Click here to reserve your spot.
Rehearsals at the studio with limited capacity (all seats 2.5 metres apart)
Max 11 persons indoors (Face mask required)
Max 5 persons indoors in COVID PODS (Face mask not required when in the pods, ideal for singers/wind/brass)
1 person per station only (unless from same household)
Up to 16 stations active at a time
All doors opened for ventilation (Remember to dress warmly)
No food or beverages allowed in studio (do not dispose take-out containers at the studio)
Each station will be miked individually to allow for audio pick up and recording
Each station will have an in-ear monitor feed to be able to clearly hear each person at the studio, plus online participants, and click-tracks without delay or internet lag
Protocols for in-person participants:
Enter through the front door, and exit through the back door
Disinfect any surfaces you touched - music stands, chairs, microphones, piano, percussion (disinfectant wipes provided)
Bring your own earphones for in-ear monitoring (3.5mm jack wired only, no bluetooth)
Bring your own face mask for entering/exit/breaks and/or during the session
Keep 2.5 metre distance at all times (chatting, waiting for bathroom, etc)
Frequent hand-washing recommended (antibacterial soap provided)
Stay-on-Zoom protocol for those who:
Have symptoms
Have high-risk relatives at home or are high-risk individuals themselves
Have travelled abroad or live with anyone who has travelled abroad in the last 14 days
Have had contact with anyone sick with COVID-19 in last 14 days
Anyone who’s not comfortable with the current studio safety protocols and procedures
All plans for restart are subject to change based on provincial guidelines and health advisories. If another wave of COVID-19 hits, we revert back to phase 1. Online Zoom sessions and virtual performances will continue for the foreseeable future. Overseas and at home members are always welcome to participate online!
August 23, 2020
Results for Survey 2
Thank you for participating in our COVID Survey 2. Based on your responses, we have created a plan for September to December 2020 operations.
New Additions and Changes:
Recording Pace: 1 orchestra + 1 choir project per month (level 3-4 may have less repertoire to cover)
Rehearsal Cycle:
3 weeks in studio/online sessions: Full rehearsal and recording
Followed by 1 week online session with 60 minute breakout into sectionals on Zoom and 20 minutes of GarageBand editing workshop (people can ask questions about their own tracks and learn new techniques on editing and recording at home)
When weather gets too cold and dark (below 15 degrees)
We are in the process of creating 4 indoor spots with physical barriers to allow for limited persons to be able to participate indoors without face coverings (aiming for October implementation)
We will offer 2 “drive in” spots for you to sing/play from inside your car.
Helping each-other out musically
Section leaders/volunteers can record “practice tracks” mixed with click tracks of individual parts to help those who doesn’t read as fluently learn their parts quicker. Practice tracks can be shared in the same folder as all your video/audio recordings are uploaded. Please label “Practice Track” to the title of your file.
Orchestra 4/5: We will be running this ensemble on both Monday and Tuesday at 7-8:30pm
Mondays priority for Winds/Brass
Tuesdays priority for Strings/Percussion
If you have a schedule conflict, you can still jump between Mondays and Tuesdays, but we’re trying to group the sections together for more effective rehearsing
Donations: If you are wanting to help out, but can’t find an avenue which you can volunteer, financial contributions are always much appreciated and go a long way to helping us cover our budgets and operations. You can visit www.vancouverpops.com/donations to make a contribution. Any contribution over $20 is eligible for a charitable tax receipt.
Full Explanation:
It is good to see the enthusiasm to continue doing recording projects. And even more so to see the willingness for individuals to pitch in in various ways to help with this process. Going forward, we will produce one choir and one orchestra video per month. Which means for some it might still be two pieces if you’re playing both choir and orchestra pieces. But it also means that level 3 might have less as we go at a slower pace. This is a slower pace than we would normally go Pre-COVID, but it’s understandable with all the limitations COVID brings to the table. On a side note, thank you for all your musical contributions thus far and participation throughout the last 4 months. Special thanks to everyone who’s been already editing their own clips, and recording at the studio. And thank you to everyone actively sharing our videos with friends and family, whether on Facebook, or on YouTube, seeing some of our videos get 1000 or 2000 views makes this whole process worthwhile. If everyone took a minute to share the videos they’re proud of, I think we together can easily get over 10000 views in our future productions.
We’ve seen a steady increase in studio attendance in the last month, and have been able to make better recordings out of it. We started with just a handful of people in June, but now most sessions are almost at full capacity. We will be opening up Monday Orchestra to level 4/5 to disperse the numbers and spacing and also to allow for more to attend. Mondays would be priority seating for Winds and Brass, and Tuesdays for Strings and Percussion. But for anyone that has a schedule conflict for one of the days, you can certainly still come to a session that isn’t designated for your instrument, we are after-all one orchestra. For level 4 choir, some have indicated the pace being a little fast. I would recommend, if your schedule allows, to try attending some level 3 choir sessions on Friday at 6pm. We break things down much more and you’ll feel the pace is much more comfortable, while we cover the same material as Thursdays.
With regards to studio safety, we are constantly brainstorming, researching, developing, and implementing solutions to all our logistical challenges. Please understand that for every solution, it will never be perfect for everyone involved. Solutions help us expand our options, but doesn’t always solve all our problems. In addition to all the COVID safety protocols, we also consider the perspective of audio tech, recording tech, Zoom connectivity, video production, physical space, air circulation, temperature, humidity, lighting, sanitation, and budgets. Satisfying all these criteria and making it work for all our different musician and activities makes for a pretty crazy balancing act. New for this Fall is the addition of 4 spots that will have physical barriers dividing up the space allowing for musicians to participate indoors without a mask or shield (priority for those who really can’t wear face coverings). We will also be able to allow for two spots for “drive in” participation where you will stay in your car but still be connected live to the rest of the ensemble.
With regards to COVID safety in studio, there are no changes from our previous protocols, as all of our procedures are in compliance with the guidelines set forth by the BCCDC. However, we do want to reiterate a few points that may have been misunderstood.
Equipment is not shared. Each station has its own microphone, listening jack, music stand, and chair. Everyone is bringing their own earbuds too.
Rehearsing at the studio is like rehearsing pre-COVID. You can hear everyone, without delay, and everyone can hear you. The main difference is that we’re more spaced out, there’s less people, and we use a click track as a conductor instead of visual cues. It’s like being at a recording studio, but less fancy.
Try to arrive at least 15 minutes earlier than the rehearsal start time. It takes quite a while to get everyone sound-checked and ready to go
You must sign up at least 24 hours ahead of time for studio spots, and remove your name if you don’t plan on coming
Face masks are the preferred and recommended face covering, but face shields are equally acceptable for indoor participation.
To sum it up, our goal is to continue making music rain or shine, and to open up more sessions and ways so more can participate safely and comfortably.
August 10
Hello friends,
I’d like to take this time to give some updates and also ask for some feedback on our activities.
Updates:
Since our restart on June 28, we now have about 8-12 individuals regularly attending live rehearsals at the studio (combination of indoor and outdoor). We’ve all been practicing strict social distancing by keeping more than 2 metres apart, wearing face masks and disinfecting surfaces we touch. As of date, we have no reported cases of COVID transmission related to in-person rehearsals. The general consensus from in studio rehearsals is that being able to make music live has strengthened our performance quality, morale, and social connections in our community. All the while, online sessions continue to be conducted via Zoom with about 15-20 participants at most sessions. We’ve produced a total of 7 videos and 3 more are queued up in the editing process, with 4 more videos scheduled by the end of August. We have also adjusted a few schedules: Orchestra 3 to 7-8:30pm, Orchestra 4/5 is now combined on Tuesdays 7-8:30pm, and Choir 4/5 is now combined on Thursdays 7-9pm. Membership for orchestra has increased a little. But membership for choir has decreased by a few. Our overall membership has increased from 82 on July 1, to 90 as of today. Our pre-Covid community was about 120 members.
For our next survey, we’d like to propose improvements/adjustments to a few challenges we’ve identified.
(1) Recording Projects
While the videos have been receiving much positive feedback, we are running into a potential budget problem at the current pace we’re putting out these productions. Each video is currently taking approximately 50-60 hours of labour to edit and compile (80% on audio, and 20% on video). At the beginning when we switched to online formats, we had budgeted each video to take approximately 10 hours to edit and produce (based on past live concerts). However, with social distancing and online rehearsals, the recordings coming in have a lot more rhythmic and tuning issues than expected due to lack of live feedback during rehearsal and contextual cues we typically get in studio or on stage, creating inaccurate recordings which the editors have to meticulously comb through to fix. This extra time/labour spent on audio editing is the issue we’re addressing today.
Our productions have thus far been made by an unpaid volunteer team (thank you editors!!!), hence our finances haven’t taken a real hit yet. However, we are finding it unsustainable going into September to spend 50-60 hours on each project, and still pump out 2-3 videos/month. If we were to keep going at the same rate, we would need to hire someone full-time to handle this. A video like ours is estimated to cost around $1000/video to make at market value based on the amount of tracks we’re mixing and the amount of labour it takes to polish off all the material.
Since this may be the new norm while live concerts remain inaccessible, we will need to either add significant funding (to hire someone) or expand our volunteer team (currently 3) to continue doing such projects at the current pace. By comparison, our performances at the Chan though very expensive, generated significant revenue through ticket sales which helped balance our budget. Unfortunately, with these virtual performances shared online, we don’t receive any revenue (and we don’t expect to either, that’s a completely different level to aim for).
Having said all that, performances are a valuable experience to all of us, whether to improve, or to maintain one’s current skill level. Our goal for making these videos is to keep members engaged in their practice, and to provide a way for members to share their musical accomplishments. As such, we’d like to continue performing, but find alternative ways that could be more time/cost effective.
There are a couple angles we can view this from 1) individually, we can improve our overall accuracy by exercising more detailed self-analysis and correction, resulting in better accuracy overall 2) we can reduce the editing workload, and have each individual be responsible for editing their own recordings (at least the rhythms).
Proposed alternatives:
Perform your music perfectly =)
Record audio at the studio (IE, for each person that records at the studio, we save 30-40 minutes editing time). We found that live settings improve accuracy by 50-80%, which reduce the amount of errors, which help reduce editing time.
Attend a few workshops and learn to edit your own audio clips
Pay for an editing service if you cannot edit your own audio clips ($20 for 0-4 min clip; $40 for 4-8 min clip)
Reduce rate of production (1 every two months/group)
Find other ways to perform
We may have combinations of the above, or if none of the above proposals work for us, we can of course cut recording projects altogether and just enjoy rehearsals during this special time. What are your thoughts for getting the most out of rehearsals and your experience with VPOPS now that we don't have a Chan Centre show to work towards?
(2) Social interactions
While those who come to live sessions get to socialize freely during breaks (outdoors with physical distancing), we found that social interactions online are much more difficult and sometimes awkward. With respect to rehearsing, we also sympathize that participating online may leave one feeling a little isolated.
Proposals:
extend sessions to allow more group socializing time
facilitate breakout groups for break time chats for those interested
(3) Orchestra 5
We are considering whether to restart Monday 7-8:30pm sessions in September. Due to the low number of participants during the pandemic, rehearsals were initially consolidated with Orchestra 4 on Tuesdays. If we have over 25 people (online and in person) interested in Mondays, we can reopen this session.
As usual, ideas and suggestions beyond the options we’ve proposed are always appreciated, as is feedback for any other issues on your mind. There will be an open-ended feedback box at the end of the survey.
Survey Link:
May 2020
Dear VPOPS members and community,
COVID-19 has changed the world and presented many challenges to the music making community. With the onset of social-distancing, we've quickly made the switch to online rehearsals and home recordings for performances. We really appreciate everyone’s continued positivity and contribution toward the current online format. Having said that, we acknowledge that it is difficult to rehearse and perform without hearing all your fellow musicians. In addition, some members may not have a suitable environment for making or recording music at home. With these barriers, some members have expressed that the online medium is proving challenging for them. Hence, as other businesses begin to reopen, we are exploring a new way to conduct ensemble activities in-person while adding special provisions and protocols to prevent community transmission of COVID-19.
(1) Our first order of business is to re-design live rehearsals (outdoors and indoors with distancing). This would be in a small numbers that balances safety with rehearsal effectiveness. Online Zoom sessions will continue running for those at home or joining us from overseas.
(2) Finding a suitable performance method accessible to more people. Live performances with an audience won’t be possible for a long time, and outdoor performances are weather dependent, so the only reliable option is through the creation of virtual choirs/orchestras. The first couple months has been a steep learning curve for many doing recordings from home. And even though our first few productions were a success, we sympathize with your anxieties and frustrations with the process. With access to live rehearsals, most recording work can also be done in studio and eliminate many concerns about recording at home.
(3) Ultimately, we need to find out whether we will have sufficient participation in September to continue operations or to put all activities on hold until it’s safe to operate at full capacity again.
Please understand that our message is not to "push" everyone back to in-person rehearsals or to hold any large gatherings. Safety is our top priority, and online rehearsals will continue to be the medium of rehearsals for most members. Our intention is to operate with minimal numbers in order to achieve our basic musical need to be able to hear each part and to be heard simultaneously, and to be able to receive constructive feedback on our progress. We certainly understand there are risks with any plans for in-person activities, and no one should feel like they are forced to do anything they are not comfortable with. We encourage those with high risk relatives, or large families to remain at home and continue connecting with us online. However, for those who would like help design what in-person rehearsals might look like, please share with us your thoughts in this survey. This information will allow us to decide how to move forward efficiently and safely in the coming months.
If you’d like to skip the lengthy explanation below, please click the button to jump to the survey. Only 9 multiple choice questions.
SURVEY RESULTS
June 2020
Thank you for completing our survey. The answers you provided have given us valuable information about what the general thoughts and feelings are in our community. We also appreciate the additional comments provided in your responses but will not be publishing them for the sake of anonymity. However, the points made have been noted for future planning, and our current restart plan should reflect some of the ideas contained in your suggestions. Below is a brief summary of the results.
Out of 107 persons surveyed, over 70 individuals plan to participate in the fall. Of the surveyed, about 60% are ready to participate in some form of in-person activities, while others would like to participate online or outdoors. For in-studio safety, 2-metre distancing remains a vital component for most people, while there wasn’t a strong preference for rehearsal time and max number of participants. 70% indicated they would wear PPE for themselves, while 50% would expect others to wear PPE. Singers/Winds/Brass players may find it challenging to wear PPE’s, but with the use of a face shield instead of a face mask, it may be possible to sing and play with a slight adjustment in posture (see images provided). Over 70% are happy doing recordings and video productions, and most are comfortable doing it at home. 80% are happy with the current pace and repertoire, while about 20% prefer a slower pace.
Context:
By having a few “representative” musicians rehearse in-person, broadcasting over Zoom, we will be able to recover much of our original rehearsal experience. To minimize risk, the first line of defence is to be physically distant. We plan to utilize our parking spaces (covered, but open air) for “outdoor rehearsals” and for instruments (strings and percussion) that can only rehearse indoors, we calculate that our studio can hold up to 14 individuals with 3 metre distancing (see floor plan below). While being distant in the studio or outdoors, we will hook everyone up with microphones and in-ear or stage monitors (allowing everyone to hear and be heard clearly anywhere in the studio or outdoors, with no lag time while being spaced apart). The studio can also handle live performance recordings indoors so many won’t need to record at home (a relief for those who don’t have the proper set up, environment, or extra time). To reduce the risk further, we plan to shorten some sessions, open all doors for ventilation, take ample breaks to go outside for fresh air, and apply PPE as much as possible. Our survey addresses all these variables and asks you to tell us what you consider to be the most important applications for safety, and what issues are less of a concern for you.
In the past 2 months alone we’ve experienced a significant drop-out rate unseen before. We currently have about 70 participant continuing this summer (down from 85 at the start, and down from 120 before social distancing), and we’re concerned that this number may drop further for various COVID-related reasons (time commitment, lack of socializing, online fatigue, finances, etc). This participation number is critical in our operations now more than ever before. Without our term concerts, we lose a significant revenue source that we previously had. So membership is our current main source of revenue. It is now in question whether continued operations is financially sustainable, or whether it would be prudent to put VPOPS in hibernation and conserve funds as much as possible while we wait out the pandemic. For the time being, we have good funding for the next 3-6 months without any major hiccups. We have scaled back our operations to make our budgets work, and are continually looking for ways to increase our cash flow and eliminate as many unnecessary costs as possible. We are also receiving some subsidies from our landlord and various businesses we are networked with, and we are awaiting news from grant funding applications. Things are looking positive. Having said that, without having sufficient members, it is challenging to perform the some of our music, and financially tight to cover our overhead expenses. In this survey, we aim to find out how many of you plan to participate in VPOPS in September 2020 to determine whether continued operations is financially sustainable.
It is proposed that we will temporarily reduce standard registration fees to $150 during the pandemic to make new membership recruitment slightly easier. For those with discounts already, your fees are unaffected. For those who got the 10-year anniversary promotion earlier this year, that will still be applied for the Fall term. We also plan to open up all ensembles and classes to facilitate more appropriate level participation and dispersal of dense groups. Most importantly, we are proposing a limited return to in-person activities (for those who can) to improve the ensemble experience. Our projected target membership needed for continued operations is 100 members per term (~15 per group). What that means is, if we are able to maintain our current membership from this summer, recover ~20 former members who opted out of the online format, keep running online rehearsals for members at home and abroad, and reboot our new member recruitment, we’ll be able to move forward comfortably (financially and musically) in fall of 2020 and into 2021. If we aren’t able to achieve this level of participation (<60), it is likely wise for VPOPS to stop operations temporarily and return when all aspects of social distancing are lifted.
We acknowledge that our rehearsal and performance structures may still change as the province moves through different re-opening phases in accordance with the current rate of COVID-19 community transmission, and ask for everyone’s patience as we work through these adaptations. Regular feedback from all members is important as we adjust our plans and operation, so this may be the first of a series of surveys over time.
We encourage you to take a look at the following information so that you can make an informed decision and give us accurate feedback on your preference and concerns.
BC’s Restart plan
Scientific article explaining transmission of SARS-CoV2
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/05/27/science.abc6197
BC Choral Federation Virtual Town Hall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT9QeWS1WA4
Thank you for taking the time to do this survey.