LEVELLAND, TX — South Plains College, a comprehensive two-year community college in Levelland, Texas, has recently added a Live Sound/Sound Reinforcement Certificate program to their already existing Sound Technology program. The college's Sound Technology program, a part of their Creative Arts department, has been in place for 25 years. In November 2006, the Live Sound program received a two-day seminar presented in conjunction with Meyer Sound's worldwide educational program.
"It was exciting to discover a top-quality program in Levelland," says Gavin Canaan, Meyer Sound's education manager. "Most people assume that great programs and talent only exist in the big cities. But the facilities and students at South Plains blew that assumption apart. We were extremely impressed."
Canaan adds that Matt Quick, who heads the Live Sound program at South Plains College, convinced him to bring the seminar to Levelland. Quick had attended a Meyer Sound workshop in Dallas in 2004, then returned the following year to complete training in source independent measurement using Meyer Sound's SIM 3 audio analyzer.
Quick and fellow faculty member Jeremiah Denning developed the program.
Steve Bush, a Meyer Sound senior technical support representative, accompanied Canaan to Levelland. Together, they presented "Fundamentals of System Design, Implementation and Optimization," an overview of theoretical and practical information on sound system design and applications. A core group of 10 certificate program majors, plus four working professionals from the area, attended all sessions, while an additional 90 students from the college's other media and arts programs attended various portions of the seminar.
"The seminar really reinforced our credibility," says Quick. "We had already covered some of the same topics in the seminar, but when students heard the same thing from Meyer — which is such a huge name in the industry — that underscored the quality of education they are getting here."
Said Steve Bush, who led the seminar, "They are a talented group of people with a well-rounded program," he says of the SPC faculty. "They have all the nuts and bolts together, and their graduates could step right into a job at a regional sound company."
"We are a bit off the beaten track," admits Quick. "That fact really underscores Meyer Sound's commitment to education. They came all the way out here, not to sell us products, but because they are genuinely interested in teaching the elements of quality sound to our industry's future engineers."
For more information, visit www.meyersound.com or www2.southplainscollege.edu.
