Why study BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology transcript

00:00

So live event tech is a really vast field. In the last kind of, 10 years or so we've seen a merge between the audio and the video side of the industry, so there's a lot more crossover now.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

0:11

Solent is preparing us for post uni life just by giving us first of all, real world experience and also during your time here you won't only be working on audio or visual or acoustics, or something like that, you kind of learn all of it, which I believe is a really important part of getting a job after uni, because the industry is looking more and morefor experience in all of this, as well as, just your specialised role as well.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

00:45

There are so many roles that our graduates go into. It's one of the the great things about the course is the career opportunities afterwards. So although you're doing a degree titled 'Live Event Technology', you could end up working in audio engineering, sound engineering, lighting engineering, working freelance at festivals and events, to working in broadcast, or even working in film. We've actually seen a few of our graduates recently end up using their AV skills to start working on films and TV production where we're seeing things like virtual studios being used in the production methods. So things like how the Mandalorian was produced.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

01:28

When I graduate I'd love to go into a technical role, it would be amazing to go into a TV or film role. Hopefully something to do with the BBC or looking into the future of technology.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

01:46

So one of the great things about Solent, is we have a really great alumni network. We're really supported by our our graduates, they offer our students work experience, placements, guest lectures and even in this past sort of 18 months, where unfortunately, the students haven't been out being able to get out and about, we've still had them online, talking to our students about their, you know, future careers and the change in the industry that the pandemic has kind of caused. So that great network has really allowed our current students to keep up to date with all the goings on and the technologies that are happening in the live events industry.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

02:28

The course lecturers are great because they're really friendly, they're always there to talk if you need help and they all have experience in different areas of the industry as well, including connections to big companies or alumni who have gone on to do different things.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

02:46:16

One of the things that students that come to us say to me, is that they they chose to come to us because of our facilities. So we've got quite a range of facilities here and that comes from the fact that what we do is is so broad, so we don't just specialise on either sound engineering or lighting or events, we do a little bit of everything, so we've got this amazing outside broadcast truck here, which we take out to events. We also teach the students how to use it as part of their lessons, it goes to festivals throughout the summer, it goes to local kind of, sporting events and things like that.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

03:23:31

Last year we did a couple of football games including the FA men's Senior Championship and recently we did Southampton Pride, so we got to film that as well which was a really good experience. For the football I was mostly in charge of racking and CCU's. For Southampton Pride I was the Unit Manager and I also did some filming of the stage and the crowd.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

03:55:07

Doing a more a technical role kind of allows you to flow in between different different types of the production as well, so you can do vision mixing you can do camera, you can do all that kind of stuff, but you also get kind of into the nitty-gritty of how the system works as well, which I find really interesting. We've also got a Dolby Atmos cinema which we use for mixing so as part of one of our modules students can actually sit in there with a mixing desk and mix to Dolby Atmos. We've got a range of kind of, sound orientated facilities which look into how these technologies work, so the tech behind Dolby Atmos, behind VR and gaming technologies. We've got lots of lab facilities whether that's broadcast labs or acoustics labs, it's all about understanding how the technology works and its application to generally kind of, creative processes.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

4:56:22

Last year we had the sound designer for 'Killing Eve' as a guest lecturer and so that really got me interested in the creative aspects of TV and film.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

5:08:12

One of the most valuable things that people who graduate from our courses say that they have, is transferable skills, so a broad range of knowledge in lots of different areas of media technology and that's what the people that employ them say is is really valuable as well. So it's not just about knowing a lot about one subject, it's about knowing the ground - the fundamentals, the principles of lots of different areas of media technology.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

5:40:16

So in my first year we worked on the Christmas light switch on in Southampton, that was a great opportunity to just set up all of the equipment and work during the event, making sure that everything ran smoothly - it was just a very good opportunity to just apply the skills that we've learned and also just have fun.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

6:08:06

There are so many opportunities that we're finding that people in the industry are just working seven days a week, because there aren't enough people to cover all the roles that are available. Part of this is to do with postponed events and things like that, but equally it's to do with this expansion of the technology, the different uses of the technology and the way that the industry is progressing, with how things are done.

Course Leader of Live Event Technology, Polly Hickling, sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

6:32:06

The most important thing I've picked up so far at Solent I believe would be learning more about broadcast system design, because it kind of goes into detail about each individual piece of equipment how it works within the chain of the system and it's just a really good experience to kind of apply that to real life.

Student of BSc (Hons) Live Event Technology, Lillie Fyfe is sat in outside broadcast vehicle talking to camera.

6:56:07 - 7:00:03

Ambient music plays, then fades out. Cuts to graphic that says, 'Get ready for university', www.solent.ac.uk, fades down, and fades up Solent University logo. [Video ends]