Media Group International Opens A New Training Academy

Headed by Training Manager Joe MacQuarrie, an official ACSR Trainer who has recently joined MGI from Avid Technology Europe, the MGI Training Academy will provide the burgeoning Middle East broadcast industry with a unique educational opportunity. This unique facility will give broadcast professionals and engineers in the region access to a range of courses that focus on technical and operational systems and highlight how to use new technology in the most efficient way.

"As an Award-winning company with a deep understanding of broadcast and IT infrastructures and long-standing relationships with many of the industry's key manufacturers, MGI is ideally placed to deliver the highly specialised training courses that our industry needs." says MGI's Managing Director, John Aslett. "Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and broadcasters who stay on top of these changes stand to benefit enormously, both in terms of time saved and creativity unleashed."

Based in Studio City, the MGI Training Academy incorporates classroom facilities; a student lounge; a central apparatus room; a visualisation, pre-build, testing and acceptance area for projects, and two multi-use conference/training rooms that can be used for breakout workflow discussions or additional classroom exercises.

The Academy’s schedule of day and evening courses will encompass Project Related Technical Training for existing customers and public courses. Bespoke workflow design, training and consultancy are also included in MGI’s holistic approach, with courses provided either at the Academy or on location at a customer's facility.

"In addition to courses on all Avid solutions, an example of the type of bespoke course we are developing is the Cisco Networking Boot Camp for Broadcast Engineers, which runs from October 5 to 9, 2014," says Training Manager Joe MacQuarrie. "The course will be delivered by MGI's Jim White, (CCIE) and a Cisco Certified Instructor with many years' experience building networks specifically for TV. Although it covers the essential parts of the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) curriculum, the course also comes with a unique twist because we have enhanced the content so that it better meets the needs of today’s broadcaster. Pertinent topics like how to network broadcast systems are introduced, while less relevant subjects like Frame Relay have been removed."

The Academy is also working with the International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers (IABM) to deliver its foundational courses, as well as offering authorised training for many different manufacturers in the broadcast industry.