Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 21, 2005. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The Bavarian Broadcast Academy (BBA) offers a three-year training program to become an “IP Broadcast System Engineer”: According to the Academy, graduates are then able to take on all arising tasks that arise when operating an IP-TV station.
The new professional field offers good prospects on the labor market, the BBA states: According to an IDC study, the market volume for Internet television in Western Europe is expected to rise from an estimated 262 million dollars in 2005 to 2.5 billion dollars within the next five years. This development creates new prospects on the labor market and requires the training of skilled professionals. For this reason, in 1999 the Artvoice Group founded the Artvoice Academy for
IP-TV professions in Grünwald, which in 2003 was expanded into the Bavarian Broadcast Academy (BBA) together with Ansbach University of Applied Sciences.
The BBA has been a member of MedienCampus Bayern for six months. Just over 30 young people are currently studying at the practice-oriented training center. Every student can build their own TV station. All areas of IP-TV, both in front of and behind the camera, are included within the training.
The course content includes basic political education, shaping journalistic thinking, rhetoric and on-camera situations around interviews and round-table discussions. In the technical area, students learn how to uplink satellite channels, connect and control new TV stations and the core area, program design. One focus of the training is on acquiring practical skills. “Only those who operate a station will come into contact with real problems in dealing with customers, presenters and studio technology. Here our students practice on virtually harmless terrain,” Institute President Ingo Wolf describes.
The training to become an IP Broadcast System Engineer is full-time and lasts three years from April 2006. The qualification is awarded by Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. Classes take place mainly in the BBA’s rooms in Grünwald at Bavariafilmplatz. At present, five industry scholarships are already available for the 20 study places from April 2006 for the training, which costs 16,000 euros. According to the BBA, the Academy management does not only attach importance to a particularly good school report among applicants. University dropouts or young people with skills in unusual fields also have good chances of a scholarship.
Requests for fully trained graduates of the institute are increasing rapidly in the fast-growing industry, the BBA explains: Above all, the Academy’s sponsors, the Corporate-TV Association, Bavaria Film and the Artvoice Group, would get to know some of the students during their training and take them into the business.
In the next few years, the BBA plans to establish sister institutes abroad. As early as the new semester in April 2006, a cultural exchange could thus already become possible through “country hopping” by the students.
Further Links:
- Bavarian Broadcast Academy
