Jahlene Joseph is the Technical Consultant at Par Grad. We caught up with her for our In Focus series, which highlights the work of inspirational women from across the sector.
Hi Jahlene, great to catch up! Could you tell us more about your role at Par Grad?
My current job title is Technical Consultant, it means I work on any number of interesting projects, from authoring tenders (proposals for staging live sporting events), building a technical infrastructure from scratch, OB’s or looking at new and innovative ways for my clients to solve any number of technical challenges. Though broadcast television is such a global entity, connecting with people, is really the main thing. Developing and maintaining those global relationships,
What does a day in your working life look like?
Lot’s of email, then plenty of research, dependant on the project. It could be anything from an up and coming AR company wanting to look at ways in expanding their research and development, licencing strategies to designing, staffing and building an outside broadcast in the UAE.
I do also spend an inordinate a mount of time drawing diagrams in.visio, for all sorts of projects you can have any number of moving parts, mostly technical. I’ve consistently found that a good diagram is an invaluable tool in visualising workflows or technical signal pathways, or the best place for an RF camera – it really works in choreographing everyone and collectively highlighting any issues well before installation or rigging. It is something that I have always thoroughly enjoyed doing.
How did you begin your career and what inspired you to look at jobs within the broadcast technology sector?
I started as an intern at MTV, working in the production arm. Whilst at MTV, I was told to take some tapes down to the transmission suites, It was then I had seen my first Odetics cart machine down there in the basement, where all of the Transmission nerds were working. I knew, from that moment I wanted to work in the technical side of television. I’ve been lucky enough to pretty much move freely in most technical facets of TV when I was much younger, such as editing, MCR, Telecine and DVD encoding – Then I saw the inside of an OB truck. Live Studios and OB is still my absolute passion.
What are the main challenges facing the sector over the coming year?
The challenge, like every year is increasing those numbers of female broadcast engineers and operational staff, the numbers are still far too low, even when looking at the graduate pools.
What are your main challenges over the coming year?
For me, to work on growing my knowledge and experience in broadcast operations, expanding my business Par Grad in North America, I’ve worked with so many lovely people and great companies out there over the years, that is really my main focus this year. So lots of travelling on the cards!
Thanks to Jahlene for sharing more about her experiences.
