Tech Focus: Training, Part 2 - A View From the Audio Compartment Veteran A1 Joe McSorley opines on why the industry faces a shortage of qualified audio mixers By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Wednesday, September 11, 2024 - 7:00 am
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The growing shortage of A1s and those who aspire to that position may not be an existential problem - yet. On one hand, most of the current crop of long-serving broadcast-audio mixers remain available; attrition due to retirements is increasing but hasn't caused any significant disruptions in scheduling, say broadcast sources.
Furthermore, workflow evolution since the pandemic has eased the problem: widely and successfully implemented REMI and other remote-production techniques reduce the number of A1s needed onsite by centralizing production and, thus, reduce the amount of travel required, increasing the productivity of the entire A1 cohort.
On the other hand, however, natural attrition continues to occur, and it doesn't take an AARP actuarial analyst to point out that it can only accelerate, at least among existing audio crews.
Replacement from within the ranks of A2s, once the technology equivalent of the minor leagues, has been far from robust. Although they may have the technical knowledge needed to mix live television, many don't see the additional pay - maybe an extra $200 or so a day - to compensate for what can be the extreme pressure that comes with mixing a big show live on primetime national television.
The Job Grows, the Pool Narrows A1 Joe McSorley has spent 36 years as an A1, mixing broadcast sports for Fox Sports, Showtime, CBS Sports, and others, having spent the previous dozen years in music production, a traditional route into broadcast-sports sound. Now in his 70s, he's ready to hand the reins over - if he could find anyone to take them.
I am ready to slow down, he writes in an email, but, these days, I am finding it nearly impossible to train anyone, due to the scope of the job and the behemoth it has become. Some have trained for months and eventually abandoned learning. It is now a hybrid of IT and audio engineering, with both being equally necessary skills.
A1 Joe McSorley: What is the attraction to becoming an A1 these days. There isn't one.
McSorley makes several points but emphasizes that the technology he trained on decades ago has not simply evolved but has changed by an order of magnitude, stretching the ability of individual engineers to manage it all.
When I started, he writes, you had a 32-input board, a few tape machines, a money' (commercial playback) reel, some simple intercoms, and phone couplers. Today, it has become a technical monster. No other broadcast job has changed more drastically and technically than audio has, with its present requirements far outweighing those of any other position. Yes, audio can [be financially rewarding], but you have to realize you're also doing multiple jobs, so it is more work and the [additional pay isn't commensurate].
A Position Unlike Any Other McSorley enumerates these tasks, noting more than a dozen types of consoles and other foundation platforms aboard production trucks, each with its own layouts and operating systems, as well as myriad software bundles that iterate constantly, plus any number of nonstandard configurations of other systems.
No other position faces these obstacles, he says, and no recording school can possibly teach you all the demands of the different equipment you will face on a daily basis. He notes that he has regularly traveled to manufacturers' showrooms, at his own expense, to keep up with constant changes. Also, anyone who wants to train for this position must do it on their own time with no compensation.
Addressing the idea of the A1's multiple-role nature, he points out that an A1 is responsible for both the internal and outside connections to the truck, all the unit's audio monitors, and audio routing and patching and is required to be familiar with a multitude of formats (including Dante), Hydra and MADI interfacing, and integrating RF systems, as well as trouble-shooting them all.
No other position is asked to fix a problem outside of their space other than audio, McSorley says. The TD is never asked to fix the video monitors; the A1 is often asked to fix individual speaker and intercom stations -while on the air! Also, I have never heard a director yell at a TD because a camera didn't work, but I've been yelled at because a microphone failed on the air - sometimes because the reporter had turned it off! It is not an exaggeration to say that I often spent 40% of my setup time just trying to get things to work.
Furthermore, depending on the nature of the production, the A1 is also often responsible for intercoms, which he describes as broadcast audio's 900-lb. gorilla. The recent shift to digital comms has only complicated the picture, he says, because what had been the domain of the truck's dedicated engineer-in-chief has migrated over time to the A1's cluttered compartment.
Over the years, all things intercom became our domain, he explains. It's an entirely different discipline than audio mixing. It means that the A1 has to accommodate the monitoring needs of each person in the production loop on the comms network. Recalling his music-production days, he says it was like having to mix a show for an audience while also mixing monitors on stage.
McSorley is proud of and happy with a lengthy career in broadcast sound, but he's not optimistic about its future. The technology that is steadily improving the viewer's experience is increasingly burdening the lone A1 in the back of the truck. That physical location is also a metaphorical one: the A1's role is perceived as shortchanged by a hierarc
