A fibre-optic cable was used to record October 8's Otago Festival of the Arts Dhol Foundation musical performance at the Regent Theatre and transmit it at the speed of light 3.2km across the city to the University of Otago's sound-mixing desk at the Albany St music studios.
Those involved wanted to keep the experiment quiet because they were not sure it would work.
But now that it has, they say the technology has huge potential for Dunedin.
It enables music to be streamed live or recorded to be distributed later via the internet or as a CD, all with a sound quality far superior to recording live at a venue.
The collaboration involved the New Zealand Music Industry Centre (NZMiC) - itself a partnership between the university's music department and Dunedin students and musicians - local company Flute Fibre Networks and Dunedin record label and music promotion company dunedinmusic.com.
The university's $1 million, 128-channel sound desk was installed in June.
Those who had been awaiting its arrival immediately began to wonder if it was possible to use fibre-optic technology to connect it to venues such as the Regent Theatre, Dunedin Town Hall and Forsyth Barr Stadium, Scott Muir, of dunedinmusic.com said this week.
"We were advised it was a very expensive exercise and were told not to hold our breath."
But late last month, Flute, part of the Dunedin City Council-owned Aurora Energy company, offered to connect the Regent and the studio at no cost.
That involved installing network cabinets at each end and connecting the buildings via a dedicated multi-channel audio digital line within its fibre-optic cable already laid underground throughout central Dunedin.
The experiment worked better than expected, apart from a heart-stopping 90-second power outage at the Regent which was beyond the control of the technicians.
University music technician Stephen Stedman said this week he hoped to "push the boundaries" to see how far away a performance venue could be from the studio and still be successfully mixed.
"No-one was sure we could do 3.2km. I would like to try 10km, then push the boundaries even further."
The potential of the technology was exciting, Mr Muir said.
His vision was to eventually have as many performance venues as possible linked to the studio, right down to school halls and community halls.
Links were already planned with university performance venues such as Allen Hall and Marama Hall, Mr Stedman said.
Both he and Mr Muir said the sound desk, fibre-optic links and skilled sound-mixing staff would draw groups to Dunedin to record live performances and CDs.
Flute business development manager Lynley Jury said this week the cost of the company's contribution was commercially sensitive.
The company had donated technology and manpower because it wanted to support innovation, she said.
"We wanted to help them get this running.
"This is the sort of exploratory, innovative thinking ... which will benefit the whole community long term."
