News: Technology helps student to tune in

A student’s investigation into the effects of interactive sound displays has been given a helping hand from technology supplied by a Knaresborough company.

Marie Tueje used equipment provided by Apollo Creative as part of her final project for her MA in sound design at the University of York, looking into how people interact with displays in museums.

Young visitors get to grips with Apollo Ensemble, creating 
“soundscapes” by sitting on a bench at the National Railway Museum in York

Marie created an interactive bench which emitted sound effects and clips depending on how many people were sitting on it.

“The project was called Immovable Transition, so the idea was that users would take a journey without moving,” she said.

“We had recorded soundscapes of trains, engines, announcements and things like that.

“We also used some voiceover recording snippets – broken up and disrupted texts that would come in every so often. They were drawn from users’ experiences.”

The equipment Marie used was Apollo Ensemble, a piece of technology which is more frequently used in schools to help children with special needs to interact with their environment. It can pick up on a range of different movements allowing the children to create light, sound, video and other effects.

In this case, the technology was installed on a bench at the National Railway Museum in York, where trigger pads on the seat meant visitors could interact with the sounds. Marie said it particularly appealed to older people who needed a rest during their trip to the museum, but who could stay with their families as they played on the bench, rather than being left behind.

Initially, Marie had not planned to carry out any practical work. When her tutor suggested she should, Apollo stepped in to make sure Marie could get the results she needed to complete her work.

“I got real feedback on my ideas and it was really interesting in terms of user experience and how that influences their relationship to what they were hearing,” she said.

“Just being able to take something that was theoretical and realise it in a practical setting and test it and get feedback was really useful.”

Apollo’s creative director Mark Hildred said: “Ensemble has been used in museums before, but it was great to be involved in a research project this time. 

“When Marie got in touch to ask if we could help her, I was keen to do whatever I could to bring her theories to life and I’m pleased it has paid off.”

To see Marie’s work in action, visit http://vimeo.com/49753540.

York Press Business Awards 2010 - The build-up

The York Press Business Awards are tomorrow night and Apollo Creative is short listed in the Best Business and Higher Education category. Judging was about two months ago now, so it all seems a distant memory. Having said that, our work across the education sector continues with any potential award being purely the icing on the cake.

As well as the course just completed at the Scarborough Campus University of Hull (which was developed jointly with the Creative Music Technology lecturer Rob MacKay), we also have the following on-going or scheduled in:

• "Interactive Technology in Action" Lecture and student feedback session, University of Huddersfield, November 2010 
• "Practical applications of Creative Music Technology" Lecture, Scarborough Campus University of Hull - December 2010
• Support for GCSE Design Project - Radio Design
• Support for A-Level Product Design Course - Bubble Lamp
• A series of lectures in the Department of Electronics, University of York
• Continuing work with the Research and Innovation Office, University of York

That's not to mention some of the bigger, longer term projects I'm not allowed to talk about. Even if we don't win this year we'll have plenty to recommend us for next years awards.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow night.

Music Technology now and in the future

The Apollo Ensemble will be making a guest appearance in the IET Young Professionals Event in London tomorrow night, as part of Professor David Howard's lecture 'Music technology now and in the future'.

David will be using the new EnsembleHub, together with an Ensemble Connect and Dice sensor, to allow the audience to join in with some demonstrations.

This marks the beginning of a long term collaboration with the University of York Department of Electronics, which will the see the Ensemble being introduced into the new BSc Music Technology course from September 2010.

The event kicks off at 6pm at Imperial College, London with a live webcast taking place on the IET website.

Sensory Room at York University

Today I was working in the Multi-Sensory Room at the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York. This is a room used for training and research, forming part of the 'mock ward' in the building.

Apollo is working with the Department to upgrade the room and provide training to staff on the use of this flexible resource.

University of York Sensory Room

Together with our colleagues at Camel Event Production, we today upgraded the multisensory room in the Health Sciences department at the University of York. The changes make it easier for the users to control the various lighting effects.

This work is part of Apollo's direct engagement with end-users and collaboration with research projects.