TEMPO Protocol

The core technology empowering simultaneous musical collaboration across distance.

TEMPO is Telemidi’s patent pending protocol and the foundation of all applications built on the platform. It enables simultaneous musical collaboration by transmitting performance actions as timestamped MIDI data instead of audio, allowing collaborators to interact with precision across distance. TEMPO supports every implementation of Telemidi and is the defining technology that distinguishes the platform.

Patent Reference: WIPO Publication Number PCT/AU2025/050241

Latency Minimisation

TEMPO identifies optimal network pathways by analysing traceroute characteristics and selecting routes that minimise delay between collaborators. This ensures performance actions reach the protocol with reduced latency impact, supporting clear musical intention across all nodes.

Regulating Timestamped MIDI Actions

All performance actions are transmitted as timestamped MIDI data. TEMPO regulates these timestamps to ensure that musical events preserve the performer’s intention, even when collaborators are in different locations with varying network conditions. This allows the platform to reconstruct a coherent sequence of actions that reflects how the performance was played.

Calibration for Clock Skew Across the Network

Digital clocks drift across devices and networks, which disrupts temporal alignment. TEMPO measures and calibrates clock skew between collaborators to maintain stable timing references. This supports consistent perception of simultaneity and prevents temporal drift during performance.

High Precision Alignment of Play Actions (to within 3 ms)

During collaboration, TEMPO aligns performance actions across all nodes to within approximately three milliseconds. This immaculate precision allows distributed performers to interact as though their musical gestures occur within a shared temporal frame, supporting expressive and responsive musical exchange.

Platform
Integration

Every Telemidi application, including Decksi and future platform services, depends on TEMPO to manage timing, synchrony, and the regulation of performance data. Without TEMPO there is no simultaneous musical interaction across distance. It is the central mechanism that enables all Telemidi implementations.

Simultaneous Media Rendering (Audience Output)

TEMPO applies a novel method to present each collaborator’s performance actions as a single unified stream. This provides an output feed in which latency affected events are nullified, allowing audiences to experience a seamless performance within the performance horizon.

Academic 
Foundations

The development of TEMPO is informed by doctoral research into Telematic Music Performance, distributed timing systems, and the perceptual experience of simultaneity (perceiving syncopation even if it is absent). This research foundation ensures that the protocol is grounded in validated methodologies and rigorous testing across multiple network environments.