Now head of d&b audiotechnik Japan, Shinichiro ‘Yone’ Yonekura arrived at his present position via Tokyo’s Toho Gakuen Performing Arts College. Having graduated in 1990, he felt that the time was right to return – both to check the progress of today’s students and on the d&b Q-Series loudspeaker system installed a year earlier.

‘The school has always had a great reputation but much has changed in the 22 years since I was there, and I was anxious to put something back and to deliver some real world perspectives from the coalface of modern sound reinforcement,’ he explains.

Toho Gakuen was established as the Tokyo Broadcast School in 1979 and was approved as an educational foundation establishment a year later. Today four colleges comprise the campus – TG Media Training, TG Film Techniques, TG Performing Arts and TG Sound Technicians.

Kazuo Wada – who runs the sound reinforcement course – had invited Yonekura to talk on a range of topics including line array theory. ‘For those already familiar with the Q-Series, I asked him to present a session on ArrayCalc and using the d&b Remote network,’ he says.

‘When the school first looked at buying its own systems a couple of years ago, we wanted systems that were already available and being used in commercial applications. The motivation was to give students experience where they could do placements with rental companies already using the equipment, and where they might realistically look for potential job opportunities in the future.

‘The d&b Q-Series already had a high reputation in the market, though initially I thought it was expensive compared to other systems. But the reputation was so strong that we had to reconsider and made a purchase last year. What we have learned is you get a lot of system for the money, and the experience of our students is that the Q loudspeaker systems performance is unrivalled – and a little goes a long way.’

Graduates are already working with rental companies that maintain a stock of d&b loudspeaker systems, including MSI Japan, and Sogobutai.

‘There is no substitute for seeing the enthusiasm of young aspiring sound engineers,’ Yonekura says. ‘These people will be looking after my ears in years to come, and the ears of all their listeners. This is the purpose; to achieve good sound for everyone.’