This course provides practical, hands-on demonstrations of sound, lighting and video set-ups and involves participation in recordings, live shows, radio broadcasts, or broadcast simulations to gain workplace experience. Students will complete a variety of practical assignments designed to address the diverse skill sets required for successful employment in the entertainment arts industry.Production Aspect: Students are required to respond to project briefs to present draft edits and rough mixes of the productions recorded at the Academy of Sound Engineering hosted live events. In such cases, the outcomes of these projects are strictly defined according to the requirements of the client. Other projects provide the student with much more liberal briefs, where specific production qualities must be demonstrated, but where the content is open-ended. These projects provide opportunities to explore creative expression as long as certain technical outcomes are achieved.Live Event Venue: The Academy of Sound Engineering live events usually take place in our V1 studio complex. V1 is a ‘Variety’ studio that includes a small theatre with a 90 square meter stage area, a seating area for an audience of up to 175 people, connected to a foyer area, technical storage, a machine room, a recording studio, with an isolation booth, and an ‘OB’ unit with both sound and vision mixing facilities. This facility is equipped with professional video cameras, broadcast vision mixing, two of the most advanced audio mixing consoles in the country, very advanced PA equipment that has been used for stadium concerts and by international touring music artists, and stage and video lighting. Dedicated fibre lines interconnect V1 to SABC Main Control for live broadcasts, the internet for live streaming, our radio broadcasting studio, and our other studios in the building, with high bandwidth audio and video connections.The Shows: These Academy of Sound Engineering-hosted live events are usually live-streamed music concerts featuring local professional artists and musicians. Occasionally the artists record albums, DVDs, or material for radio or television shows. Academy of Sound Engineering usually provides a free or very affordable recording service to these clients to provide its students with professional production experience. Occasionally, when a group or artist cancels we substitute the group with one of our student bands, or with staff musicians, several of whom have performed or continue to perform professionally.From this venue we have hosted live streams for top local acts like Thabsie, Sio, and dozens of others, Live radio broadcasts on 5FM for Kwesta, AKA, and others, recorded album material for Amadodana Ase Wesile, Joyous Celebration, and others, including international artists Mumford and Sons, and Jann Klose. We have hosted conferences for the Copyright Coalition of South Africa, Music Exchange (MEX), workshops for CAPASO, and a product launches for DPA Microphones and Avid.Student Participation: Second and third-year students are invited to productions on a rotational basis in groups of up to 16. Students participate in every aspect of a production, from planning equipment lists, back-line, audio and video lines, schedules, programme run-down, stage layouts, camera angles, and lighting cues, through the execution of the live event, and to delivering post-production edits and mixes. Each student will attend at least six such production events and thus have the opportunity to rotate through a variety of roles such as stage manager, stage lighting operator, gaffer, front-of-house, monitor, vision, or broadcast mixer, camera operator, and video director. One or two staff members will be in attendance to supervise and direct, but it is the students' hands on the equipment.