I started as a 5 year trainee Telecommunications Technician in 1967. During that period I studied and obtained my Television Operators Certificate (TVOCP). After completing my training I joined a regional television station WIN 4 in Wollongong where I was a maintenance and installation technician. During that time I also performed Master Control, CCU and Technical Director duties. I worked on shows such as talent quest show "Star Quest", weekly drama series "Silent Number" and daytime "chat" shows. While I was in Wollongong I attended college studying the Electronics and Communications Certificate.

In 1974 I returned to Sydney to work for Royce Smeal Film Productions as head of television engineering. The company set up a video unit called Enterprise Colourvideo Productions (ECV - Later became 'Pro-Image' then 'Apocolypse' then 'Digital Pictures'). I then designed installed and operated a video editing suite comprising 3 x RCA TR70 2" VTR's, Rack Cintel Mk 2 Telecine, EECO timecode editing and a Richmond Hill switcher. I later designed, built and operated a 4 camera outside broadcast van using 3 x EMI 2005 camera's, RCA TKP45 portable camera, AMPEX VR1200 2" VTR and a Grass Valley switcher. I also designed and built a single camera OB unit comprising a RCA TKP45 and a RCA TR600 2" VTR. During this time with ECV, I worked on OB's such as "Australian Open Golf", "Bathurst 1000 Car races", "Polaroid in Concert", “Australian Tennis Open", "Amaroo Car Races", "Romper Room", "Why Is It So?", "John Denver Concert", "Uni-sexers", "Neil Diamond Concert", "Young Doctors", "Frank Sinatra Concert", "Rock Arena featuring Santana and Fleetwood Mac", "Richmond Air Show", "Sydney To Hobart Yatch Race", "Australian Rugby League", "World Series Cricket", "Australia For The Fun of It", "Olivia Newton John/Glen Campbell - Down Home Down Under", "Daley Wilson Big Band", "Little River Band Concert", “ABBA” etc, etc.

After a few years I left ECV to travel the world to study television production and returned to Australia to join Colourfilm Videolab as Director of Engineering. While there I did major upgrades of the facility including an engineering infrastructure to allow 24 hour operation. I also converted to PAL and installed an NTSC 'Scanimate' brought in from Image West in LA.

Then after 2 years at Videolab I set up my own company with a cameraman and called it Videopak. The company purchased an RCA TK76 and a BVH500 portable VTR; this was the first 'truly' portable video recording unit in Australia. We specialised in Helicopter shoots and did shows like the opening titles to "Arcade", "Norman Ross", "Waltons", "Sydney Wide" commercials and a TV special called "Mcquen's Gold" etc

Soon after we brought our 2nd TK76 and BVH500 and started hiring full time crew shooting video clips and variety show hostings like "The Noise" and hot air balooning. Then I designed, built and operated a portable multi-camera outside broadcast unit shooting "National Soccer League", "Conferences" and live to air telecasts from high rise buildings like "2MMM news years eve parties". We also covered live concerts like “UB 40”, “INXS”, “Midnight Oil”, “Machinations”, “Mental as Anything”, “Matt Finish”, “Gold Rush”.

Then I designed and built a computer controlled 'off line' suite using umatic VTR's and an Apple 2 computer. This system output EDL's for integration into an On Line edit facility. At this time I also help design and build a company called Image East which included 3 x Sony BVH1100 1" VTR's, a Ross Switcher and a Datatron editor.

In the early '80's Videopak set up a studio in French's Forest in Sydney's north. Over a short period of time we had installed our own on line edit facility using Sony BVH2000 1"VTR's, Intergroup vision switcher, Sony BVU and an editing system I designed called AEC. Later I established a separate company in partnership with another engineer called AEC. This company designed and built many broadcast products including selling over 200 editing systems world wide.

Videopak then went on to build a multi-camera OB van using Sony BVP330 camera's. The Van and camera's were used in conjunction with the studio to make drama's such as "Kings" and "Girl From Steel City". The outside broadcast facility was built up to an 8 camera van making such shows as "It's a Knockout", "Sun City to Surf", "Wang Marathon", "Bathurst Easter Bike Races", "Sydney to Darwin Car Rally" and all the traditional OB's like golf, cricket, league, union, tennis, Basketball, car races including the Adelaide GP. Many music concerts were covered including “Ian Moss”, “Kate Cebrano”, “Noiseworks”, “Van Morrison”, “Dire Straits”, “Avion”, “David Bowie”, “Moving Pictures”, “Kylie Minogue” etc

During this time we also converted all our single location camera units to Betacam shooting location dramas like "Waterloo Station", english soapie "Families" and comedies such as "You've Gotta Be Joking".

Videopak then enlarged its studio by taking over the whole complex it was situated in. This allowed for a second studio, an outside broadcast garage and larger offices. This also allowed for one studio to be dedicated to film production companies and the new studio doing shows like "Good Morning Sydney" and "60 Minutes".

In 1989 I took over as the major shareholder of Videopak and with a new business partner proceeded to upgrade all the facilities including re-locating the post production suites and converting our largest studio to a full television studio where we would produce the tv series "E Street".

Another ambitious project was the design and construction of a 'super' OB van. This van was a two story touring coach; it had a computer controlled 756 HP Detroit Diesel V8, an Allison 5 speed automatic transmission and air bag suspension; Sydney to Brisbane in 11 hours!. The reason for this design was to stay away from an articulated vehicle which required greater maneuvering and special licenses to drive. The layout of the van was rack equipment on the lower level and production on the upper level. The equipment compliment included 16 x Sony BVP70 triax camera's (4 x link camera's) with 2 x 55x1 and 2 x 30x1 lenses, 2 x Ampex VPR3 1", 4 x Sony BVW75's, Ampex 2 channel ADO 2000 with combiner and digitrail, 2 x still store's, Ampex 3 ME 32 input Century vision switcher with AFV, Ampex 16 input Vista Switcher with AFV, 2 x frame syncronisers, 2 x Chyron Scribe character generators, 4 x slo-mo controllers, an AEC computer editing system, 30 channel talkback including 4 channel commentators IFB, 4 x 4 wire orderwires and 4 x duplex radio channels, a forty channel Yamaha audio desk, a Sony 24 track 2" multitrack recorder, 2 cart, 2 CD and a DAT.

The production area had main production with 40 colour monitors, seating director, producer, visionswitcher, directors assistant and technical director; an audio area for audio director and grams operator, CCU area with 4 CCU positions and a down stream area for a vision switcher, director and 4 x slo mo operators.

The 'super van' was used on all of the tradition OB's including the "Gold Coast Indi" for ESPN, "Bathurst 12 hour car race", "Galic Football", "ARL grand Final", "Good Morning Australia" and the "Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic" held over 2 weeks between the Gold Coast and Wollongong where 2 live OB's a day were covered.

After the excesses of the '80's were over, Videopak moved its location closer to the television hub of Sydney; Artarmon where we built the largest film and television studio in Australia. The studio was used to make TV shows like "Comedy Plaza" and "On Golden Green" and feature films such as "Penal Colony" and "The Sum of Us". In this period I edited a documentary for the ABC called “Aids in the Arts” which won an Emmy in New York.

Two years later I left and set up a company with a television producer and called it Genesis Television Services. We built 2 linear edit suites and two non-linear edit suites. We made shows like "It's Country Today", "I Do, I Do", "World of Sport" and "Australia's Most Wanted". We also made many tv commercials, video releases, documentaries and corporates.

In 1999 I left and setup my own company where I am today. I mainly do editing but also spend many hours designing and building non-linear editing systems. My editing skills are based on being a 'post production producer'.

So I guess a summary of my qualifications would be as follows…..

Maintenance Tech, CCU operator, Technical Director, OB Supervisor, OB Manager, Tape operator, Slo-Mo Operator, ADO operator, Vision Switcher, Audio Director, Communications manager, Cameraman, Director, Producer, Editor, Post Production Manager, Graphics Designer, Music composer and all round nice bloke; all in only 30 years of television experience.

Don’t ask me anything about life outside of television, I wouldn’t know!