P4
P25
DECEMBER 2018
SEPTEMBER 2019
Yamaha delegates training at Brit Row
we can improve things. Rental companies have been getting involved but their needs don’t always match the students’ expectations and that needs addressing. Large companies ultimately need warehouse staff: maintenance engineers rather than sound engineers. You don’t want to spend your internship just stripping PVC tape off cables and painting boxes.” Manufacturers, Burton believes, need bright, motivated students with a passion for sound. “Not all students who attend university necessarily want to mix bands,” he adds. “I’m sure there’ll be someone who wants to be a Dante technician, for example. They’ll be interested in networking, not mixing. We need to encourage them with the same passion.” In Liverpool, Al Mouat coordinates Adlib’s ‘Manufacturer Training Days’ as part of a commitment to refreshing the market. Adlib’s website enables registration for training updates, as well as an email address – training@adlib.co.uk – at which to fire specific requests. This gives Adlib insight into what the market is most curious about. “We know we can fill any course, every time,” Mouat says. “We’ll do something with the main console manufacturers two or three times a year, and we host a three-day L-Acoustics course every year using our gear. Mostly, it’s professional freelancers or venues retraining their staff in new kit, especially if we’ve supplied it.” Adlib founder Andy Dockerty devotes time to arranging work experience for young hopefuls, as well as liaising with LIPA for student involvement. One annual target is Production Futures, the one-day milk round now hosted at Fly By Nite’s HQ in Redditch. “That’s always a good place to meet youngsters looking to get into the business. Last year I did a panel there,” adds Mouat.
Instituting changes LIPA graduate Andy Davies, now part of Meyer Sound’s worldwide technical support team, regards his education as more than vocational, appreciating its aim of delving into different learning opportunities across multiple disciplines. “That allows students to grow and change as they progress through the course,” he says, “and produces graduates with an understanding of how the wider industry works.” In a changing live audio rental industry, some traditional entry points are vanishing, Davies believes. “Consolidation of rental companies means there are fewer opportunities to sweep the floor, coil cables and make tea. More and more venues have installed PA systems, so small tours regularly don’t travel with PA, therefore opportunities to rig systems in multiple small rooms, experiment and learn on the job are disappearing. Health and safety, insurance and employment laws are now much tougher – and better for it – but one effect is to prevent the addition of an extra crew person to shadow.” Some of this slack is being taken up by new partnerships, however. “Cooperation is key,” adds Davies. “I love what LIPA’s doing with the SSE Audio Group, taking on students for experience and internships. Clair, too, has developed the Roadie In Training programme to try and overcome the lack of small tour experience. The biggest single source of intake is from Full Sail – so people who’ve already had higher education. I would love to see more courses that work with the industry to place people on events and shows. It’s such a shame that dBS Music’s ‘The Hub’ in Plymouth is closing, as they had their own venue to work in, as well as teaching the formal stuff.” At Central School of Speech & Drama, Peter Rice has just taken over as course leader for Theatre Sound. He describes it as a highly practical course, with several on-going productions that the students work on for the majority of their learning. That – combined with formal workshops, seminars and lectures in the opening weeks of each term – makes up their training. “My main observation of formal education as a means of training, versus my previous experience of somewhat ‘on the job’ learning, is the extent to which you ask students to formally reflect on their experience,” says Rice. “This is needed as a way of measuring how much they understand about what they’re learning, but importantly it’s also a solid way to compound that learning. At Central we recognise that not everyone is academically equal so we offer the opportunity to present this reflection in a number of ways, either as a formal written submission; a visual essay; a live presentation; or a video or audio presentation. Essentially, some form of recorded reflection is required at the end of each term in order to make sure there is parity right across student learning – and as a way to ratify the degree qualification. “The main thing that sets Theatre Sound apart, I think, is the dramaturgical understanding – which is interpolated into the sonic delivery. That, and the extensive planning and collaborative skills required to deliver the work, are key. You’re part of a team delivering a text, and that involves an artistic interpretation equally combined with the engineering challenge.” Pop music Some things, however, never change. It falls to Al Mouat at Adlib to voice a value that everybody shares across the live sound industry, with Alice Cooper’s gruff vocal ringing in our ears… “With audio equipment becoming more and more compact,” he says, “you’ll get a lot of people setting themselves up as a business with a small console and various plugins. But the best way to learn is on a 24-channel analogue desk that only has 16 working channels – two of which pop and crackle; a rack with four gates, four compressors and one multi-effects unit; and an XLR loom that’s a bit ropey. If you can work with that and still make it sound good, you’ll probably do all right.” n
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