Those who can't make a concert at the University of Oklahoma can still tune in online.

The OU School of Music began streaming some of its concerts about a year ago so that people could listen in when they couldn't appear in person.

"Hopefully they'd be here, but if they can't be, hopefully they can dial in," said Alan Hiserodt, Sharp Concert Hall manager.

Those who want to listen to the ticketed concerts or master's or doctoral student recitals can go to music.ou.edu and look at the calendar of upcoming events and click on the "Live Stream" icon during a concert.

The school launched the feature in fall 2007 after the administration realized the school already had the technology to stream on the Internet, said Stefan Ice, assistant to the school director.

The first time the school streamed on the Internet was during a joint concert with Marcus High School from Texas. About 50 people listened to the concert online, Ice said. Most of the listeners were probably parents of the high school students, he said.

"As soon as the Marcus High School band finished playing the amount (listening) dropped by half," Ice said.

In addition to out-of-state parents listening to their kids, Internet streaming also is a great tool for recruiting, he said. Prospective students can listen in to hear the quality of OU's School of Music.

So far, about 25 people listen online to concerts streamed on the Net, Ice said. But Hiserodt, who operates the sound and recording equipment in Sharp Hall, said the number of listeners at one time hasn't topped 13 in the year since he's been at OU.

"You would think that number would be much higher," Hiserodt said. "... I think mostly people just don't know it's there."

The school hasn't promoted the feature widely, Ice said.

"We don't want to advertise it too much because we don't know how much is too much on our bandwidth," he said.

And while the live streaming is a neat feature, he said, it doesn't match the in-person concert experience.

"I'd just encourage people to try to attend the concerts, but if they can't attend, to try to attend online," Ice said. "... It's not a replacement for going to the concert, it's an alternative for a busy person or someone who couldn't attend."

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com