McGill University in Montreal has made Internet history by setting up the first intercontinental netcast of a live concert in surround sound and full-screen video.

MONTREAL - Researchers, musicians and engineers at McGill University in Montreal, have made Internet history. They set up the first intercontinental netcast of a live concert in surround sound and full-screen video, Wednesday night.

It was a live concert by a McGill jazz combo, netcast to participants at the Internet Global Summit in Yokohama, Japan. The summit is a meeting of the top Internet researchers in the world.

This is the first time that both surround sound -- the Dolby Digital system typically used for Hollywood blockbusters -- and full-screen video have been broadcast live on the Net across continents. The McGill researchers are already working on a number of applications for the new technology.

They will be organizing joint master classes linking students at McGill University and the University of Calgary with internationally-known musicians around the world.

Researchers say their ultimate goal is to create an environment, complete with sound vibrations in the floorboards, which would allow musicians at venues around the world to perform together.