Marschpat: FHWN students win special prize at the riz up Genius Award
For years the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt has stood for a strong entrepreneurial spirit and strong innovative strength. After the sensational success of “Blinos”, a start-up by an FHWN alumni, there is now the next success story: The team of start-up “Marschpat” can use the “digital march book” to win the special prize at the riz up GENIUS Award.
Wiener Neustadt, June 7, 2019 – Austria is a land of traditions – a good example of this is the popular march music in many regions. But even traditional activities often require new, innovative solutions. This is exactly where Marschpat, a start-up made up of students and graduates from the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, comes in. “We live in the age of digitization and want this trend to find its way into march music, especially into marching bands. We not only want to advance the digitization of the world of music, but also make music considerably easier for musicians and musicians with modern marching instrument holders and digital marching books, ”describes the founder and CEO Patrick Rupprecht, MA the concept.
Special price for Marschpat
A concept that also convinced the jury at the riz up Genius Award. With the award, the state of Lower Austria seeks and awards the most innovative and exciting business ideas in the state every year. As a nominated project in the “Genial Digital” category, Rupprecht, Carina Eigner and Markus Wenzl won the special prize of 3,000 euros at the award ceremony. “We are delighted with this award – we are of course investing the money straight back into our product,” says Carina Eigner, BA from the Marschpat team.
Digital sheet music for traditional sounds
The business model combines tradition and modernity: With marching instrument holders from 3D printer and a digital display device, march musicians can attach sheets directly to the instrument for the first time. This means that numerous sheets can be digitally taken along when marching or performing and it is no longer necessary to carry heavy music cases. Great creative added value is that the display device recognizes when a track is over and automatically turns the pages. The devices are intelligently networked with each other so that the bandmaster can display the right track for the musicians.
From the start-up center to market launch
The vision of the young Marschpat team, which consists of students and graduates of the Entrepreneurship and Applied Management or business consulting and corporate management courses, began during their studies – this was followed by participation in the Accelerator program of the FHWN Start Up Center and thus reaching many Milestones. A prototype of the attachment to the instrument as well as a software demo have been developed, the first publishers and composers have already been integrated into the digital system. The next steps are already firmly planned. „At the „Woodstock der Blasmusik“ at the end of June, we will be presenting our new system, and sales are scheduled to start in autumn 2019,” says Eigner.