Sound Engineering, Visual Effects and Film Technology: Professional Development

This guide brings together key resources to help you find information relating to Visual Effects, Digital Film Production, Music Technology, Sound Engineering and Production courses.

students presenting to stakeholders

Image Credit: BCU Assets

This section provides links to professional membership organisations as well as to sources of information about the music industry.  

It also provides links to employability support resources. It is important for your future to stay in touch with the industry or the sector you are studying. Knowing the latest developments allows you to position yourself in a professional context when applying for placements and jobs. 

The Music Industry

Employability Skills Guide

This guide will help with:

  • Finding books and journals related to managing your career
  • Finding company information for interviews and applications
  • Advice on managing your social media presence and on keeping up-to-date with business-relevant information

​It also makes explicit the relationship between information literacy and the employment attributes that you will have developed during your time at the university.

  Go to the Employability Skills library guide

Professional membership organisations: sound engineering

The Audio Engineering Society is the foremost international organisation dedicated to the increasingly wide field of audio engineering.

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

The UK's professional body for those working in acoustics, noise, sound and vibration.

The ISCVE is the specialist professional body within the sound, communications and visual industries. Members work in a multitude of disciplines including public address systems, voice-alarm systems, audio-visual technology, acoustics, assistive listening systems in diverse market sectors including education, leisure, hospitality, retail and in venues, public buildings and places of worship.

Professional membership organisations: visual effects

The Visual Effects Society is a global professional honorary society and the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists.

Professional membership organisations: digital film production

The British Society of Cinematographers is an educational, social and professional organization. Its prime objective is to promote and encourage the highest standards in the art and craft of cinematography.

Europe's largest member organization for engineers and technicians, the IET contains Communities which include its Technical Networks of which Media is one.

SMPTE is a global society of media professionals, technologists and engineers working together for the advancement of all things technical in the motion picture, television and digital media industries.

Women in Film & TV (UK) is the leading membership organization for women working in creative media in the UK and part of an international network of over 13,000 women.