Fresh off the September opening of its new Canadian offices, Sennheiser hosted an all-day RF Wireless Sound Academy on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at the new headquarters located just outside Montréal.
The RF Wireless academy taught roughly 50 integrators, designers, rental company reps and end-users how to plan for trouble-free operation in even the toughest environments.
The seminar focused on educating trainees on how to use multi-channel wireless microphones and wireless monitoring systems and included classroom instruction on several topics, including: Waves & Frequencies; Modulation; Frequency Selection & Frequency Coordination; System Configuration; Antennas; In-Ear Monitoring; Computer Monitoring, Control & Networking; New Digital Technology; FCC updates on licensed vs unlicensed operation; and New Rules of Thumb for the Next Decade.
Good towards 7 CTS credits, the RF Wireless Sound Academy was taught by Sennheiser’s David Missall, Michel Morisette and Brian Walker — all of whom have extensive RF experience.
“The Sound Academy was chock-full of information developed to help integrators, system designers and end-users get the most out of their wireless microphones and monitoring systems,” explains Jean-Francois Dunogier, area sales manager at Sennheiser Canada. “All trainees were very engaged in the instruction as we covered a lot of information during the 8-hour training. We are always happy to meet and interface with Sennheiser users and help them on their journey towards the future of audio.”
From mastering best practices when it comes to frequency selection and frequency coordination to discussing the comparison between new digital technology and traditional analog FM systems, attendees took in a wide variety of topics during the seminar, providing them with hands-on experience that extended above and beyond a product user manual.
“There’s a huge difference between learning to operate a product from a manual and learning directly from experts in a training setting,” says RF Wireless Sound Academy trainee Rufat Aliev, who serves as technical director for Collectif9, a classical string group based in Montreal. “You can get instructions from a manual on each module of a system, but what I love about training with experts are the case studies, their experiences and their tricks to putting together an efficient wireless system — ideas I wouldn’t have thought of [before the training].”
One topic of interest for trainees was the do’s and don’ts of RF system configuration. This segment of the seminar covered mic capsule choices, lav mic placement and dressing, how to best test a setup, and best practices of operation. Hugues Bourque, sound mixer at The Corona Theater in Montréal, attended the academy hoping to gather more information on this topic and walked away pleased with his experience.
“It was great getting my questions answered by knowledgeable Sennheiser reps,” Bourque says. “It was a great review of information I already knew and also shed some light on bits of knowledge that I needed updating or correcting.”
Étienne Melançon, sound technician for Cirque du Soleil and a longtime Sennheiser user, says learning tips and tricks from the pros made the RF Wireless Sound Academy a rewarding experience.
“I enjoyed how the information was delivered and how it easy it was to follow,” Melançon says. “I felt like a seasoned pro by the time the day was over. The format was very friendly and even offered up the possibility to exchange with other attending professionals, making it a success.”
The next RF Wireless Sound Academy at the Sennheiser Canada headquarters will be held in French in February 2019. More information will be available soon.
