Photo above (left to right): L-Acoustics Trainers Network Managers Katerina Panagopoulou and Arica Rust with Etienne Corteel, Global Director of Education & Scientific Outreach (not pictured: Vladimir Coulibre and François Montignies)
From its inception nearly four decades ago, L-Acoustics has consistently highlighted the importance of education with the understanding that an amazing sound system is only as good as the technicians and engineers entrusted with its deployment. With that in mind, the company announced that it has recently bolstered its Education & Scientific Outreach division by forming a new Education Operations team to serve customers and partners around the globe.
Reporting to Etienne Corteel, Global Director of Education & Scientific Outreach for L-Acoustics, the new Education Operations team has been established to provide territory-specific oversight of the manufacturer’s training initiatives, both in-person and online, and to support the development of the expanding network of L-Acoustics certified trainers.
The new team is comprised of three Trainers Network Managers—Arica Rust serving the Americas, Vladimir Coulibre and Katerina Panagopoulou, dedicated to EMEA—plus François Montignies, based in Singapore, who has been named Education & Scientific Outreach Manager for APAC.
In their new roles, the Education Operation team members will be tasked with qualifying new training candidates and supporting all certified trainers in their respective territories with the latest training and educational updates as they become available. They will also manage and lead the “open session” training that can be found in the calendar posted on the L-Acoustics website.
Arica Rust possesses 15 years of touring experience working as a systems engineer with artists like Wilco, Norah Jones, Seventeen, and Sarah McLachlan and has worked on numerous high-profile corporate events and large-scale music festivals.
An L-Acoustics consultant for 12 years, Vladimir Coulibre has had 20 years of live event experience and system-engineered several large L-ISA-based tours in arenas, including Christine & the Queens and Lomepal.
With 25 years of live productions to her credit, including seven as an L-Acoustics consultant, Katerina Panagopoulou has conducted systems training for 18 years and has worked as an engineer on numerous productions, such as Greece’s Cultural Olympiad and Athens Jazz Festival, and the Isle of MTV in Malta.
To ensure that the Education Operation team members retain their real-world acumen, Rust, Coulibre, and Panagopoulou will each continue to spend a quarter of their time working in the field on various tours, festivals, and other events.
François Montignies, who has a Ph.D. in Psychoacoustics and is recognized as an expert on behavior and optimization of line source systems, previously served as Head of Education Programs in the Education & Scientific Outreach division before taking on his new title.
With 17 current training courses representing a combined total of 119 total hours of in-person instruction, L-Acoustics’ training programs are constantly evolving. Presently, the Education Operations team manages and supports 110 certified trainers worldwide: approximately one-third are internal employees from L-Acoustics Application Project and Education & Scientific Outreach divisions; another third work at authorized training centers, which are all certified L-Acoustics partners; and the remaining third are L-Acoustics consultants, respected audio professionals that are certified by the manufacturer to do training as needed anywhere around the world.
“We’ve been experiencing an incredible increase in training participants. We delivered 6,000 certificates in 2022 and nearly reached that number in just the first half of this year, creating a learning community of more than 10,000 individuals,” says Etienne Corteel. “We are firmly committed to supporting our growing user base as they broaden their knowledge and deepen their skills. I’m delighted to have Arica, François, Katerina, and Vladimir lead our new Education Operations team as they expand our worldwide instructor base and help refine our resources with feedback from trainers and their own field experiences.”
For details on the instructor-led and digital-learning educational sessions offered by L-Acoustics, click on the Education tab found at www.l-acoustics.com.
