OIART Podcast: Starting an Audio Business
This month's podcast is a presentation from OIART grad David Ciccarelli (1999-00). David is President and Founder of Voices.com, an online service that connects clients with professional voice-over talents and voice actors. Voices.com was a new business model when founded, and remains the leading service of its kind in this area of the Audio Industry. He talks about his career progression after graduation, and offers valuable tips for engineers looking to start their own business. Visit the iTunes Music Store or the OIART website for details on how to subscribe if you haven't yet.

Alumni Update: Freelance OIART Grad at CBC Radio-Canada, and The Memorial Cup
Since October 2005, recent OIART grad Michael Hayes (2004-05) has been working on-call for CBC Radio-Canada and more recently with CBC Television. Michael is having a great time since “you're not doing the same gig each day from 9 to 6 and you have the opportunity to be selective in the work that you do.”

That 'on-call' work for CBC Radio-Canada landed Michael a position as an audio assistant in the broadcast of The Memorial Cup, working for RDS; the French equivalent of TSN. In addition to RDS, Michael also worked with Sports Net which gave him the opportunity to mic up the entire arena! “I had to learn quickly and the fact that I could readily understand the signal flow really made it simple. OIART gave me the confidence to do things right - I easily brought ideas to the table on how the setup should take place.”

Radio Canada also provided Michael the opportunities to assist the broadcast of the 2006 Nova Scotia Elections as well as mixing at Le Jour du Seigneur (The Day of The Lord) with Radio-Canada TV. “I had quite a bit of experience in audio before going to OIART, but without OIART I would be nowhere. The things I learned there were truly unforgettable.”

Alumni Update: Installing for dream-homes
OIART grad Jason Fisher (2003-04) knows that setting up a home theatre system isn't as simple as it used to be. He recently started up his own company specializing in installing home theatre systems including audio/video equipment, whole house audio systems and wiring for computer network, security and telephone systems. Everything for the next generation of 'fully-wired dream-homes'.

Among the skills learned at OIART, Jason sited problem solving and connectivity between equipment as being paramount, “signal flow is definitely the most important thing.” He also pointed out that the knowledge of room acoustics and basic electronics he acquired at OIART always comes in handy when troubleshooting problems with equipment. Jason also stressed the importance of good customer relations, and of course, to “learn as much as you can – new knowledge is always a future asset.”

All the best in the future Jason!