WINTER PARK, FL – Full Sail University has built a reputation as one of the premier entertainment, media, art, and technology schools in the world, offering degree programs across many different areas of study, including Music & Recording and Film & Television. It sources its instructors and technological infrastructure straight from industry, putting its students in touch with business professionals, learning with tools essential to their field.<\/p>\n
Full Sail\u2019s relationship with media technology giant Avid goes back decades. The partnership has enabled the university to keep its finger on the pulse of technological innovation while giving students access to the latest industry tools. Full Sail recently refreshed its Pro Tools, Media Composer, and Sibelius software and upgraded its dubbing stage with a dual-operator Avid S6 control surface.<\/p>\n
The instructors at Full Sail have both a deep understanding of the tools and technology they teach, and are active practitioners participating in their industry. This makes them uniquely qualified and desirable mentors to learn from.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur traditional Full Sail teacher is from the industry, first and foremost,\u201d says Brian Smithers, Program Director of Audio Production. \u201cThere are academic credentials required as well, but I\u2019m a performing musician. We have faculty members who have made AAA games\u2026 I think the fact that the students know that we have gone where they hope to go puts a lot of credibility and faith in our ability to lead them in a really pragmatic and efficient path toward their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
A central feature to the Full Sail education is the LaunchBox, which each student receives whether attending online or on campus. For the Audio Production degree program specifically, which is offered online, the LaunchBox contains all the core tools a student will need to complete their program, including Pro Tools | Ultimate (now replacing Pro Tools), a microphone, laptop, headphones, and monitors. In the Film & Television degree program, students receive a similar box, now with Media Composer | Ultimate instead of Media Composer.<\/p>\n
In addition to the hardware included in the LaunchBox, students have 24\/7 access to their files, software, and coursework, enabling more time to explore the tools and get ahead outside of the classroom. For Film & Television students specifically, the school\u2019s Avid NEXIS storage infrastructure enables them to access their work from any Media Composer workstation or post-production classroom on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen COVID first hit, we were able to allow our campus students some access to Pro Tools | Ultimate and Media Composer | Ultimate for a 90-day period, thanks to Avid\u2019s generosity, even though they weren\u2019t in the labs for a couple of months,\u201d Smithers explains. \u201cThat was kind of one of the things that led us down this train of thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Dansby, Director of Industry Relations, agrees. \u201cThat was a huge help at the beginning of COVID. We were still able to provide some of the same tools to students who had to transition very quickly from being a campus student to an online student. They were able to access a lot of the same features and functionalities that they would have normally learned inside a studio or lab from home. We didn\u2019t have to make a whole lot of changes to the curriculum for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Audio Production students, having Pro Tools | Ultimate in their LaunchBox gives them access to the same advanced functions previously only available to Recording Arts students.<\/p>\n
The LaunchBoxes are just a fraction of the technology and training that were offered to campus students. For use within the Recording Arts Bachelor\u2019s degree program, Full Sail currently has 42 Avid S6 control surfaces\u2014and Michael Orlowski, Full Sail\u2019s Media Systems Engineer, has been the brains behind all the acquisitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe purchased 25 S6 M10 consoles back in 2014 [replacing Control|24] and we split those up into two 12-station labs for our workstation advanced courses into Pro Tools,\u201d Orlowski recalls. \u201cThat install and use case worked out so well that in 2019, we replaced our Avid ICON D-Control consoles.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those upgrades, the school purchased 16 more S6s for use in four surround post suites (configured with Joystick Modules) and 12 individual mix rooms in the school\u2019s \u201cMix Palace\u201d lab. And just a few months ago, it upgraded its dubbing stage with a new dual-operator S6, which provides 48 faders on each side, replacing a System 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving students [get familiar with] using an S6 and progressing into the advanced labs like the dub stage using a similar surface\u2014the onboarding to get them ready for the lab has dramatically reduced,\u201d Orlowski says. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more courses able to take advantage of the labs, and we\u2019re able to utilize our S6s across multiple degree programs, which is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each S6 is accompanied by a Pro Tools | MTRX interface to handle routing and monitoring, which greatly simplified the workflow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we love about the MTRX is now having the accessibility of Dante audio,\u201d Orlowski says. \u201cWe\u2019re using Dante Virtual Soundcard to bring a surround feed out of the Mac, so students can now audition stems in surround directly from the computer on the same speakers as they would be using when actively mixing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Full Sail has utilized Avid products extensively throughout its curriculum for decades, Smithers is keen to point out that software is a personal choice\u2014except for Pro Tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur general philosophy is that we teach tools, techniques, and concepts\u2014not software products,\u201d Smithers stresses. \u201cBut Pro Tools is an industry imperative\u2026 and it would be a disservice for us not to make sure our students are well-versed in Pro Tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dansby agrees: \u201cWhat Brian said about Pro Tools rings true for Media Composer. For our film and video students who decide to go into post-production, Avid will probably play a pretty big role in what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learn more about Full Sail\u2019s programs here and check out what its graduates have done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WINTER PARK, FL – Full Sail University has built a reputation as one of the premier entertainment, media, art, and technology schools in the world, offering degree programs across many different areas of study, including Music & Recording and Film & Television. It sources its instructors and technological infrastructure straight from industry, putting its students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27986,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-technology","category-industry-news"],"yoast_head":"\n