A brief look at my career path since leaving school...
Oldham Technical College
I grew up in Halifax, West Yorkshire during the 1980s and I spent a lot of my teenage years involved with lighting and sound for many local amateur theatre groups. In 1987 I enrolled on a BTEC National Diploma course at Oldham Technical College. The course was aimed at future theatre lighting, sound and stage management technicians and took place in a working theatre/arts centre alongside the college.
Pennine Radio (Bradford)
At the end of my two years at Oldham Tech, I applied to do some work experience at Pennine Radio in Bradford.
This led to regular, paid shifts as a technical operator; responsible for the play-out of split ad-breaks to multiple transmitters, ‘driving’ news bulletins and outside broadcasts and play-out of pre-recorded programmes.
Radio Aire/Magic 828 (Leeds)
In 1989, I started my first full-time job as a ‘commercial production assistant’ at Radio Aire in Leeds. I was the studio engineer for the commercial production department, working closely with a team of creative copywriters to record and produce radio commercials. This was still in the days of recording and editing ¼” tape with chinagraph pencils, splicing blocks and razor blades!
During my 7 years at Radio Aire I recorded and mixed thousands of radio commercials for local, regional and national clients, many of which were broadcast on the entire UK commercial radio network. Digital audio technology was introduced during my time at Radio Aire; quarter inch tape gave way to SADiE, and carts were replaced with a system called Dalet.
For five years, I also engineered/mixed the live radio broadcast of an annual ‘Party In The Park’ pop music event, and worked closely with artist and stage management personnel.
Mezzo Studios (Leeds)
In 1997 I moved to Mezzo Studios where I worked closely with producers, clients and ad agencies to produce and engineer audio sessions for radio commercials and TV commercials. I was also responsible for casting, booking voice-overs and preparing proposals and quotations.
I assisted with the relocation and subsequent studio installation of a Pro Tools system with a Yamaha O2R digital mixing desk. Prior to the move I used a Soundscape DAW.
Picture Production Company (Soho, London)
In 1999 a move to London lead me to PPC where I was responsible for voice over recording, sound editing and mixing feature film trailers, TV programmes, commercials, promos and radio commercials, for clients such as UIP/Universal, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Tri-Star and Film Four. As well as conforming feature film 5.1 mixes ready for DVD production, I also recorded and mixed director/cast commentaries for various feature films released on DVD. I project managed the upgrade of two audio suites from Avid Audiovision to Pro-Tools.
Technicolor Network Services/Disney Channel (Chiswick, London)
In 2002 I became the senior dubbing mixer at TNS, which provided transmission, studio and post-production services for Disney UK Branded Television. I was responsible for voice-over recording, track-laying and mixing on air promos, interstitials and programmes. I also mixed promos for Disney’s television services in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As the senior dubbing mixer I was also closely involved in workflow planning and I helped maintain the six Pro Tools audio suites. I also trained several new dubbing mixers.
Red Audio Post Production Ltd
Following nine years at TNS, I built my own studio and decided to start working for myself, and since 2011 I have been the owner and company director of Red Audio Post Production Ltd.