Thinking about going back into AV

[sim667]

Right its been a while since I've been on here..........I used to work in educational AV (my training is as a photographer) and wanted to move more into events....... The work at the college I was in was fairly mundane and boring, so when I was offered a job as a Photography teacher I jumped at the oppurtunity. To backup my teaching I also ended up taking a second job as a photographic technician.

 

I do love the teaching, but I only do it for 4.5 hrs a week, the rest of the time I'm technicianing, which actually means I order materials out of non existent budgets, argue with the IT dept on everyone elses behalf, and help students out. Apart from helping students, my job satisfaction is low, I've been on the 'potential redundancy list' since the week after I took on the job. The teaching is great however, but as its only 4.5 hours and I have to do a 2 year teaching course with god knows how many essays involved I'm not sure I want to stick with it for the rest of my life. Obviously the cuts in public spending are also really making me re-think what I'm doing currently.

 

Anyway, I spend a lot of my spare time working at festivals, doing crowds etc...... nothing exciting, but it does mean I get to see some of the AV guys at work etc and always wish I'd taken that route instead of what I'm doing now. Some of the set ups I've seen have been fantastic, my favourite being RFID which was mind blowing the first time I saw it.

 

My question is, is there a route into this kind of work for someone who's not really trained in theatre production or in any more than educational AV and doing a bit of helping setting up the odd speakers/mixers for freinds drum and bass nights etc??

 

I'm mainly interested in the lighting/visual aspect (where my photography background comes in I guess) & software controls (massive massive mac geek). But what oppurtunities or training should I be on the look out for to get involved. Im guessing because of the technical nature of the work being a mac geek, having a good aptitude for cables and connections and experience of lighting for photography probably wont cut it for a majority of roles.....

 

Any hints & advice please?

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Thanks andrew c for sorting out the double thread start. Blimin work pc's!!