Tonal Innovation, the venture by two LSU students to create technology allowing marching band members to use smart devices to read music instead of flip books, is trying to raise money to finalize its product design and get initial orders placed.
The company, housed in the LSU Innovation Park, launched a website Feb. 1 and is continuing to push its eFlip product after winning the LSU Elevator Pitch Night competition in November.
Garrett Kessling, a saxophone player in the Tigers Marching Band, and Daniel Wendt, the marching band’s drum major, developed the product about two years ago as a way to avoid the hassle that comes with old-fashioned flip books for instruments.
The product is a small, adjustable apparatus that attaches to marching band instruments and holds smart devices like tablets and iPhones. Reading music from smart devices instead of bulky paper books is easier for musicians because they don’t have to flip pages or deal with the glare created by the plastic coverings on paper flip books.
The Louisiana Business and Technology Center’s ProtoStripes Center helped the duo develop a working, cost-efficient model. The LSU Student Incubator helped them market the device.
“The eFlip will give musicians on the marching field, in the classroom and on stage the option to interact with music in a modern, hassle-free way, in addition to reducing the waste caused by printing mountains of music. Tonal Innovation is committed to bridging the gap between music and technology and eFlip is just the start,” Kessling, Tonal Innovations founder and CEO, says in a statement.
