We are pleased to announce that Dalarna University is a member of the VirtualKaty (VK) Industry Partner program. The VK Industry Partner program allows us to work more closely with broadcasting studios, educational institutions, professionals and other users. The member’s feedback enables us to prepare better tutorials and documentation and add new features to enhance the VK experience. Members in this program receive concessional rates on all VK products and upgrades.
Located in Falun, Sweden, Dalarna University currently uses VirtualKaty in some of their programmes and courses. We spoke with Mikael Jorhult, a lecturer at Dalarna University, and he told us a little about the university, the courses offered, the tools used by the students and how VirtualKaty is used in their programmes.
Please tell us about Dalarna University.
Dalarna University is located in the middle of Sweden offering programmes and courses on several subjects ranging from linguistics and media to computer forensics and solar power.
In media we offer multiple programmes, each three years long, all leading up to a Bachelor of Arts degree on completion. Among these are the Sound and Music Production programme and the Film and TV Production programme.
What is the Film and Television programme and Sound and Music Production programme?
Today, a small group of people, or even a single person, with modest equipment can carry out productions that previously required greater human resources and extensive equipment. Our programmes prepare students for this new situation. To start with, our programmes cover a very broad selection of topics that reflect the many sides of the production workflows.
In the Sound and Music Production programme we offer courses, for example, on recording in studio, live-sound, radio production and sound design for moving pictures and computer games while the Film and TV Production programme offer courses on production of short films, news, outside broadcast and graphics and visual effects.
What’s the workspace setup like for students? What tools are used in the programmes?
All of our programmes are taught at our media building a bit outside the main campus. The building houses a music studio, TV studio, a radio studio and a movie theater as well as 30 editing suites and three computer classrooms for teaching software.
The rooms are running Apple computers with Avid Media Composer, Avid Pro Tools, Apple Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Adobe Creative Cloud, DaVinci Resolve and plugins from several manufacturers including Sonnox and Waves. The rooms are also equipped with good monitor speakers and MIDI keyboards.
How did you first learn about VirtualKaty?
We aim to teach our students modern workflow and the tools used by the industry that they will meet in professional career. Virtual Katy was recommended to us by several industry professionals as an essential tool for post production.
How can VirtualKaty help students participating in the programmes?
With Media Composer and Pro Tools as our two main tools when working with film, Virtual Katy is a great addition to the workflow making the otherwise tedious task of conforming changes in ProTools a lot simpler. I am confident that Virtual Katy will help our students achieve better structure in their productions and work more efficient.
