Frequently asked questions

By credit card (Master Card, VISA, American Express and JCB),  PayPal or by direct payment. By the end of 2010 it should also be possible to buy tickets using direct debit. For technical reasons, prepayment or payment per invoice is unfortunately not possible.

Yes. We offer a discount on all tickets for teachers and students at school or college. Just scan in some official confirmation of your status – e.g., your student ID – and send us the data using our contact form.

We have revised our earlier ticket system and now only offer tickets valid for a fixed period of time: a 12-Month Ticket, a 30-Day Ticket, a 48-Hour Ticket and a new subscription. For you, the 48-Hour Ticket has the advantage that for 9.90 € you have access not only to one single concert but to all our recordings for a full 48 hours. All tickets becomes valid as soon as you start watching a chargeable concert. Should you want to watch a single live concert, we recommend you buy a 48-Hour Ticket, which you should start using a maximum of 48 hours before the live concert of your choice. Further information is available under Tickets & vouchers.

No. Whether a 12-Month Ticket, a 30-Day Ticket or a 48-Hour Ticket, these expire at the end of the specified period of time. You can of course buy another ticket before the first one runs out, and this ticket then becomes valid the moment the first ticket becomes invalid. Further information is available under Tickets & vouchers.

Yes. We offer gift vouchers for all our tickets. Simply download the voucher as a PDF to your computer and present it to whomever you wish. Further information is available under Tickets & vouchers.

If you have registered as a user but still have not received the required email confirmation, first check your email program’s spam folder. If you don’t find the confirmation there, please get in touch with us using our contact form.

Wherever you are asked for your email address and password, you will also see the link Forgot your password? After entering your email address, you will be sent a new, automatically generated password. Please note that your original password will thereafter become invalid. Every time you use the Forgot your password? function, only your most recent password is valid.

When you log in to the Digital Concert Hall, you will find your personal details in “My account”. There you can alter such details as your address or password. If you want to delete your Digital Concert Hall account, please write to us using our contact form.

Concerts in the Digital Concert Hall are broadcast at three speeds:

High
Video: 1280 x 720 Pixels, H.264 at 2.1 MBit/s
Audio: Stereo 320 kbit/s AAC

Medium
Video: 960 x 540 Pixels H.264 at 1.3 MBit/s
Audio: Stereo 192 kbit/s AAC

Low
Video: 480 x 270 Pixels H.264 at 0.5 MBit/s
Audio: Stereo 192 kbit/s AAC

The optimum speed will be selected automatically, depending on your Internet connection. Alternatively, you can select the speed manually when you watch a concert.

The Digital Concert Hall uses Adobe Flash to show its concerts. At the moment, Flash (current version 10.1) does not support surround sound. As soon as it does, the Digital Concert Hall will also be in a position to broadcast in this format.

You need a relatively new computer (no more than 3 years old) and a broadband connection. We recommend the following system requirements:

• Operating system: XP/Vista/Windows 7 / Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• Processor: Dual Core (2 GHz+)
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Web browser: Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer 7 or higher. Internet Explorer 6 is not supported.
• Broadband connection: minimum of 2 MBit/s, 6 MBit/s recommended.

Test here, to find out if your Internet connection is fast enough.

You will also require Adobe Flash Player 10.1 or higher. You can download this from the manufacturer’s website.

There are two main causes of poor playback of the video stream: either the Internet connection is too slow or your computer does not have enough memory.

Internet connection
If the image on your screen occasionally jumps or even disappears completely and the browser window starts to reload (shown by the revolving logo), then your Internet connection is too slow. Try changing to a slower stream if you are not already using the slowest. Close all applications which may be downloading data (e.g., software updates). Make sure no one in your home is downloading large amounts of data on another computer at the same time. If you have a WLAN (WiFi) connection, ensure that the wireless connection is “Very good”. Even better, connect your computer to the router with a cable to eliminate the wireless connection as a possible source of the problem.

Computer speed
If the video stops and shows only an image which appears to jump several times per second, then your computer does not have enough main memory. If you try to execute a command or start a new application, the computer can even freeze. If this happens, close all other applications and change to a slower stream if you are not already using the slowest. If you are using a laptop, use a cable to connect it to the mains rather than the battery.

If you would like to watch the Digital Concert Hall on TV, we recommend Sony’s TVs and Blu-ray™ players which support Sony Internet TV. Please note that live webcasts are not supported on Sony Internet TV at this time. For more information, click here. To watch our concerts on other TVs, you can connect your computer or laptop to a TV with a HDMI, DVI or VGA cable. Unfortunately we are unable to answer more detailed questions regarding this matter. Please refer to the manufacturer or your specialist dealer.

Due to the high quality encoding of our content the Digital Concert Hall will work only on the iPad and the iPhone 4 with iOS 4.2 installed. Prior iPhone models or iPods will not work. Live webcasts are not supported at this time. To watch a recording from the concert archive simply log in and select a concert as usual. Concerts can not be downloaded and synced with iTunes.

In order to watch full length concerts with your Sony Internet TV capable TV or Blu-Ray player you must A) register your device with Sony and create a user account on the Sony Essentials website here and then B) link that account to either your existing Digital Concert Hall user account or create a new account if you do not have one already. As soon as you purchase a ticket to the Digital Concert Hall or if you already have a valid ticket you will be able to watch all concerts from the archive in your living room.

Select any concert (not trailers or interviews) from our channel on your TV. You will be given instructions how to register your device and will be given a four letter registration code.

Live content is transmitted differently than on-demand content and requires special functionality that Sony Internet TV does not support at this time. We are committed to working together with Sony to offer live concerts via Sony Internet TV in the future.

You can watch the Digital Concert Hall on multiple devices throughout your household. Make sure all devices are registered with the same Sony account on the Sony Essentials website because only one Sony account can be linked to your Digital Concert Hall account at any one time.

Following a live broadcast, it takes about 3 to 5 days to process the video and audio material before the recording can appear in the concert archive.

Our recordings are produced exclusively for the Digital Concert Hall and can only be viewed there. Further distribution is for reasons of copyright unfortunately not possible.

For reasons of copyright it is neither technically possible nor permissible to record the Digital Concert Hall concerts.

To give you an indication of the functionality and quality of the Digital Concert Hall, we offer a short recording free of charge, which you watch here. In the Digital Concert Hall you will also find numerous trailers, interviews with performers and other bonus material.