Field trip to BR Funkhaus
ExcursionsThe second field trip organized within the Professional Communication’s course was on the 26th of November and it was a visit to the Bayerischer Rundfunk’s. This institution is the state broadcaster in the Free State of Bavaria with its main office placed here in Munich.
On this second excursion, we were given the opportunity to visit the broadcasting studios of BR Funkhausas well as being guided by a young woman who works there, and she was very communicative and friendly with us.
She told us that BR Funkhaushas eight radio studios. Due to lack of time, we were only able to see three of them, but it definitely was a very unique and interesting experience, since this is such a big and well-known company and its studios are very impressive.
Our excursion guide started by talking and explaining a little bit about the work and the history of BR Funkhaus and then guided us to the first studio: a very spacious studio where, in fact, they were preparing the Puls Winterfestivalwhich, a festival which started the week which followed our excursion, and where they have several bands and orchestras playing such as the Münchner Rundfunkorchester as our guide explained us. The studio is used for this festival as well as orchestra performances, concerts, among many other events.
In my opinion, this first part was a fascinating part of our field trip. To me, it was very interesting to see how the studio was being prepared for the event, with all the lights and sound effects involved. She explained why the walls were made of specific materials in order to make the acoustic sound better for the performances and answered to all our questions about the studio.
Then, our guide took us to a different studio: the studio where Bayern 2 records their radio plays.
This was actually my favorite part of the field trip, since we were able to learn how the sound tricks for the radio plays are made! They use various objects to reproduce sounds, just like the wind, walking on snow, walking on the sand, climbing stairs (…), among others. Plus, we got to experiment some of that techniques. The best part was when she showed us how they reproduce the sound of someone yelling from a long distance: they use a small sound-proof room, where people talk to the micro and the sound seems to come from very far away.
It was very funny since we all also had the chance to try and to listen to our colleagues and hear their screams in echo.
From my point of view, it was really nice that our guide showed us the way in which they do this radio plays’ sounds, because I’ve listened to radio plays before and yet, I had no idea that they used such imaginative ways to make the sounds!
Our excursion ended with a visit to the Bayern 3 studios. I really enjoyed visiting this studio because there, we were able to see how people on the live radio work as well as having the opportunity to meet two hosts of the show and watch them actually doing their show. I think their work really is of value since they have to be very imaginative, hard-working and punctual in what they do. They have to work a lot of hours and they always have to be aware of everything that is currently happening in Munich in order to provide the listeners with good and legitimate information and prepared to talk about it on live radio. We were also given the chance to make some questions to the hosts about their work on live radio and they were happy to answer all of them very nicely and we even got to take a picture with them. It was an amazing experience!
Just like the other field trips, thanks to the Professional Communication course, we got the chance to get to learn much more about working on the media field, which is very useful for our academic and personal path, as well as learning about Munich’s communication institutions, which is also very enriching.
Thank you, once again, Bayerischer Rundfunk – Funkhaus München and Professional Communication course for this great opportunity!
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