Pat Brown is a 1978 graduate of the University of Louisville with a degree in electrical engineering technology. With a background as a musician, sound technician, retail music store owner, contractor, and consultant, he is familiar with the many aspects of audio. He served as an associate instructor to audio legend and SynAudCon founder, Don Davis. Pat along with his wife Brenda own and operate SynAudCon and have been providing training for the audio industry since 1996. Pat, the main instructor for SynAudCon, has the unique gift of being able to share his knowledge of complex technical topics in an easy-to-understand real world manner through multi-media demonstrations. SynAudCon is recognized as the industry leader in audio education.
SynAudCon offers both in-person and web-based audio training. There are regularly scheduled in-person training and special one-time events as instruction on new technology is needed. With the release of the web-based training in 2010, SynAudCon training is now more accessible worldwide.
Pat writes articles for several publications. He authored three chapters for Glen Ballou’s “Handbook for Sound Engineers” and is co-author of Sound System Engineering 4th Edition. He considers SynAudCon web-based audio training courses as his most complete “book,” being able to explain the concepts and principles with animations and demonstrations.
Pat regularly teaches for the industry trade organizations - NSCA, InfoComm, and LDI. He was chosen as NSCA “Educator of the Year” in 2005 and NSCA “Mover and Shaker” Award in 2011 & “Peter Barnett” Award in 2012.
SynAudCon has given private seminars to many companies and organizations, including the Kennedy Space Center, Disney World, Sea World, IMAX, Purdue University, the US military, Siemens and many audio manufacturers. He has conducted seminars in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and Canada.
Pat and Brenda Brown founded a second business in 2005 - Electro-acoustic Testing Company (ETC). ETC, Inc. measures loudspeakers to produce data files for use in room acoustics modeling programs. ETC, Inc. was the first company of its kind in the USA. This experience of developing a measurement facilty and measuring hundreds of loudspeakers from dozens of manufacturers has allowed him to develop some methodologies and specifications that have influenced a number of industry standards.
Steve Macatee is Director of Product Development and Training at Rane Corporation. But don't let the fancy title fool you. Over the past 20 years he has worked in manufacturing, test, documentation, analog, digital and embedded system design.
Steve Macatee was born very young in Philadelphia. Then in 1986 he received a BS in Electronic Engineering from Monmouth College, New Jersey, USA. Steve has worked at Rane Corporation since 1987 in several capacities: from manufacturing; mechanical, interface and PCB design; in-house and product documentation; analog, digital, embedded systems and - luckily for everyone - not much GUI or DSP software design. After a decade in R&D Engineering, Steve underwent an Inverse Dilbert Transform and moved to Sales for 4 years as a technical and consultant contractor liaison. He currently heads the New Product Development and Training department at Rane where he also works to define new product and technology ideas.
Steve has been an instructor for audio workshops on Grounding and Audio Networking, has published AES papers on grounding and computer - controlled networked audio devices and currently - along with Brad Benn - co-instructs the "Synergetic Audio Concepts Digital" seminars with Pat Brown of SynAudCon fame.
Steve enjoys getting out of the idealized lab and into the real world. For fun, Steve enjoys music, great food, spending time with his most-excellent wife and attempting to be a musician with several jazz ensembles in the Seattle area. But, being a drummer, perhaps "musician" is not the proper word?
Bradford Benn brings 24 years of audio experience ranging from installation, design, project management, documentation, and sales. He is also Novell Certified and worked as an IT Director. This unique combination of skills make Brad a valuable part of SynAudCon Digital.
Bradford Benn has been interested in computers and audio since his teenage years. After attending Muhlenberg College studying Technical Theater, Brad worked as a freelance audio engineer. He joined Soundelux Systems as a fabricator advancing to the level of Director of Engineering. He worked on the design, building, and installation process for audio, video and control systems for numerous different projects ranging from retail spaces, themed restaurants, multi-million dollar theme park attractions, sporting venues, museums, and boardrooms. While at Soundelux Brad was also the IT Director which was a hands on position responsible for the design, implementation, and administration of the computer network at their multiple Florida locations.
Brad went on to join Crown Audio. He began at Crown as a Product Integration Manager, and has served in other roles including Director of Product Application Support. Before being promoted to Director, Application Engineering, Brad served as Business Development Manager, where he was heavily involved in the development of System ArchitecTM software, the evolution of the HiQnetTMprotocol, and the development both of Ethernet AVB products and the protocol.
In addition to his responsibilities at Crown, Benn serves as a co-instructor for the SynAudCon Digital training seminars. His dual-background in IT and audio have uniquely prepared him for this role. He is an AES Member, sitting on panels and hosting discussions about networked audio.
Sound Reinforcement for Technicians covers the principles of analog audio interfaces. Analog technology will always have a place in sound reinforcement. But, a revolution is taking place in the audio world.
Synergetic Audio Concepts, Inc.
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