NEWS: EDUCATION
Robert Soo extends the educational circuit SINGAPORE
Cogent Acoustics’ owner, principal consultant and trainer Robert Soo has been using his time wisely during the country’s “circuit breaker” lockdown to conceptualise new and relevant educational courses. Soo freely admits that the Covid-19 situation has proved to be a huge gamechanger. “I’ve actually been working on a number of educational webinars for different target groups,” he revealed. “For example, I’ve delivered sessions on audio and loudspeaker system design specifically for AV systems contractors and integrators. For the education sector, I am currently conducting sessions on microphone fundamentals and techniques, which have received a good response and so I am planning new topics. I will also be embarking on sessions for HOWs that will focus on transiting analogue to digital systems to livestreaming.” Soo is keen to promote education beyond the church sanctuary. “As students are now learning more from home, the education sector is steering towards homebased learning as well as remote and decentralised co-curricular programmes for students. Not surprisingly, all my onsite training programmes were subsequently put on hold. However, I didn’t want the learning and sharing of knowledge to stop, so I embarked on conducting
Robert Soo online training sessions soon after the lockdown. I then extended the courses to schools, because it’s important to educate and inspire the next generation of AV engineers. I want to help raise the quality of audio delivery and take the opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do, including debunking myths and fixing common erroneous audio practices going on in many schools today.”
Soo is keen to point out that online educational forums are not new, having originated in the 1990s. “In addition to the numerous online training programmes offered today, the technology is welldeveloped and can even support high-tech events. Webinars are a real godsend during this pandemic where travel restrictions and social distancing have made seminars a near impossibility, but
they do have their limitations. Even in a real-time synchronous setting, which provides trainers and trainees a platform for interaction and immediate feedback, there are some very critical experiential components and skills that trainees cannot fully grasp. Certain topics such as sound mixing, EQ’ing techniques and system tuning are better taught in-person.” Soo’s research found that most AV systems operators in Singaporean educational institutions are mainly teachers and students who have received little or no training on their equipment. “Even in-house technicians are rarely formally trained for AV management. It is very common to witness sound mixers, microphones and so on being used incorrectly, resulting in poor sound quality, unintelligible speech, acoustic feedback, audio distortion and wireless dropouts. I want to educate the users on the fundamentals that should at least help get them on the right track to decent audio. In addition, I want to highlight the importance of correct loudspeaker positioning and the need for good acoustics in classrooms and multipurpose halls, as these have a huge impact on intelligibility and the overall sound experience that ultimately affects the students’ learning.” www.cogentacoustics.com
Ashly Audio University introduces free custom classes WORLD
Audio manufacturer Ashly Audio has launched a series of customised and private training courses. The series is available for free online through the Ashly University portal and allows students to request their own topics for training. “We said from the start of Ashly University that if we got a strong response to our webinars we would add more,” said Noel
Larson, vice president of marketing and business development at Ashly Audio. “With our courses consistently hitting capacity, we made the decision to open up summer school. We want to make sure we’re providing the right content for the customer’s needs, so we’re focusing on personalised businessto-business training sessions in addition to topics that have previously had waitlists.
This free service is just another way Ashly Audio is showing our continuing commitment to training our dealers, representatives and distributors.” To date, the manufacturer has already offered tailored sessions on topics that include digital mixing in houses of worship, saving money with the right amp for the right job, taking advantage of custom remote
layouts, getting the most out of ambient noise compensation, and how Dante and networked audio provides flexibility previously thought impossible. Anyone interested in a private curriculum should contact Ashly’s Bob Tamburri at training@ashly.com.
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