I think a degree of latency can be conquered, but it is going to be difficult. Musicians need to maintain synchronized internal clocks. This is because you can'

I think a degree of latency can be conquered, but it is going to be difficult. Musicians need to maintain synchronized internal clocks. This is because you can't really be in sync if you are reacting to sound. For example it is going to take about 80 milliseconds for sound to cross an orchestral stage (Wolfram: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+to+travel+100+feet http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=speed+of+sound+to+trave...). That is roughly east coast to west coast round trip latency: (http://serverfault.com/questions/137348/how-much-network-latency-is-typical-for-east-west-coast-usa/137364#137364 http://serverfault.com/questions/137348/how-much-network-lat...). Then you add reaction time to that. In this situation musicians already have to use visual cues combined with anticipation to synchronize. There is also usually a conductor (making things better or worse :-) ). So with strict time (no rubato), strong internal clocks of each musician and maybe some compensation I think this is possible - latency just makes it harder because it is harder to correct your internal clock and it has to be strong. But you also have other issues such as sound balance as well as video and sound quality. I suggest maybe reaching out to the distance learning department at CIM. They have a distance learning program and were doing music over teleconferencing ~ ten years ago over Internet2 - someone there can probably point to some resources on tackling these issues. The other thing is will people want to use this. My guess is not usually, but for friends at a distance, or lessons with teachers (advanced teachers, or places without music teachers) it could be popular. My hypothesis is the latency will make it difficult for musicians, especially without significant practice over this medium. So initial impressions will be bad. If that is the case it will be important to set accurate expectations.