With its content tightly focused on preparing technical theatre and theatre sound students for careers in live entertainment, the course combines essential theory with practical skills. The teaching team for this year comprised Orbital Sound's course leader, Richard Carter, concentrating on key concepts, MIDI, computer playback, and networking. Richard was accompanied by Joseph Masters on communications and CCTV, Alex Waddle teaching radio mic fitting, John Wildridge on rigging, and David Bartholomeusz tutoring on production engineering and vocal imaging.
For a practical insight into the skills required to stage a major West End musical, the students took a backstage tour of the hit show Memphis, as well as being treated to a lecture from the show's Oliver Award-winning sound designer, Gareth Owen. They were also able to gain hands-on experience on a state of the art digital mixing console, using Yamaha QL5s and CL5s under the tuition of Yamaha's Wayne Powell. In addition, Shure Audio's Tuomo Tolonen explained the mysteries of radio microphones and RF, while d&b audiotechnik's Oran Burns concentrated on speaker theory and electro-acoustics.
The annual Easter Sound Fundamentals for Theatre week is an integral part of Orbital Sound's education programme, as training specialist Alex Waddle explains:
"We are passionate about providing a range of courses that address real-world issues faced by technicians and engineers, encouraging best practices across all disciplines - something we have been doing for many years. We are extremely proud to count a number of today's leading sound designers and heads of sound among our former students.
"Our Sound Fundamentals for Theatre course addresses all the basics needed to succeed in a theatre sound career, while "Mixing Musicals" homes in on the specialist skills required for FOH mixing. It is great to see how students progress and grow in confidence, extending their practical skills and knowledge of theory across just a few days."
(Jim Evans)
