This weekend is arguably the biggest weekend in the Illinois marching band season.  Bands will be competing at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana as well as Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal at two of the biggest shows of the season.  Have family and friends that want to be there, but cannot for whatever reason?  This year, both events will be webcasted.

Banddirector.com, in partnership with Jupiter, Majestic and Mapex band instruments as well as the University of Illinois, will be webcasting the Illini Marching Band Championships on October 12th as part of their “Viewer’s Choice Marching Series.”  Sam Pilafian, tubist and professor at University of Miami, will be providing color commentary along with Patrick Sheridan, tuba performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  As far as we can tell, this webcast is FREE.

Illinois State University, in partnership with Box 5-TV, the new video provider for the ISU Championships, are also proud to announce a webcast of the 2013 ISU Championships.  There is a cost for this one; $12.95 for prelims, and an additional $12.95 for finals.  Box 5-TV provides the following technical specifications/information: “These live events are a single camera experience. BOX5 is not responsible for lost connections due to customer internet speeds. These live webcasts require a high speed (broadband) connection for the best experience. The streams are very high quality and should only be viewed on dekstop (Windows, or OS X) computers hard-wired to internet. Wifi IS NOT recommended for this experience. BOX5 reserves the right to cancel webcasts due to lack of interest.”

For more information, or to watch the webcasts:

University of Illinois:  http://www.banddirector.com/article/pg-live-broadcast/viewers-choice-2013-marching-series?productguide=535

Illinois State University: http://www.box5tv.com/livewebcast.html

Also, for more information on the ISU DVD products, visit this thread: http://ilmarching.com/forum/index.php/topic,2511.msg28097

Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the shows!  We’ll also have ongoing threads throughout the day regarding these two shows on the Illinois Marching Online Forums.