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Texas Band Director Helps Demonstrate Acoustics Technology for Music Education in San Antonio

  • 02/03/16

San Antonio, Texas — To practice football, players go to the field. To practice tennis, players visit the tennis court. It’s logical – the best place to practice is where they play. However, musicians usually cannot rehearse in their performance space. Until now!

Innovative virtual acoustics technology is opening up new possibilities. On Feb.y 12, in a band director from San Angelo will highlight the solution recently installed in his band room.

What:

Demonstration of “virtual acoustics” technology for music education, which simulates a variety of performance environments to accelerate learning and preparation for concerts/contests. 2,100-sq.-ft. hotel conference room will feature 20 speakers + 2 microphones, mounted on temporary trussing and controlled by digital signal processor computer.

Where:

The Pavilion by Hilton, 200 S. Alamo Street, San Antonio. Adjacent to the Texas Music Educators Assoc.(TMEA) Clinic/Convention at the Gonzalez Convention Center. TMEA is the largest event of its kind in the country, attracting 26,000 people, more than 1/3 are active music educators. The TI:ME Music Technology National Conference is held concurrently.

When:

Friday, Feb. 12. Presentations run every 30 minutes during four sessions:
1) 7:30am-9:30am (breakfast served); 2) 11:30am-1:30pm (lunch served);
3) 2:30pm-4pm (refreshments); 4) 5:00pm-7:00pm (cocktail reception).

Pre-registration is encouraged because seating is limited. Attendees do not need to be registered for the TMEA Convention or TI:ME Conference.

Who:

Veteran band director Joel Ashbrook from Central High School in San Angelo, Texas, will join personnel from Wenger Corp. in explaining the system he’s been using at his school since the fall of 2015.

Ashbrook says, “The VAE Rehearsal System is outstanding – my students can actually experience playing in a performance environment: maintaining rhythm, tuning and pitch across the band.”

To see him interviewed for a KIDY-TV (San Angelo, Texas) story on Central HS’ technology, visit: https://youtu.be/oAc9-UNjdKI

Media Contact:

For more information, contact Warren Djerf at [email protected].

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