Hearing & Education
The TEC Foundation for Excellence
in Audio focuses its charitable activities on two
principal causes: the advancement of hearing health,
specifically efforts to inform both audio professionals
and music consumers about the prevention of hearing
loss in the music environment; and scholarships
and grants for students of the audio, video
and other communications media arts. The TEC Foundation
takes pride in supporting a number of programs
in both of these areas on an annual basis.
Individuals and organizations
working in the field of hearing health, especially
as it relates to the music and sound industries,
are encouraged to contact us.
HEARING HEALTH
Amplified music, a source of
entertainment and joy for millions, has also produced
a serious public health problem: hearing impairment
caused by playing and listening to music at excessive
sound levels. The level at a typical rock concert
may approach 120 decibels, or 30 dB more than that
required to produce permanent hearing loss, and
even a personal stereo may exceed 110 dB. In the
face of this growing problem, the TEC Foundation
for Excellence in Audio has formed partnerships
with organizations that educate both audio professionals
and music consumers about "safe hearing."
HOUSE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Since 1986 the TEC Foundation
has supported the work of the House Research Institute
(HRI) of Los Angeles, one of the world’s
most prestigious nonprofit organizations devoted
to advancing hearing science through research and
education to improve quality of life. While its
leading-edge research continues to produce new
treatments for hearing loss and related disorders,
prevention remains a vital component of HRI’s
educational mission. With the TEC Foundation’s
support, HRI founded Sound Partners™, a hearing
health outreach program to the music and sound
production community. Through its video, print
and online materials, seminars, free hearing testing
at trade events, and research studies, Sound Partners
has significantly raised awareness of hearing health
and hearing loss prevention among audio and music
professionals.
 In 2005, HRI took the message
of safe hearing to audio consumers at high risk
for noise-induced hearing loss: teenagers who enjoy
loud music and video. This young sector constitutes
the largest percentage of concertgoers and users
of MP3 players and other personal audio devices.
The new campaign, titled “It’s How
You Listen That Counts,” is reaching out
to teens through MTV, Yahoo Networks and other
media, and a new educational Website, www.earbud.org.
HEI has made a substantial commitment to analyzing
the values and interests of today’s youth
market so that its hearing health message can connect
to them in an effective way.
For more information about
the House Research Institute, its programs and
services, please visit www.hei.org.
You can reach Sound Partners directly at www.hei.org/education/soundpartners or info@soundpartners.org.
H.E.A.R.
H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education
and Awareness for Rockers) is a nonprofit
public benefit organization 501(c)(3) established
in 1988 (San Francisco,
CA) with the support of founding donor Pete Townshend
of the Who. H.E.A.R. is dedicated to the prevention
of hearing loss and tinnitus among musicians,
sound artists, other music professionals and all
music fans through education and grassroots advocacy.
H.E.A.R. provides onsite seminars and training/education outreach
programs to public schools and colleges, music
and sound arts institutes, music conservatories,
music camps and workplaces; and also offers hearing
services and referrals for musicians via its H.E.A.R.
Partner network of audiologists and ear doctors
(Hearnet.com) and grassroots
H.E.A.R.ing education awareness campaigns.
 Listen Smart: Safely
Handling the Power of Sound, produced by
Dan Beck, is the latest H.E.A.R. educational
rockumentary DVD, and features artists Ozzy Osbourne,
Metallica and Moby.
For more information about H.E.A.R. or to contact
Co-founder and Executive Director Kathy Peck, visit:
• Web: Hearnet.com
•
FaceBook: HEARnetOfficial
• Twitter: @hearnetdotcom
• Causes: www.causes.com/HearnetOfficial
AUDIO EDUCATION
Since its inception, the TEC
Foundation has recognized and supported schools
and programs that educate future audio, music and
other communications media professionals. The Foundation
endows scholarships at leading colleges and universities
throughout the U.S, including Berklee College of
Music, Ex’pression College for Digital Arts,
Middle Tennessee State University, University of
Massachusetts Lowell, University of Miami and University
of Southern California. The Foundation also provides
annual student grants to the Audio Engineering
Society Educational Foundation and the Society
of Professional Audio Recording Services (SPARS).
Schools and educational programs wishing to set
up a scholarship program in the name of the TEC
Foundation should contact
us for more information.
TEC AWARDS SCHOLARSHIP
The TEC Foundation has also
established the TEC Awards Scholarship, which is
awarded each year to advance the education of two
or three students in audio, music or other media
communications arts.
The TEC Awards offers a scholarship
grant (or grants) to undergraduate students in
audio and other media education programs. Recipients
are selected by the board of directors of the TEC
Foundation for Excellence in Audio and are announced
each fall following the TEC Awards
Scholarship applications
are not being accepted at this time. However,
please check this page for future announcements. |
