Broadcast Engineer Essentials
3 days (flexible)
Overview
The syllabus has been partitioned into 6 sessions, each one taking approximately half a day to complete. A total of 3 days training time. Training can be presented as a single course or split to be run across 2 or 3 occasions to better suit attendee availability.
Session Depth and Target Audience
The content covered in the sessions will include enough detail to be classed ‘intermediate’ level but will be condensed into a short time making the sessions feel intensive – care will be taken with the presentation of the content to highlight salient points and use visuals where possible to avoid the attendees feeling too overwhelmed by the amount of content covered.
Due to the short duration there is no capacity to include any practical element within the sessions. It is recommended that attendees seek further training opportunities to gain ‘hands-on’ experience of signals and systems discussed in this course. This could be formal organised sessions or informal training through work shadowing more experienced colleagues.
This course is suitable for anybody working in a technical or engineering role within a broadcast facility or service provider where having a broad technical knowledge will assist in supporting operational colleagues, fault-finding systems and reviewing/evaluating new architectures.
Syllabus
The course is split into 6 sections running over 3 days. Days 1 and 2 should ideally be run back-to-back. Day 3 could be separated and run at a different time if flexibility for scheduling of time is needed.
| S1 | Intro and Basics | Day 1 – AM |
| 1 | Agenda & Introduction | 25 mins (approx.) |
| 2 | IP Video Basics (fast overview to set the scene and give context) | 35 mins (approx.) |
| 3 | Video Fundamentals | 60 mins (approx.) |
| 4 | Audio Fundamentals | 60 mins (approx.) |
| S2 | Digital Video | Day 1 – PM |
| 5 | Digital Video | 45 mins (approx.) |
| 6 | Ancillary data | 60 mins (approx.) |
| 7 | Video Formats | 60 mins (approx.) |
| S3 | Compression & Files | Day 2 – AM |
| 8 | Compression (Audio) | 25 mins (approx.) |
| 9 | Compression (Video) | 45 mins (approx.) |
| 10 | DVB/MPEG (SPTS/MPTS) | 30 mins (approx.) |
| 11 | File Formats | 60 mins (approx.) |
| S4 | Systems | Day 2 – PM |
| 12 | Timing and Control | 50 mins (approx.) |
| 13 | The Broadcast Chain | 15 mins (approx.) |
| 14 | Broadcast Systems – Production | 35 mins (approx.) |
| 15 | Broadcast Systems – Post Production | 35 mins (approx.) |
| 16 | Broadcast Systems – Playout | 35 mins (approx.) |
| S5 | IP in Broadcast | Day 3 – AM |
| 8 | Networking Basics | 80 mins (approx.) |
| 9 | IP in Broadcast | 80 mins (approx.) |
| S6 | New Architectures & Technology | Day 3 – PM |
| 8 | Dematerialization (Virtual Servers / Containers / Serverless) | 80 mins (approx.) |
| 9 | Cloud Services | 45 mins (approx.) |
| 10 | New Architectures and Technology | 40 mins (approx.) |
A more detailed syllabus detailing topics covered within each section can be provided on request.
Course Technicals
Recommended class size for the session is 4-6 people. Training days typically run from 9:30am to 5:00pm with a 60 minute break for lunch and multiple shorter breaks throughout the day.
As this is a mainly presenter led course a larger number of people could be accommodated but limiting to the recommended size ensures all attendees have a chance of having questions addressed within the time available making the sessions more effective.
Printed notebooks containing slides used on the course will be provided (up to 8 copies per session). Electronic copies of the notebook can also be provided but are licenced for revision use by the attendees only.
Training should take place in a private, quiet room, free from visual distraction. A large display or projector is required – image should be large enough for all attendees with normal sight to read 16pt text from where they are seated. Connection to the display should be via full-size HDMI suitably located for connection to the presenter’s laptop.
Cost
The fee to run this course as a 3-day session is £4,500. This is a fixed fee regardless of the number of attendees, however the recommended maximum number of attendees is 6. Travel and accommodation expenses are recharged as incurred (an inclusive fixed price can be provided on request).
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