News & Events
Entertainment Industry Growth Sparks City Tech Retooling
of Related Bachelor's Degree and Certificate Programs
-- College Adds New Facilities to Accommodate Expanded Curriculum --
There's no business like show business" has taken on new meaning in the past couple of years. With the fast-growing U.S. entertainment industry now valued at more than $85 billion annually, career opportunities are quickly expanding for electronic systems technicians -- the specialists who produce lighting, sound and special effects in the film, theme park, outdoor concert and other areas of the industry.
According to a recent survey by the National Systems Contractors Association, job openings nationwide for electronic systems technicians will jump from 63,000 in 2001 to 81,000 in 2002. These "behind the scenes" people, who give entertainment its pizzazz, are definitely in growing demand these days.
"The enormous growth of the entertainment
industry has been fueled by one driving force--technology,"
says Professor Charles Scott, who directs the entertainment technology
program at New York City Technical College (City Tech) in Downtown
Brooklyn.
In fact, City Tech recently changed the name of the program from
"Stage Technology" to "Entertainment Technology"
to better reflect its newly revised and refocused curriculum that
prepares students for this broadening field. In addition to theatres,
its graduates find jobs in theme parks, casinos, cruise ships, retail
facilities, museums, corporations, media conglomerates, special
events planning firms, sports outlets, entertainment system contracting
companies, touring concert production groups and even professional
wrestling venues.
"The name change represents how the industry has grown and penetrated markets unimaginable a generation ago," says Associate Professor John Huntington, who teaches sound and show control and wrote the first book on show control, Control Systems for Live Entertainment.
City Tech's entertainment technology program offers a four-year bachelor of technology degree as well as four brand-new, for-credit certificate programs in sound systems technology, lighting systems technology, scenic construction and show control, each consisting of five courses. In conjunction with City Tech's Division of Continuing Education, a new class in entertainment video systems is also available. All these options are targeted to educate both beginning students and veteran entertainment professionals.
To accommodate the entertainment technology program's expansion, City Tech is renovating its 199-seat Voorhees Theater, which will soon provide modern, highly functional laboratory space for use by the entertainment technology program and for campus events, including performances.
Behind the campus' Voorhees Hall, a two-story entertainment industry training center is rising and will feature a staging area to preview show systems, as well as a rigging training lab, "unique probably in the country, if not the world," according to Huntington. The lab will contain examples of each type of rigging system for safe, convenient training. A rigging system is made up of pipes, cables, counterweights and motors that enable scenery, curtains, backdrops and lighting fixtures to be "flown" over a stage. In addition, the program's scenic production shop is being overhauled.
"The new developments are the culmination of years of work," says Professor Scott, who teaches scenery and lighting and is the lighting director for the annual Broadway Lighting Master Class sponsored by PriMedia Publishing and Lighting Dimensions magazine. "The new curriculum and new facilities dramatically expand our educational capabilities and opportunities for our students."
According to David Smith, assistant professor of sound and co-developer of the Synfonia orchestral enhancement system, City Tech's entertainment technology program is at the forefront of a new kind of education, which combines an intensive laboratory-based approach with practical experience gained directly in business and cultural venues throughout New York City, the entertainment capital of the world. "The new labs, funded by a substantial grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, are state of the art," he says. "We're working hard to keep our program ahead of the technological curve."
The public will have a chance to see the entertainment technology program in action this fall. A high-tech "haunted hotel," complete with interactive special effects, will be created in the newly renovated Voorhees Theater and lobby, located at 186 Jay Street. This live entertainment attraction, co-sponsored by TheatreWorks, City Tech's resident theatrical company, will feature computerized motion control, lighting and sound systems, and highly detailed scenic elements. It is a bigger and more complex version of last year's highly popular "haunted house." Intended to appeal to the whole family, "haunted hotel" will be open to visitors October 30-November 1.
