SAN ANGELO, TX -
The halftime performance for the homecoming game didn't come together at the last minute. The Central High School Marching Band has been rehearsing and rehearsing to get the notes and the moves just right.
"We've been having a lot of rehearsal, a lot of extra practices," said Joey Ashbrook, director of the band. "Out of all of the groups involved in homecoming activities, the band has really twice as much work to do."
Their performances take place in stadiums and concert halls; their practices take place in a windowless rehearsal hall. The difference in acoustics between their rehearsals and their performances was a big challenge--until now.
This summer, Central High School installed a "Virtual Acoustics System" from Wenger, becoming only the second school in the United States to have it. It's been a game changer.
The system allows them to, with the push of a button, change the acoustics of the entire room. Even though they're practicing in the middle of a building on Central's campus, it can sound as if they're just about anywhere. Mr. Ashbrook demoed the system for me. After activating the system, every note and chord played by the band echoed as if they were in the middle of a football stadium.
"For young people in particular, to be able to hear themselves and cross-reference, it's a major teaching tool," Ashbrook said. "It's very effective and it's already made positive results."
The sound from the band is taken in and regenerated in real time, letting them hear what they will sound like in different spaces. This let's them work on a level of precision that they couldn't before.
"[The students] started looking around, and their heads went down like 'Uh oh,'" Ashbrook recalled. "I said, 'What's wrong?' They said, 'You're going to be able to hear everything we do.' I said, 'That's right, and more importantly, you can hear everything you do.'"
-Rob Harris, FOX News First
