AV News Magazine | Page 44

AV News 178 - November 2009 Digital AV Summer School Ann Owens An email, received from WAVES (Western Audio Visual EnthusiastS), which I'm a member of, sounded enticing. I was being cordially invited to spend a few days in the beautiful Peak District of Derbyshire, honing my digital AV skills! The dates were Monday 3rd - Thursday 6th August and was to be led by Keith Brown FRPS FIPF EFIAP MPAGB APAGB and Richard Brown FRPS FIPF EFIAP two of the UK's best known AV workers. Now - this was an invitation, which could not be refused! Here, in the depths of Devon in the extremities of the South West, we are more than a little starved of audiovisual help and guidance. WAVES helps to fill that gap - but being based in Trowbridge, with meeting four times a year, it still needs more than a little keenness and a willingness to travel three hours each way in order to gain that vital bit of guidance and encouragement. Oh? So the answer was to travel five hours to Derbyshire for this kind of help and advice? Well - yes, it was! The two leaders were acknowledged exponents of this genre and the programme being offered over those four days was more than a little enticing! Our own laptops, with all necessary software loaded, would be needed. The beautiful surroundings of the Hope Valley, would we were warned, offer tempting photo opportunities - so bring a camera! In reality, despite some lovely weather, we simply didn't have the time to do this, as the agenda was action-packed from start to finish! Sylvia and I were not the only ones to have travelled some distances to attend this workshop. Twelve others were there, from Bill, Majid, Derek and John all from Scotland; Tricia and Dave from Birmingham; Graham and Leslie from Surrey; Sheila from Southport and Peggy and Peter from Leicester making fourteen enthusiasts in all. The 'Brown Brothers' (no - they're not really brothers - just happen to have the same surname!) took it in turn to host a session each morning. Topics covered ranged from finding the original idea for a sequence to the completed piece of work. Skills, such as choice of music, script writing and timings were talked about and demonstrated. Page 44