The world of higher education has seen some major investments in high-end broadcast technology.

With new studios featuring LED volumes and sophisticated tracking systems, facilities for broadcast media courses are now in some cases more impressive than those in the broadcast media students are preparing for.

But the novelty and complexity of the technology being installed has reached the point where it is beyond the ability of many lecturers to teach effectively with it.

That was the eyebrow-raising claim made just last week by Jonathan Hughes, head of systems integration at ATG Danmon UK.

Hughes was speaking to AV Magazine at the IBC trade show, where he talked about the increasing role that corporate and education end users are taking up in the company’s work in broadcast systems integration.

This broadening of the company’s market encompasses financial services and retailing, where installations that are better than many broadcast suites are taking place too.

But there is a special challenge in education, if the aim is not just to attract students to sign up to university courses, but also to deliver value in the teaching they receive.

The latest-gen technology may well attract groups of students to university courses because it looks whizzy. “But does whizzy translate into high-quality courses?” Hughes asks.

To put the challenge into context, many lecturers on broadcast media courses have industry experience and are able to teach the fundamentals well.

“On the whole, the fundamentals haven’t changed,” says Hughes. When teaching students how to use a camera, “it doesn’t matter that the camera technology has evolved massively,” he adds. Topics such as exposure, aperture, how you frame an image and focus haven’t changed. And the same goes for vision mixing, or for newsrooms. Lecturers can be brought up to speed on the latest tech advancements.

The trouble now is that lecturers will have to teach using technology for virtual production that they have had no experience of at all in their industry careers. And “there is a huge amount to understand,” including issues such as how to render a background on the LED volume, how to calibrate the camera and light for the LED volume, and how to calibrate the LED volume so it looks right on camera.

Talking about this technology, Hughes says: “It was never in broadcast and it isn’t in broadcast. How many broadcasters have got LED walls being driven by a full Mo-Sys system?”

It just so happens that we are speaking in a cafe area at the IBC Show right by the Mo-Sys stand, and so the conversation turns to the Mo-Sys Academy, one of a number of industry initiatives which provide training in virtual production.

The most comprehensive Mo-Sys Academy course takes 10 days, and Hughes wonders, “How many lecturers can give up 10 days to go take the training?”

Later in the day, AV Magazine will hear from Mo-Sys that its Academy has attracted university lecturers as students this summer – during the academic holidays in the UK.

This is in addition to industry professionals in a variety of roles who need to understand how the virtual production jigsaw comes together. We will hear that “there’s absolutely a skills gap in the market” and about the value of the hands-on experience this Academy offers.

Outside the show, the difference between the education and corporate markets can be seen when looking at recent projects that ATG Danmon has worked on, and its ability to manage installations and provide ongoing support for them.

In financial services, it has provided one customer with broadcast technology in multiple locations globally. This includes a London studio with eight 98″ NEC screens hung vertically to look like windows for backgrounds such as cityscapes, used with a Blackmagic Design camera setup, a saturated lighting grid, and other elements of a high-end studio.

The broadcast technology is used for market updates, interviews, roundtables and town halls with the highest production standards. It has been used for an international conference, hosted in London with an insert studio located in Hong Kong, and contributors from the US brought live into the show. The conference was even live translated into eight languages, with ATG Danmon converting eight meeting rooms into commentary positions for teams of two translators per language.

In retailing, ATG Danmon has been working on a hugely ambitious project remodelling a space that will double up as a retail store and broadcast studio. Technology systems, including lighting and audio have been designed to be dual-purpose, for retail and broadcast use. PTZ cameras have been chosen as, while they’re bigger than standard CCTV cameras, they will not look out of place in store.

In a departure from the typical experience of other AV integrators, ATG Danmon has been involved in consultation with “a cast of thousands” on this project, ranging from the retailer’s social team, to visual merchandisers, shop ftters, millwork designers, and the M&E contractor. This is necessary, as upon completion, the space will be used for demos, classes, corporate events and hospitality and for creating content that can be pushed online regularly.

This work has come to the company from word-of-mouth recommendation that owes something to its approach to business. “We’re not install it and run away,” Hughes says. “That’s not how we work. We went to be part of the project throughout its lifespan. We want it to start well, finish well, and we want to keep that relationship moving forward because recurring business is the best business.”

He adds: “What we want to do is deliver a level of expertise. We’ve got an understanding of broadcast, what current technology is, what you want to do with it, and the skill set you have in house. We want to get you to the point where you can use this technology to create the very best content.”

The key difference between these corporate and retail projects and education is that the company can build a studio and provide a managed service for it, and bring end users up to the point where they can use it well.

In education, the end user in broadcast media courses also needs to be able to pass on an understanding of the technology to students too, and this is a different challenge.

“I wouldn’t know where to start to write a course to teach that,” Hughes adds with a touch of modesty.

The solution to this challenge may well involve greater involvement from manufacturers or even virtual production companies with their own academies. But however it is resolved it is a challenge that is currently very real, according to Hughes.

“I don’t want to sound pompous, but how do you create enough room to educate the educators?” he asks.