Orbital Sound's Theo Holloway, who manages the company's training programme, explained:
"Our courses are proving extremely popular, with the students for this year's autumn course coming from a variety of backgrounds, including freelancers, hire company and venue staff, drama teachers, recent technical theatre graduates, and stage managers. Training is a particularly important issue in the current commercial climate. With the job market under such pressure, having the appropriate training and experience can provide a valuable competitive edge. The other key driver is the theatre industry's consistently high standards – across the professional and amateur sectors alike – with audience expectation fuelling the rise in production values. Quality counts, and to achieve it you need people with the relevant skill set.
"Our courses are structured such that whatever the students' diversity of background and skill, we can ensure they can take away something useful at every level, and appropriate for their own environment. We had excellent support from our suppliers – including Yamaha, who helped with the Digital Mixing Desks session, focusing on the LS9 and M7CL consoles, and d&b audiotechnik, who assisted with the session on electroacoustics and sound system design, using their T-Series loudspeakers for practical examples. Both companies have a long-established commitment to training – this is a valuable asset for us, underlining our partnership with them and mirroring our own commitment.
"This course was mainly technology focused, and provided an introduction to the principles of how more advanced theatre sound systems operate. It gave everyone opportunities for practical, hands-on experience with each of the prime elements in the signal chain and, for many, it was a chance to quiz our experts and raise any specific issues that they'd encountered in the field. We had an overwhelming response to the course, underlining the demand for specialist training, and it represents an ideal complement to our Easter Sound Fundamentals course, which provides a more general overview of theatre sound practice."
Orbital Sound is adding a number of training opportunities to its 2010 programme, aimed at a variety of skill levels in theatre sound, and will be announcing course dates and content shortly.
Orbital Sound's Theo Holloway, who manages the company's training programme, explained:
"Our courses are proving extremely popular, with the students for this year's autumn course coming from a variety of backgrounds, including freelancers, hire company and venue staff, drama teachers, recent technical theatre graduates, and stage managers. Training is a particularly important issue in the current commercial climate. With the job market under such pressure, having the appropriate training and experience can provide a valuable competitive edge. The other key driver is the theatre industry's consistently high standards – across the professional and amateur sectors alike – with audience expectation fuelling the rise in production values. Quality counts, and to achieve it you need people with the relevant skill set.
"Our courses are structured such that whatever the students' diversity of background and skill, we can ensure they can take away something useful at every level, and appropriate for their own environment. We had excellent support from our suppliers – including Yamaha, who helped with the Digital Mixing Desks session, focusing on the LS9 and M7CL consoles, and d&b audiotechnik, who assisted with the session on electroacoustics and sound system design, using their T-Series loudspeakers for practical examples. Both companies have a long-established commitment to training – this is a valuable asset for us, underlining our partnership with them and mirroring our own commitment.
"This course was mainly technology focused, and provided an introduction to the principles of how more advanced theatre sound systems operate. It gave everyone opportunities for practical, hands-on experience with each of the prime elements in the signal chain and, for many, it was a chance to quiz our experts and raise any specific issues that they'd encountered in the field. We had an overwhelming response to the course, underlining the demand for specialist training, and it represents an ideal complement to our Easter Sound Fundamentals course, which provides a more general overview of theatre sound practice."
Orbital Sound is adding a number of training opportunities to its 2010 programme, aimed at a variety of skill levels in theatre sound, and will be announcing course dates and content shortly.
