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Solent Unviersity Southampton logo

BSc (Hons)Live Event Technology

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Starting in2024
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UCAS code: LET1
Institution code: S30
Campus: Southampton City CentreView on Google Maps

Why study a live event technology degree at Solent University

If you want an exciting career in the entertainment industry as a skilled technician this is for you. You could engineer and manage audio, lighting, or broadcast systems to bring events to life.

  • 0th
    in the top 20 best student cities (StudentCrowd, 2023)
  • 0st
    out of 130 institutions for assessment and feedback (NSS 2023)
  • £0m
    investment in our campus and industry-standard facilities
  • Strong links to the industry, including the BBC, Sky and SMPTE, and we are the official university partner for both Southampton Football Club and Glastonbury music festival.
  • Huge range of professional-grade facilities and technology. Outside broadcast vehicle, motion tracked multi-camera TV studio, music recording studio with Avid S6 control surface; 5.1 audio dubbing theatres, spatial audio, and VR lab.
  • Our relationship with companies often extends to year-long placements within industry leading facilities. These include Dolby Laboratories Inc., Focusrite, IABM, NEP, Evertz, Sky, Anna Valley, Christie Digital, IMG Studios and more.
Video transcript, with a description of visuals available.

Course overview

The live events industry has seen a surge of technology advances in the last 10 years, blurring the lines between live music performances, corporate events, and other mixed-media live experiences. This exciting, hands-on degree supports you to develop the skills for a career in the technical side of events, where there is a growing skills gap of skilled engineers and technicians pushing the boundaries of technology.

Throughout your studies you will have the chance to build specialist skills with practical learning opportunities in our state-of-the-art facilities, from our Dolby Atmos Cinema to our HD outside broadcast vehicle. The degree will help you develop a high level of working knowledge, leaving you fully equipped to install, operate and customise audio, video and lighting systems and pursue a range of careers in the music, broadcasting, and live events industry. This gives you first-hand experience of the time and quality pressures associated with outside broadcasting and live events.

The course has a strong focus on helping you improve your employability. Past students have been given regular work experience opportunities at live music and sporting events, including some of the UK’s biggest music festivals, such as Glastonbury, Boardmasters, Camp Bestival, NASS, and Isle of Wight Festival.

Solent's Live Event Technology degree was developed to encompass all elements of the events industry, with music as a big focus, but also coverage of the growing use of specialist lighting, visual technologies, and systems such as virtual production. As a degree embedded within the media technology team at Solent, Live Event Technology not only gives you the opportunity to experience a broad range of technologies and experiences, but also access to an excellent career built through our industry links and reputation.

This course is part of the South Coast Institute of Technology (IoT), a partnership of colleges, universities and industry-leading employers to create new career opportunities in the technology sector. IoT courses like this one are precisely tailored to the needs of employers in the maritime, engineering and digital industries – industries which are hungry for talented new engineers, technologists, technicians and creatives like you.

Any questions?

Contact UK admissions

Email: admissions@solent.ac.ukCall: 023 8201 5066

Contact international admissions

Email: admissions.international@solent.ac.ukCall: +44 (0)23 8201 5066

Endorsed by:

ScreenSkills Select logo

Part of:

South Coast Institute of Technology logo

Course features

  • Specialist facilities

    This course has access to specialist facilities

  • Further studies

    After successfully completing your studies, there's an opportunity to continue your studies at Solent

  • Study abroad

    You have the opportunity to study abroad in one of our partner universities for a semester on this course

Who is this course for?

The course is ideal for those looking to gain hands-on experience in the creation and installation of modern audio, video and lighting systems for events of all sizes. Technical theory and operation practice is introduced in a practical and applied manner.

What does this course lead to?

Graduates from this degree typically go into technical roles within the live events and broadcast industries. This includes the engineers that run broadcast trucks on the road for live sports or Formula 1; engineers that rig, light and mix bands; or technical staff in broadcast operations such as Sky or the BBC.

Meet the team

The University cannot guarantee any particular members of staff will teach specific aspects of the course in the future, but will endeavour to ensure the teaching team maintains their balance of experience and qualifications.

Facilities

Throughout your studies you'll have the opportunity to use a range of high quality facilities including Solent's 96-seat Dolby Atmos cinema with the ability to mix and render Dolby Atmos content in Pro Tools, our outside broadcast vehicle with seven ENG system cameras, up to 64-channels of audio mixing and plenty of monitoring and signal analysis.

We also have state-of-the-art motion tracked multi-camera TV studio with a green infinity cove for chromakey, our flagship music recording studio with Avid S6 control surface, high-quality Dynaudio monitoring and industry-standard outboard. Solent's 5.1 audio dubbing theatres for recording and mixing Foley FX, ADR and music to picture content. A spatial audio and VR lab, currently a 25 loudspeaker system for Ambisonic decoding and multiple Vive and Oculus headsets for VR. Students will also have access to industry-standard software for media editing, engineering simulation, coding, signal processing and analysis.

    International opportunities

    Broaden your horizons by adding an international dimension to your CV – essential to achieving success in today’s fast-changing, global environment.

    Studying, working or volunteering in another country could be the experience of a lifetime. Enhance your degree by developing important global skills such as knowledge of other countries, language skills, intercultural awareness, adaptability and confidence.

    For more information, please email international.mobility@solent.ac.uk.

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