Ben Dixon presents ‘Acoustics in Audio Post-Production and Performance Spaces’ to Colchester Institute

As part of our ongoing social value and corporate responsibility commitments, we actively encourage our colleagues to engage with educational facilities, local groups and communities.

Most recently, Principal Acoustic Consultant Ben Dixon was invited by Colchester Institute to give a presentation to Music Technology students about Acoustics in Audio Post-Production and Performance Spaces.

“We were thrilled to have Ben deliver a brilliant and passionate presentation on Acoustics and Careers at Colchester Institute. The pupil engagement was excellent and I learned a lot from him as well.”

Geoff Clark, Composer and Lecturer at Colchester Institute

On Monday 14^th October Ben arrived on campus to find a room full of students and to his surprise, he was asked to present on an actual stage vs standing at the front of a classroom. Fortunately, Ben has spent many years working on stages across the UK, so he quickly clambered up, plugged in his laptop, placed his coffee on the table in front of him and began his presentation.

Over the next hour, Ben introduced himself to the students, explaining first his background in post-production and live events, before going on to discuss his experiences at university and his integration into the corporate world of acoustics and engineering.

During the presentation, Ben and the students discussed how integral an understanding of acoustics will be to their practice, and provided working examples of how a better understanding will give them an advantage in their continued professional development.

It wasn’t all business though… there were even some games, which provided the students with the fundamental knowledge required to be able to predict how loud a night club could be when you start adding more sound sources on stage. In addition to this, the students were also shown the fundamentals in calculating how loud a festival stage might be at a noise sensitive receptor. From his experience, Ben knew this would be especially useful to those who wanted to work in live events. For those students who wanted to work in postproduction, Ben highlighted the role of architectural acoustics and how to first understand the limitations of their recording and mixing environments, but also, how to treat, adapt, and make the most of them.

“That age is a transitional time in our lives, when you know you want to do something, but you don’t have enough world experience to know what that something could be. For those of the students that already had a pretty good idea, the foundations discussed at that presentation will be invaluable to them as they go on to Glastonbury, Abbey Road or Hollywood. For those who still haven’t got it quite figured out just yet, perhaps a new interest in acoustics was discovered.. and for those students, I say welcome aboard! It’s a great industry and I hope you enjoy explaining what an Acoustic Consultant actually does as much as we all do.”

Ben Dixon, Principal Acoustic Consultant