The cable clinic is a 4 day course that will take place every Saturday for 4 weeks.

Each participant will receive as part of the course fee the following:

• A basic tool kit and soldering station for fault finding and cable making
  
• A collection of cables that are made during the 4 day clinic
• An AMPS accreditation that they can put on their CV and AMPS profile
• 30 pages of printouts for reference of radio mic connector pinouts and other common plug and cable wiring data.

Here is the planned itinerary:

Day 1 Saturday 21^st January "Because it has the right plugs doesn't mean it's the right cable"
An introduction to how cables may be wired differently for different uses. We will discuss difference between 50 Ohm and 75 Ohm BNC for video and antennae connections. Explanation of balanced/unbalanced, and how cables are wired differently. Participants will be asked to start a notebook of their own diagrams to show different wiring conventions. There will be an introduction to soldering and the basic toolkit required.

Day 2  Saturday 28^th January  "Making Cables"
This will be a practical session where we'll start with the technique of stripping cables in preparation for fitting plugs then preparing the plug to be soldered. The tutor will demonstrate the basic soldering process and discuss regulations regarding use of lead free solder. Participants will leave with practical work to be carried out at home.

Day 3 Saturday 4^th February  "Cable Clinic"
After inspection of the cables made by participants at home there will be some discussion and further demonstration of technique. We will be particularly concentrating on more intricate work such as fitting the miniature plugs used on personal mics for use with radio systems. Participants will be given more practical exercise to be completed at home. We will then discuss how to choose which kind of cable to use and why we use screened and quad cables. We'll discuss why choosing the right cable is important for interference rejection on audio feeds.

Day 4 Saturday 11^th February  "End of the line?"
We will discuss how to ground certain cables and why we may sometimes terminate the ground to the plug casing and the different methods used. We will discuss how phantom powering works and the principles of quad cables and use of twisted pairs for interference rejection. Participants will also be shown basic fault finding procedures and basic electrical safety. We will particularly look at electrical safety on set and safe working practices. There will be a final inspection of participants work and those successfully completing the course will receive an AMPS accreditation.

Each day will start at 9.30am and finish at 4.30pm. Lunch will be provided.

The course fee is £200. This is heavily subsidised and has been made possible by a grant from Skillset. Therefore no further funding from Skillset is available.

To book your place please send a copy of your uptodate C.V to admin@amps.net or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Book early. Places are very limited.

Your place will be confirmed by email.