Parklands City Learning Centre

Parklands CLC in Speke, Liverpool purchased a Clyde Broadcast SYNERGY Portable System in January 2007.  The CLC provides inspirational learning opportunities to a mixed ability range of students, working with Schools, Businesses and the Communities across the South and East Central areas of Liverpool.  Parklands specialize in ICT, performance technology, music production, performing arts and new media technology.

The CLC is also home to the extremely popular Chameleon Theatre.  The theatre is used for a variety of events including fashion shows, exhibitions, conferences, concerts and traditional productions with state of the art projection, lighting and sound facilities.

Ken Fullelove - operations and Performance Technology Co-ordinator at the CLC, had been using audio editing software and an analogue mixer to create radio programs and wanted to take radio broadcasting to the next level.  Using state-of-the-art digital broadcasting equipment, gives students a true to life opportunity, its look and feel is extremely important for young people and the experience it offers is fantastic!

“Because SYNERGY is totally integrated, it’s really simple and user friendly for young people and they can get instant results and feel really good about themselves”
Ken Fullelove - Operations and Performance Technology Co-ordinator.
 
A school would normally have to visit the CLC to use their facilities and be accompanied by a trained CLC member of staff but due to SYNERGY’s remarkable ease of use and mobility, Parklands can now offer the following, more hands on approach;

•Parklands City Learning Centre put SYNERGY Portable into their feeder schools.  The radio station is delivered by the CLC and accompanied by a DVD which has been produced in-house to act both as a tutor guide and a resource.  Teachers can learn how SYNERGY works at a time and pace thats suits them. What’s more, the DVD can be shared around different departments promoting the use of radio around the schools.

•Parklands now offer a true to life experience of broadcasting to their schools.  Unlike a software editor, SYNERGY allows you to host shows ‘LIVE’ and then export them as a pod-cast.  Enabling users to trigger sound effects during live shows, play music beds whilst reading the news and script and cue co-hosts and guests when its their turn to speak - creating commercial industry quality, in a quick, simple and really fun way.  

“Recently, I decided to invite some primary and secondary school pupils in and asked them to use SYNERGY to create a show together.  Overwhelmingly they said it was fantastic!  The junior school students who were extremely shy to being with, later couldn’t stop talking - the change SYNERGY made to their personality and confidence was amazing! Their teachers when they went back to school commented on how all they could talk about for the rest of the day, was the radio station and the show they had created in just 2 hours”

Ken Fullelove - Operations and Performance Technology Co-ordinator