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Engineering Perfect Sound and Visuals

Your passion for perfection and technical expertise will help make every event memorable. As an audio and video technician with a Hardin-Simmons degree, you’ll become an expert in setting up and maintaining audio and video equipment for live or recorded events. Your technical skills and attention to detail will ensure flawless production quality that captivates audiences. Day-to-day tasks include troubleshooting equipment issues, coordinating with event organizers, and enhancing the overall audio-visual experience of an event. 

What to Expect

55k

$54,830 Median Annual Salary

Average

New job opportunities are likely in the future.

N/A

No Data Found.

What you Should Know

  • Computers and Electronics: Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • Communications and Media: Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
  • English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
  • Telecommunications: Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
  • Fine Arts: Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
  • Engineering and Technology: Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
  • Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Education and Training: Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
  • Public Safety and Security: Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
  • Administration and Management: Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • Design: Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
  • Mechanical: Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
  • Mathematics: Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
  • Physics: Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
  • Law and Government: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
  • Personnel and Human Resources: Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Administrative: Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
  • Production and Processing: Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
  • Psychology: Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Transportation: Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
  • Building and Construction: Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
  • Sociology and Anthropology: Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
  • Geography: Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
  • Sales and Marketing: Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
  • History and Archeology: Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
  • Chemistry: Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
  • Economics and Accounting: Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
  • Philosophy and Theology: Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
  • Therapy and Counseling: Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
  • Medicine and Dentistry: Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Biology: Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
  • Foreign Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
  • Food Production: Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.

Programs Related to this Career

Digital Media Degree

BBS

Art Program

BA, BFA

Your Day to Day

  • Notify supervisors when major equipment repairs are needed.
  • Diagnose and resolve media system problems.
  • Direct and coordinate activities of assistants and other personnel during production.
  • Compress, digitize, duplicate, and store audio and video data.
  • Install, adjust, and operate electronic equipment to record, edit, and transmit radio and television programs, motion pictures, video conferencing, or multimedia presentations.
  • Control the lights and sound of events, such as live concerts, before and after performances, and during intermissions.
  • Switch sources of video input from one camera or studio to another, from film to live programming, or from network to local programming.
  • Record and edit audio material, such as movie soundtracks, using audio recording and editing equipment.
  • Perform minor repairs and routine cleaning of audio and video equipment.
  • Design layouts of audio and video equipment and perform upgrades and maintenance.
  • Conduct training sessions on selection, use, and design of audio-visual materials and on operation of presentation equipment.
  • Monitor incoming and outgoing pictures and sound feeds to ensure quality and notify directors of any possible problems.
  • Mix and regulate sound inputs and feeds or coordinate audio feeds with television pictures.
  • Construct and position properties, sets, lighting equipment, and other equipment.
  • Reserve audio-visual equipment and facilities, such as meeting rooms.
  • Determine formats, approaches, content, levels, and mediums to effectively meet objectives within budgetary constraints, using research, knowledge, and training.
  • Edit videotapes by erasing and removing portions of programs and adding video or sound as required.
  • Obtain, set up, and load videotapes for scheduled productions or broadcasts.
  • Produce rough and finished graphics and graphic designs.
  • Locate and secure settings, properties, effects, and other production necessities.
  • Meet with directors and senior members of camera crews to discuss assignments and determine filming sequences, camera movements, and picture composition.
  • Maintain inventories of audio and videotapes and related supplies.
  • Obtain and preview musical performance programs prior to events to become familiar with the order and approximate times of pieces.
  • Perform narration of productions or present announcements.
  • Plan and develop pre-production ideas into outlines, scripts, story boards, and graphics, using own ideas or specifications of assignments.
  • Organize and maintain compliance, license, and warranty information related to audio and video facilities.
  • Inform users of audio and videotaping service policies and procedures.
  • Analyze and maintain data logs for audio-visual activities.
  • Develop manuals, texts, workbooks, or related materials for use in conjunction with production materials or for training.
  • Operate drones for aerial videography and photography during live events or for pre-recorded material.
  • Purchase audio or video equipment.

Helpful Skills & Abilities

  • Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Operations Monitoring: Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
  • Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
  • Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
  • Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Operation and Control: Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
  • Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Systems Analysis: Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Time Management: Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
  • Instructing: Teaching others how to do something.
  • Management of Personnel Resources: Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
  • Quality Control Analysis: Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
  • Systems Evaluation: Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
  • Equipment Selection: Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
  • Learning Strategies: Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
  • Troubleshooting: Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
  • Persuasion: Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
  • Installation: Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
  • Negotiation: Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
  • Equipment Maintenance: Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
  • Repairing: Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
  • Operations Analysis: Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
  • Management of Material Resources: Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
  • Mathematics: Using mathematics to solve problems.
  • Programming: Writing computer programs for various purposes.
  • Technology Design: Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
  • Management of Financial Resources: Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
  • Science: Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without “giving out” or fatiguing.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one’s side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.

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    Related Job Titles

    Audio Visual Specialist (AV Specialist), AV Tech (Audio Visual Technician), Media Technician and Operations Technician

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