Proposal

PROJECT NARRATIVE: This proposal is designed to upgrade and enhance audio/visual technology in room AH 117 in the Arts and Humanities Building. This proposal will be the third installment in the continued eClassroom upgrades of Department of Music instructional spaces.

FACILITIES: Room AH 117, which adjacent to the Music Department Office, was originally designated as a departmental conference room. However, due to a critical classroom, rehearsal, applied lesson, and practice space shortage, AH 117 has assumed multiple rolls as a graduate seminar room, a conference room, a mid-sized classroom, an applied instructional space, and even as an e-music practice room. Because AH 117 has no current audio-visual capability. It is now in need of a comprehensive AV music upgrade to bring it up to the standards of previously upgraded music-designated instructional spaces (e.g. AL 219, 247. 248, 260). As a music-designated space, AH 117 has not been eligible for the eClassroom conversion by OIT, and neither the College of Arts and Letters nor the Department of Music has had adequate funding to initiate its conversion to an eClassroom.

STUDENTS: Music majors need to be able to access a wide variety of music-related software applications and online materials on a daily basis. Because of our growing student population, the current departmental classrooms do not adequately afford our students or faculty the necessary instructional or practice spaces. The conversion of AH 117 into a multi-purpose technological space will greatly facilitate the departmental mission of providing students and faculty with the in their technological needs. The Department of Music is committed to bringing the technology of the 21^st century to our majors and minors in order to help them understand, explore, and evaluate the most current trends in the profession.

EQUIPMENT: (currently AH-117 has no dedicated AV equipment): Our proposal asks that the following supporting equipment be installed. This equipment is comparable to that which is currently available in FAU’s general classrooms and in the open classrooms in the Arts and Letters building, but which has been specially modified and adapted for multi-purpose music instruction.

·         Dell computer CPU with 24” monitor

·         HD projector

·         Projection screen

·         Document camera

·         Blueray/DVD/CD player

·         AV switchers capable of separating audio and video sources (critical to music instruction)

·         permanently-mounted audiophile-quality stereo speakers

·         audiophile-quality stereo preamplifier and amplifier system

·         high-quality stereo turntable

·         movable locking security cabinet/instructor’s podium

·         Roland Compact V-Drums (TD-11KV)

PURPOSE: With these upgrades, music professors will be able to utilize for instructional purposes:

·         Multi-media presentations in a large-screen HD format (including Powerpoint, Blackboard, etc. integration)

·         Projection of musical scores via computer or document camera (for music theory, composition, and production)

·         HD visual representations of performances on human scale (critical for instrumental and conducting instruction)

·         Studio-quality sound to match HD-quality visual projection (including the use of LP recordings)

·         Compact electronic drums for sound-free practice applications

5. ALIGNMENT WITH FAU STRATEGIC PLAN:

Goal 2: Meeting Statewide Professional and Workforce Needs. “Florida Atlantic University will commit academic and fiscal resources to meeting Florida’s need for trained professionals in teaching and advanced technology…[by]…identifying emerging trends in the labor force.”  

·         The music industry is on the forefront of many new trends in entertainment and communication, much of it presented through state-of-the-art technology. FAU music majors must have the capacity in any course to explore these new trends and evaluate how to mesh past musical traditions, with new technology, and the fast-paced world of online music operations. These trends include the latest commercial notation and music publishing software, recording and music sequencing software, as well as music-modeling electronically-controlled instruments.

·         Students in the Commercial Music degrees will experience many of these trends in the recording studio or sequencing laboratories, but students in Music Education and Performance must also keep pace with the changing trends in music technology in individual practice situations, when analyzing compositional or performance traditions, when pursuing performance techniques or exploring new avenues in music research. If not afforded the necessary technological experience our students will be at a severe disadvantage when they are applying for teaching positions in the public schools, when they are preparing for performance auditions, while they are preparing for or pursuing advanced degrees in music, or when they are entering the job market in the many facets of the commercial music industry.

Goal 7: Increasing the University's Visibility (Florida Atlantic University will increase its visibility and strengthen its image locally, regionally, nationally and internationally by expanding its modes of communicating with internal and external audiences).

·         As the “Face of Florida Atlantic University” the Music Department through its faculty, staff, and student students represent the university to the surrounding community on a daily basis. While music students are highly visible and involved in a multitude of university functions, they also present clinics and teach in the public schools; and serve as an integral part of the university athletic programs. As such, these students need access to state of the art academic and technological support.

·         Our students must demonstrate, through performance and as educators, their awareness of music’s past traditions in the context of current society.

·         Audio/visual enhancement of the primary music teaching spaces will bring a wider variety of learning opportunities to our students, and will enable them to better represent our profession in the field. It is imperative that we create musicians who do so with competence and artistic validity.

HARDWARE (see attachments):    

E-CLASSROOM PACKAGE FROM AVI SPL: (Includes media director station, multi-media projector, computer CPU and 24” monitor, distribution amplifier, HD video and audio switchers, document camera, a music notation white board, DVD/CD Blueray player, turntable and other support equipment and installation)   $19,431.08

Dell CPU and 24” monitor                                 $1,419.55

Roland 2-TD-11KV compact V-drums $3,798.00

Bose 2-15 Noise-Cancelling Headphones                 $  599.90

TOTAL:       $25,248.53

SOFTWARE:

Sibelius 7                              $  595.99

Logic Pro 10                          $  199.99

AVID Pro-Tools Eleven           $1250.95

                        TOTAL:           $2050.93

SUSTAINABILITY:

·         AVI extended warranty (2 year customer care) TOTAL: $2000.00

·         2-year Dell Computer warranty included (4 year expected lifetime of computers)

·         10 year expected lifetime of audio equipment (2 year warranties for all equipment supplied by AVI SPL)

Other than the vendors of the system (AVI) who will provide the installation and two-years of maintenance and support (through warranty) the system will be implemented and maintained, along with the other music-dedicated eClassrooms, by the current music faculty AV/technology coordinator and the department chair.