Work Experience at the International Broadcasting Convention
Last month several crews of Solent Media Technology students flew out to Amsterdam to provide technical support at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). The programme has worked with Shooting Partners for over a decade now, providing students to work on IBC News as well as technical support for conference itself. IBC is a massive conference with several auditoria needing ingest and playout of vision content as well as audio and IT requirements. Some of the students fly out up to a week in advance of the conference to help with the installation of facilities including whole cinemas! The news channel produces content for a dedicated IBC News Channel that is played out across the venue, Amsterdam city and is available live and on-demand online.
Photo Credit Archie Cigirs, Ben Heath and Oskar Przybylski
Some of the students reflect on their experiences:
Oskar Przybylski | Technical Assistant
“During the build-up we assisted with building PA systems, connecting audio and video kit, laying down power supplies across different rooms and making up cables – loads of Cat5's! I also assisted with setting up a Clear-com system which I found a really useful skill. During the actual convention we were sent to different jobs, depending on our area of interest. Some guys ended up as camera or visual mixing assistants. Being on the audio side, I was helping with mixing some conferences, and doing general sound assistance duties, such as fitting microphones on people and managing radio mic systems.”
“Overall, this was easily the best work experience I've had so far - a one-of-a-kind chance to not only be at IBC but to see it from behind the scenes. Also, a great opportunity to make some excellent industry contacts and the Shooting Partners team is an amazing group of fun and professional people.”
Photo Credit Archie Cigirs, Ben Heath and Oskar Przybylski
Archie Cigirs | Technical Assistant
“Our team of ten technical assistants was very friendly and hardworking. The Shooting Partners team were all very nice and happy to explain anything; people were willing to help you to gain the experience, as this is the reason you were there.”
“The main responsibilities were moving boxes and pushing flight cases, connecting cables, assisting with setting up a systems such as ClearCom, Skype TX and BroadMan, helping fix systems when they went down. In my case, the biggest thing that I learned was doing the CAT5 cable ends – in four days I became a master of CAT5 cabling and would say that it is a very good skill to know!”
“After working there for two weeks, you understand how massive and significant this event is. Brands from all over the world come here to show and discuss their new technologies, inventions and ideas. It is possible to meet a lot of incredible people in the engineering industry. This trip gave me a lot of knowledge and understanding of the broadcasting industry with a mixture of video, audio and networking people uniting to create and accomplish projects together. It was an incredible experience which opened my eyes to many things in the industry of the media broadcasting.”
Photo Credit Archie Cigirs, Ben Heath and Oskar Przybylski
