sound designer jobs

Graduate Audio-Visual Engineer

From helping shape entire cities to adapting infrastructure to deal with the climate emergency, a career at Vanguardia (A Buro Happold Company) presents the chance to make a difference. With a world class reputation, our creativity and our people have delivered positive change to clients, the environment, and communities alike. If you want to be part of something bigger, this is your chance.

Working for Vanguardia?

Outcome focused design:

As design practitioners, strategic thinkers and problem solvers, we are at the forefront of experience design in the built environment, including audio visual, sound system design, architectural acoustics, environmental noise and vibration. Our ability to create the appropriate blend of functionality, value and vision makes us truly unique, providing outcome focused design solutions for the client.

Communication:
But it’s not only about design– we focus on communicating results to our clients across key technical areas such as sound system, audio visual and acoustics. We pride ourselves on delivering excellence. An example of this is our work with the Las Vegas Sphere, providing on hand care and engagement throughout the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of the building.

Challenge:
We’re excited and motivated by the challenging, complex and difficult. Our team loves applying industry-leading innovation on the hardest challenges, from the ultra-high-tech, Tottenham Stadium, to the curiously unusual, Sphere. See our Acoustics discipline page here.

What sort of projects would I work on?

Recent and current projects:

The Sphere, Las Vegas, 2019-2023

The world’s largest and latest immersive experience. Our team of acoustic and audio technology experts from Vanguardia has worked on the project since 2019. Our team was engaged to deliver a third-party review of the innovative audio technology that was being developed specially for the venue and to analyse the architectural acoustics and where possible minimise the need for structural acoustic insulation.

The principal acoustic challenges came as a consequence of the venue’s striking spherical shape. A sphere would naturally cause an almost infinite number of acoustic reflections, making soundwaves very difficult to control within the space.

Coop Arena, Manchester, 2017 – 2024

Co-op Live is the UK’s biggest indoor arena, able to offer a warm Manchester welcome to over 23,000 people. Vanguardia have provided the acoustic and audio-visual design since the onset, and carried out commissioning and optimisation of the venue prior to completion in 2023. Since opening, the venue has received rave reviews from the industry, including feedback from high profile artists such as Bruce Springsteen.

Glastonbury, ongoing

We deliver the site-wide sound management, working directly for Glastonbury Festival Events Ltd. to protect their licence by monitoring sound levels across the site to guard against any noise breaches of the licence.

Our role starts all the way back from the previous Festival, liaising with the local authority, Somerset Council and festival organisers, addressing any issues or concerns that they have raised. We then look at what changes need to be implemented for the following year. Every year the Festival changes slightly, brings in new areas, new attractions, new stages, new sound systems. We will evaluate those in terms of suitability and what the likely impact will be.

What would I do?

• Audio Visual Systems Design
• Sound system design
• Broadcast & Video Production Design
• Public address and voice alarm design
• Venue, performance space and concert hall design
• Room acoustics design and reverberation control
• Acoustic surveys, benchmarking and commissioning
• Sound insulation design
• Structural vibration isolation and dynamics
• Control of external noise break-in and façade & ventilation design
• Design and assessment of internal and external building services noise and vibration

What degree would I have studied?

• Music Technology
• Sound Engineering
• Audio & Broadcast Engineering
• Acoustics
• Acoustical Engineering
• Sound and Vibration studies
• Engineering Acoustics
• Architecture
• Mechanical Engineering
• Physics

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