Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 1 - COVID Drives Online as Primary Mode of Educating Pros Manufacturers, tech academies increase access by workers at home By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, March 4, 2021 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
COVID has changed everything, including how we learn and teach. Schools from K-12 through graduate courses and technical institutions have migrated rapidly - and with varying degrees of success - to online models.
Pro audio was no exception to the trend.
Manufacturers, many of which had already established significant online training sites, leaned further into them. The efforts helped deepen understanding of key technologies as broadcast and other audio systems migrated to IP and also provided channels to deepen brand engagement at a time when the pro-audio sector is experiencing its own rounds of business consolidation.
Many manufacturers have either implemented or increased their online training during this time, as people have been stuck at home and are working to improve their skills or, in some cases, retrain themselves, observes Kevin Emmott, marketing manager, Calrec. Last summer, the company introduced the Calrec Sound Institute, a series of free and certifiable online course offerings covering such products as the compact Brio desk and Type R modular IP-based mixing system.
Calrec Sound Institute provides free, certifiable courses on company products.
Although most of Calrec's course takers were already broadcast-audio technicians looking to hone their skills, an analysis of the courses accessed during the summer revealed that more than a few course takers came from the live-sound sector, which had been effectively shuttered by COVID and largely remains so, even as broadcast sports have found ways to get and keep games and matches on the air. The finding may augur well for the industry's historically limited pool of new trained workers.
The industry's ongoing shift to IP infrastructure has also prompted Calrec to add a seven-part course focused on that trend, including 45-minute-long modules on such issues as network design and industry standards, and to integrate it into the company's Connect IP management application.
This has been the most popular of the online training courses, Emmott notes, with more than 1,900 IP courses having been accessed so far. For its niche, it has gone way beyond expectations.
Calrec plans to partner with Dolby for an online course in mixing immersive audio using Atmos on a compact mixer such as the Brio. That training module is expected to launch this month or in April.
According to Oliver Frenzel, manager, Lawo Academy and its online counterpart, the company has leaned more toward online offerings during the pandemic. Its educational effort covers a range of technical-training courses, addressing the company's IP-based audio, video, control, and infrastructure solutions.
Our trainers used webcams to show what they do on the console surface, interacting with the customer equipment during the training [when] using remote-production capabilities of our products, he explains. The customer sees a picture-in-picture of himself and the product. In some cases, we were able to give students remote access to systems on our premises to enable a deeper learning experience with the product.
Lucky Timing More than one person has noted the serendipity in the arrival of COVID, which accelerated implementation of more-radical remote-broadcast operations. Now it appears that the pandemic has had a similar effect on training.
It sounds almost too good to be true in terms of coincidental development, says Thomas Jensen, VP, technical operations, SSL, but we had intended our System T [SMPTE 2110-30-ready desk] from the beginning to be software-defined and remotely accessible.
All console functions are available to users via touchscreen, in addition to hardware controls, and are accessible over public internet. Remote-desktop solutions, such as TeamViewer, provide software control as though the user were in front of the console itself, and SSL's T-SOLSA PC application provides additional user positions, allowing multiple operators to control - and, by extension, train on - the console remotely.
Jensen notes that much of the remote operability had originally been compelled by such necessities as troubleshooting by technicians at a faraway factory. But, as COVID curtailed onsite visits to broadcast facilities for such purposes as console installation and commissioning, the System T's virtuality was extended to those purposes as well. Further extending that to remote training was a natural next step.
This wouldn't have been possible on a previous generation of consoles, which require a much higher level of tactile interaction, says Jensen. There might also have been some reluctance to engage with training unless a trainer were physically onsite, just because that's how it had always been done. But now we know how far training can be taken without having to set foot in the facility, so it's likely going to be a large part of the future of training even once we can travel again.
Training updates extend beyond audio consoles. Microphone and wireless-sysems manufacturer Shure also added new learning modules and webinars focused on broadcast and live events: for example, Shure Webinar: Workflow - Inside the NBA Bubble and Shure Webinar: Workflow - Broadcast From Home.
A year ago, we noticed an immediate demand for virtual training, says Dave Klein, director, Shure Audio Institute. Once live events started to be canceled, we expanded Shure's webinar schedule to provide up-to-date technical insights and training on a weekly basis. This was a significant increase from the monthly training webinars organized by the Shure Audio Instit
North America Stories
25/04/2024
PHILADELPHIA Comcast beat earnings estimates in its Q1 2024 financial report, as streaming losses continued to decline and Peacock's paid subscribers spiked...
25/04/2024
SEATTLE The Seattle Kraken have inked new multi-year agreements with Tegna and Prime Video that will expand access to their games over broadcast stations and st...
25/04/2024
Cintel Scanner G3 HDR Restores Egypt's Cinema Treasures to Their Former Glo...
25/04/2024
Sinclair Broadcast Group said it named Kevin Coskren chief meteorologist at KTUL, its ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma....
25/04/2024
The Business of TV News, a new one-day event featuring Martha Raddatz, Shannon Bream, Glenn Kirschner and other major figures in television news, happens at Hot...
25/04/2024
Conditions put on the proposed sale of WADL Detroit, to Mission Broadcasting have created a potential drama in the Motor City....
25/04/2024
TelevisaUnivision reported a $52 million loss in the first quarter, up from $3 m...
25/04/2024
Comcast reported flat first-quarter earnings as it reduced the red ink at Peacock but continued to lose video and broadband customers....
25/04/2024
Music-video network Vevo said it launched its app on Telly, the company offering consumers free dual-screen TVs in return for data about what they're watchi...
25/04/2024
Future Today said it has introduced a redesigned user interface for about half of its 300 streaming apps, including Fawesome, HappyKids and iFood.TV....
25/04/2024
Broadpeak , a leading provider of content delivery network (CDN) and video streaming solutions for content providers and pay-TV operators worldwide, announced t...
25/04/2024
Lightware Visual Engineering, a leading manufacturer of connectivity solutions for the professional integrated systems market and a pioneer in signal management...
25/04/2024
Net Insight has entered into a collaboration with DMC Production that positions Net Insight at the forefront of sports broadcasting in the Nordics. Net Insight ...
25/04/2024
GlobalM has announced a strategic partnership with scoopa, the specialists in broadcast-quality content distribution, offering a complementary service for live ...
25/04/2024
PlayBox Neo announces the completion of a new multichannel playout system for the DDish direct-to-home satellite television network in Mongolia. Based in the na...
25/04/2024
Canadian music producer and engineer Garth Richardson also known as Gggarth due to his stutter - has embraced immersive audio by installing a PMC monitoring s...
25/04/2024
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that Televisa, the Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company, has chosen Synamedia as its pa...
25/04/2024
OTTera, a leading provider of end-to-end OTT and FAST channel solutions, proudly announces its strategic partnership with ThinkAnalytics, a global leader in adv...
25/04/2024
The American Tobacco Campus will be hopping with activity tonight and this weekend with two fun events!
Durham Night Market
At last! The Durham Night Market i...
25/04/2024
WEST CHESTER, Pa. Video commerce provider Qurate Retail Group has launched The Big Dish, a new culinary-themed FAST channel on The Roku Channel....
25/04/2024
LOS ANGELES The Hollywood Professional Association has announced that submissions for the 2024 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards are now being accepted. This re...
25/04/2024
NEW YORK The digital media measurement and analytics firm DoubleVerify has announced that it has received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for Video Vie...
25/04/2024
SAN FRANCISCO Fox Corp.'s ad-supported streaming service Tubi has announced a licensing agreement with the sports platform DAZN that will see DAZN Ringside ...
25/04/2024
NEW YORK In the runup to the 2024 IAB NewFronts, the IAB has announced three key appointments to its leadership team....
25/04/2024
Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 5.4 with new Motion Design Mode, Unreal VCam f...
25/04/2024
Content Creation, Production, Distribution Is In a State of Flux
Andy Marken April 24, 2024
0 Comments
My empathy is creeping towards what I would de...
25/04/2024
The Carolina Panthers and Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) announced they have...
25/04/2024
Berklee Student Riko Sasaski Named 2024 Yamaha Young Performing Artist The accomplished saxophonist secured a spot among the elite winners of this year's ...
25/04/2024
Stations everywhere take pride in having a main anchor who comes from the market they represent. That applies in St. Louis, too, but it also pertains to general...
25/04/2024
Edward Moody is joining the WBTW Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, anchor crew, and will anchor the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts alongside Trish Williford. He comes f...
25/04/2024
MTV said the 2024 Video Music Awards will return to New York and take place at the new UBS Arena....
25/04/2024
Season three of comedy The Outlaws premieres on Prime Video May 31. Stephen Merchant co-created the show, and stars. There are five episodes....
25/04/2024
The E.W. Scripps Co. is evaluating offers for Bounce, its multicast channel for African-American viewers, according to a report from CNBC....
25/04/2024
Paramount Plus has ordered a second season for Dora, the animated preschool show based on Dora the Explorer. The show, featuring Dora on a rainforest adventure ...
25/04/2024
Back to All News
Let the Pleasure Begin: Doctor Climax' and Its Steamy Q&A...
25/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Joins The Thursday Murder Club
Entertainment
25 April 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Writer, Director: Chris Columbus
Prod...
25/04/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
25/04/2024
Support for Battle.net on GeForce NOW expands this GFN Thursday, as titles from the iconic StarCraft and Diablo series come to the cloud.
StarCraft Remastered,...
24/04/2024
ATLANTA Mundo Hispano Digital has launched a new advertising product, MundoNow Connect, that is designed to help advertisers reach Hispanic audiences on connect...
24/04/2024
Epic Games has released a major new version of Unreal Engine, which has become a mainstay in virtual production, that includes new features and improvements to ...
24/04/2024
The National Association of Broadcasters welcomed the industry to its annual extravaganza last month in Las Vegas. The sights and sounds were similar to previou...
24/04/2024
NEW YORK Chptr and Gray Television have announced that they are introducing a new video solution for funeral homes and communities that will allow funeral direc...
24/04/2024
Adobe Charts the Future of Creativity and AI at MAX London
Brie Clayton April 24, 2024
0 Comments
Adobe is taking MAX, the world's largest creativ...
24/04/2024
National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt has agreed to a contract extension that keeps him at the trade association's helm throu...
24/04/2024
Jo Ann Ross, the long-running queen of television advertising sales, is stepping down from her role as chairman of Paramount Advertising at the end of the month...
24/04/2024
E.W. Scripps said it named James Galindo as station manager for KERO, the ABC affiliate in Bakersfield, California....
24/04/2024
Amazon Prime Video's Fallout topped TVision's Power Score rankings of shows on connected TV for the week of April 15....
24/04/2024
DoubleVerify said that it received accreditation from the Media Rating Council for its measurement of video viewable impressions and related metrics for connect...
24/04/2024
PlayBox Neo reports a successful and well attended 2024 NAB Show, held in mid April at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Now in its 101st year, the event attract...
Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 1 - COVID Drives Online as Primary Mode of Educating Pros Manufacturers, tech academies increase access by workers at home By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
