Head Technician

From Starchive Wiki

The Head of Tech, is responsible for keeping the studio equipment functional and up-to-date, and buying new equipment when deemed necessary. In most years, they are also expected to keep the studio clean and tidy, and to help with tech at STAR gigs and external broadcasts. They are also responsible for managing the station's PPL license, and creating Myriad logins for shows.

The position used to be called the Director of Audio Engineering, with a focus on the studio equipment, and the rest of the committee helping to keep the studio tidy. Nowadays, it is more common for the Head Technician to be responsible for the studio computers, network, and web stream, as well as much of the website maintenance and content. They therefore work closely with the Head of Web.

For more information on studio equipment, see Studio Equipment.

They are contactable via [email protected], or as part of the whole tech team at [email protected].

Previous Head Technicians

Year Name Position Title
2009/10 Walker Angell Chief Audio Engineer
2012/13 James Hardy Director of Audio Engineering
2013/14 Ryo Yanagida Director of Audio Engineering
2014/15 Ryo Yanagida Director of Audio Engineering
Johannes Mckay Chief Engineer
2015/16 Unknown Unknown
2016/17 Jessy Staney Head of Tech
2017/18 Tom Groves Head of Tech
2018/19 Tom Groves Head of Tech
2019/20 Emily Baxter Head Technician
2020/21 Andrew Barron Head of Tech
2021/22 Andrew Barron Head of Tech

Assistant Technician

Some committees may decide to appoint an assistant to the Head Technician. The responsibilities of the assistant are normally up to the Head Technician. Assistants are usually appointed in March, at the same time as the rest of the committee. However, in 2019/20 the assistants were appointed in September, to allow new students to apply.

Year Name Position Title
2012/13 Luke Hodgeman Director of Technical Operations
2018/19 Danil Flewelling Assistant Head of Tech
2019/20 Andrew Barron Assistant Technician

Tech Team

In some years, the committee may attempt to have more people helping the Head Technician, forming a Tech Team. In 2010, there was a team of people dedicated to outside broadcasts, which allowed STAR to cover far more events. [Source]

Handover

Intro

As the Head Technician, you are in charge of all station equipment. This means keeping the studio fully working, thinking of new equipment we can buy to improve shows, training every show host, and then responding to their messages asking for help throughout the semester. You may also be asked to operate live sound equipment at STAR events, broadcast live events, and train people to use our external recording equipment. This role can be very rewarding, and can open a lot of doors, if you engage with it properly.

Tasks

  • When you first join the committee in April, meet up with the outgoing Head Technician in the studio, and go through all equipment together. Spend as much time as possible familiarising yourself with everything in the studio, control room, and our cupboard in the TV Edit Suite (The Saint's office).
  • Work with the Station Manager and Treasurer to prepare a budget for the next year. Think about what equipment we could buy, replace, or upgrade. The Treasurer has to submit a proposed budget to the Union around the end of May.
  • Download broadcasting software that can handle two streamers at once (MP3 and Ogg Vorbis). This will let you take over the live broadcast from your laptop. I recommend Ladiocast for Mac.
  • Download Audacity or another DAW if you haven’t already.
  • Show training:
    1. After show applications close in September, ask the Head of Programming to share their confirmed schedule, with show names, host names, and email addresses.
    2. Set aside a weekend to train all the new shows, and create a spreadsheet with available timeslots
    3. Share this spreadsheet with all shows. Post it in the shows group, and ask the Head of Programming or Secretary to send an email to all shows with a link to the spreadsheet. All new shows must be tech trained before going on air.
    4. If your assistant is ready to train people, or someone else on committee is capable, try to have 30 minute slots starting every 15 minutes, with one of you in the control room and one in the main studio.
    5. Work through a list of training points (example below).
    6. If the Head of Programming has asked you to go through some programming tips, do this at the end of each tech training session.
  • Repeat a smaller version of the training process in January (there should be fewer new shows).
  • Train any new shows that appear throughout the semester.
  • Create Myriad Playout accounts for each show, and make a list of the login details and cart range each account can edit. Make sure these accounts are in the "shows" permissions group. Pin the list in the shows hosts' Facebook group.
  • Create Myriad Playout accounts for committee members who need specific access, e.g. the Head of Programming needs to see the login report; the Head of Music needs to be able to edit a large cart range, and access the AutoFade presets/schedule; the Head of Production needs to be able to upload adverts and jingles, and schedule them.
  • Stay active in the show hosts' Facebook group; they will be relying on you to fix their tech problems all day, every day.
  • Keep the studio and equipment clean and tidy.
  • Make sure AutoFade is active whenever no show is on air.
  • Broadcast or record live events, especially live lounges.
  • Manage STAR's external recording equipment, including repairs, new equipment, loans to students, and training these students.
  • Manage STAR's licenses, including submitting quarterly PPL reports.
  • Work closely with the Head of Web and their assistant. Make a group chat with all of you, and the Station Manager. Your roles overlap a lot, and you should help each other with tasks wherever possible. This means you should have an active role in keeping the website up to date, and should know how to do many of the Head of Web's tasks if they are unavailable. For example, being able to delete podcasts from the podcasts archive if it reaches the storage limit (which could prevent listeners from accessing the main website).
  • You will often be the one left to deal with tedious things, such as
  • Split these tasks between yourself and your assistant.

Links

Contacts

Training checklist

This is an example of what to work through during tech training; it should be updated as appropriate.

  • Control room
    • Basics of STAR
      1. Internet radio, standrewsradio.com
      2. Every show will have a page on the website
      3. Form for show bios/fb links going out soon
    • Myriad Playout
      1. Carts
      2. Cart players
      3. Searching the database
      4. Jumping between carts
      5. Cart ranges
        • Show ranges
        • AutoFade range
        • Sound FX range
        • Imaging range
    • Uploading songs and other audio files
    • Ingest PC can't affect live broadcast
  • Studio
    • Mixer
      1. Mic faders
      2. Myriad faders
      3. Faders determine what is being broadcast
      4. Column for each channel
      5. Trim (/gain) dials – most important for sound quality
      6. Pan (/balance) dials
      7. Speaker/headphone dials
    • Myriad
      1. Playout PC sends live broadcast
      2. Standby/Live/AutoFade
        • At the end of your show, activate AutoFade and put all four Myriad faders up
    • Buzzbox
      1. Help section
  • Programming
    • Sign-in book
    • Segments
    • Arrive at least five minutes early
    • Script your intro
    • If you’re a talk show, bring 30 mins of music to your first show; music show, bring an hour of music
    • Plan your show structure and discussion points in advance
    • Someone from committee will sit in on your first show
  • Summary
    • Retrieving podcasts, archive.standrewsradio.com
    • Uploading podcasts to Mixcloud
    • Passwords
    • Show hosts' Facebook group
    • Show guide
    • Who to contact when (tech@, programming@, hello@)
    • Drop-in Monday 5-6pm
  • Advanced training
    • Aux fader/taking phone calls
    • Shortcuts
    • External USB controller
    • Segue editor
    • Creating pads
    • Using FX pads
    • Pre-fade buttons
    • Auto pre-fade buttons/”column”s for monitoring
    • Challenge: work out what “split pre-fade” and “talkback” do
Retrieved from ‘https://archive.standrewsradio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Head_Technician&oldid=691’