Shining a light in dark musical spaces
LED music stand has Ottawa inventor singing a happy tune
A few years ago, Jack McGowan was having a hard time seeing his music during a rehearsal in a dimly lit church. That’s when a light bulb went off in his head.
“I thought there has to be a better way of lighting the music. Why wasn’t there a stand that lit the music from below? I began sketching things out, started talking to people and hired an industrial designer.”
Several years in the making, his simple idea may soon have him singing all the way to the bank. If he’s right, orchestras and musicians around the world will want a Triplet music stand. And judging from early reviews, he is off to a positive start.
“It’s a revolutionary product,” says cellist Julian Armour, the artistic director of Ottawa’s Chamber Players of Canada and the Music and Beyond festival. The stand was unveiled during an intimate candlelit Christmas concert by the Chamber Players.
“What’s amazing is that no one has thought of this before. It’s so obvious and simple, yet it wasn’t simple to make. There was a huge amount of work that went into it. Lighting has always been a problem for musicians,” says Armour.
La Scala, the renowned opera house in Milan, is looking at the product. If it picks it up, the stand could hit a high note.
“This is one of the biggest opera houses in the world. It’s the old saying: You tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends. This is what I’m counting on,” McGowan says.
Musicians complain that top lighting on music stands blocks their view of other musicians, the audience and conductor. On the Triplet stand, white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are embedded along the bottom edge of the music rest, eliminating shadows and glare on the sheet music.
Marie Berard, a violinist and concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra in Toronto, hopes that her company will embrace the stand. She used it while sharing the stage with Armour at the Dec.22 concert.
“It’s fantastic. We have a problem with the spotlight over the conductor at the opera house, which creates a shadow over my stand. “I would use this stand.” McGowan, 52, who plays the viola, says he realized in his second year of music at the University of Ottawa that he wouldn’t make the big leagues. The jack-of-alltrades has been a real estate broker, restaurateur, chartered accountant (at the age of 40) and lecturer at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business. He now is responsible for inventory control for precious metals (silver and gold) at the Royal Canadian Mint.
Even though the idea for the stand first popped into his head in 2005, the arrival of triplets delayed his plans. But by late 2011, he knew he had to get back at it. He came across Gibson Product Design via the Internet, contacted Scott Gibson who is celebrating 30 years in business, and the two clicked right away.
“I was definitely up for the challenge,” Gibson says. “Jack had worked with another industrial designer at first, but I tried to start with a clean slate.”
Gibson, who built 40 different prototypes of the stand, says there is nothing like this on the market.
“There is no technology that does this. I specialize in electronic projects — more in consumer audio communications — so an optical project is a little different. The challenge was to build the solution. I drew on my experience and had to go back to the first principles of optical issues.”
McGowan is full of praise for Gibson, whom he credits with turning his idea into reality. “The invention isn’t the music stand, it’s the light technology.”
Gibson and colleague Mark Boycott had to relearn how to design a lens (there are four different lenses in the stand) and met with area suppliers to come up with the electronic and plastic moulding components. It is being assembled in Montreal. “This product was developed here. The design is right in town, which is quite unusual for a product that will go around the world.”
When McGowan went looking for investors, he didn’t have to go far.
“We have our own Dragon’s Den team in Ottawa,” he laughs. “A significant amount —about $300,000—was raised through private equity.”
Prominent philanthropists Fraser Rubens, Gillie Vered and Lawrence Soloway stepped forward.
McGowan’s stands, which can extend from one panel to three, are sold online on his website Tripletlight.com. A double stand retails for $399 and a triple for $499. Patents are pending in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.