Studio Monitor: Misner's Sae Takes Global Perspective On Audio Education

Long before globalization became a catchword to describe the evolution of business, politics, and communication, the Sydney-based School of Audio Engineering (SAE) had already built a worldwide network for aspiring studio professionals.
Since it was founded by recording industry veteran Tom Misner in Sydney in 1976, SAE has grown to 30 schools in such locales as London; Paris; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore; New Zealand; Geneva, Switzerland; and Zurich. In its home base of Australia, SAE has five schools, as it does in Germany.
Given SAE's international success, it was only a matter of time before it brought its model of audio education to the U.S. Last April, SAE opened its first American school in New York and followed up with a Nashville site in September. It plans to continue the North American rollout with schools in Miami, on the West Coast of the U.S., and in Canada.
"Our target is to have 12-15 schools in the U.S. in the next three years," says Misner, who is the majority owner of SAE and its hands-on president.
Although natural forces would eventually have brought SAE stateside, its decision to come to America was precipitated by a business deal with the Disney Corp.
"We signed an agreement with Disney Entertainment two years ago to provide them with 10,000 people over the next 10 years," says SAE senior VP Marcel Gisel. "That was one of the main reasons to open here. We actually developed this curriculum together with Disney to educate their engineers."
Gisel adds that, until its deal with SAE, Disney had to send its technicians all over the world; now it can simply pluck graduates from SAE's various programs.
As it executes its North American expansion strategy, SAE is busy making a big push into India, a haven for film production.
"We're now opening 40 schools in the Indian subcontinent," says Misner. "India is a country of a billion people, of which 100 million are well off. Five schools have opened so far, and we're planning for another 35 in the whole subcontinent, including Sri Lanka."
When the India rollout is completed later this year, SAE will have effectively doubled its size, according to Misner.
Although 80% of SAE's curriculum is constant regardless of the geographical location of the school, the company prides itself on tailoring its teachings to the local markets. For instance, in India SAE programs reflect the country's orientation toward film scoring, while the Paris school specializes in European pop and movie dubbing. In Nashville, the focus is on country music and instrumental recording, and New York does a heavy share of dance music, hip-hop, and advertising work.
Another of SAE's hallmarks is its insistence that students spend as much individual time as possible working in hands-on situations. In fact, one of Misner's incentives to open in the U.S. was his feeling that students in existing schools here were getting shortchanged.
"Having looked at schools in the U.S., I felt that students were not getting the same value, the same quality training that we provided in Europe," he says. "In most instances, in 95% of cases, students were paying money to train and were getting restricted amounts of practical time. We're providing students more access to equipment."
"Usually if you look at schools, you have five, six people sitting at consoles once a week or twice a week," says Gisel. "At SAE we don't. Our graduates have over 100 hours in the Solid State Logic room and over 100 hours in the Neve room."
Like any trade school, SAE must abide by rigorous job-placement guidelines in order to retain its accreditation.
"Job placement is a very important issue for us," says Gisel. "Here in New York, I have to place 75% of my graduates; otherwise the education department will close down our school."
SAE offers a variety of options to students, including $13,800 diploma programs that can be carried out in nine months (full time) or 18 months (evening classes), and a 12-month bachelor's degree program through London's Middlesex University.
Because of its global reach, SAE affords its students the opportunity of taking classes in countries beyond their home base.
"That's a big advantage for the students," says Gisel. "They have the possibility, let's say, if they're starting in New York, for three months they can go to London and for three months they can go to Sydney, because the whole curriculum is in sync."
Misner adds, "A lot of times, in America we found that people didn't believe how simple it was. A student would go to a manager and say, "I'd like to be six months in London or Sydney,' and it would happen. In most cases, it's a very seamless transition for them."
Along those lines, SAE is considering implementing a distance learning program for students who are far away from existing schools. Under such an arrangement, a student would go to campus to complete practical assignments and do the rest at home.
Misner is a producer/engineer who had worked in Europe and Australia before founding SAE. He still manages to get in a few productions a year, but SAE occupies most of his time.
The management structure is simple: Gisel and two other regional managers-Rudi Grieme (Europe) and Andy Jenkins (Australia)-report directly to Misner.
He is the principal owner of the company, a fact born less of a conscious decision than out of an inability to secure financing for expansion.
"It was a long road to get the kind of capital back in that I now have," says Misner. "I used to go to banks and say, "I have an idea about audio schools.' The banks would say, "That's nice, but there are no examples.' I went to a London bank, and they said, "There's no school in London.' So I build a school in London anyway.
"Twice I had to sell my house to keep SAE going," he says. "Then I went to Germany and said, "This idea worked in London, Australia, and New Zealand,' and they said, "Yeah, but this is Germany.' Nobody would lend me money, so I got enough capital backing so that I didn't have to go to banks."
Recently, Misner expanded his business holdings by acquiring Studios 301, a five-room, state-of-the-art facility that was once owned by EMI (Billboard, Jan. 15).