Peter R Monnery

Peter fell in love with sound aged 11 and started making his own audio equipment using transistors soldered in matrix boards. Early sound projects turned to professional use with his first full disco console completed at the age of 15. Not content with building the desks, Peter wanted to take them out on the road. Working up from youth clubs to mainstream, he DJ'd events with corporate bodies such as American Express and Smith Kleine Beecham; a personal highlight was providing BBC Radio 1 with its Christmas Party.

Peter joined the British Broadcasting Corporation at 19, working in sound operations with presenters and DJs across the BBC's national output in Broadcasting House. He went on to be a Producer in the Radio 1 Promotions and Production Suite and across many daytime music programmes on Radio 2, also Sport where he was nominated for a Sony Radio Award and Light Entertainment where he received international acclaim. Peter realised he loved to teach and worked with senior lecturers in Production Training in the BBC Langham Hotel and on all levels of training in sound and technical operations in Broadcasting House. He particularly valued working with new recruits, taking students from the basics to confidence in studio sessions.

In his thirties he returned to his technological base, retraining to a degree level BBC Engineer. He became an operations manager in radio's control area during his studies and moved on to manage the studios of Radio 1, Radio 2, Maida Vale music studios and the Radiophonic Workshop. In this time Peter set up an advisory acoustics company working with new projects in talks, presentation and music studios and solving problematic issues in public spaces.

In a return to more artistic work, he became part of the leadership team of the BH Studio Managers, in time taking a commercial management role. When BBC TV created a similar market in 1999 Peter moved to Television Centre in Shepherds Bush to manage Engineers in News, the Presentation areas and TV Central Operations. Peter oversaw operational development of his teams through the BBC move to Widescreen TV and Digital TV, moving from just 5 channels to a challenging 125 channels in just a couple of years.

As the BBC Technology Operations Manager, Peter oversaw the commercialisation of his teams and facilities including the BBC fibre networks, digital multiplexing, broadcast automation and satellite teleports. When Siemens inherited BBC Technology, Peter was asked to lead international customer development in the broadcast sector with over 30 customers including EBU, ABC, CBC, RTE, ITV, MTV, Disney, Channel 4 & 5, Global, Bauer and Thompson Reuters.

As a relief from corporate life Peter used his spare time to grow hospital radio stations, and later community radio stations, always supporting presenter training, production values and engineering quality. Peter was asked into ailing 107 Meridian FM where he had just three months to make the station Ofcom compliant for license renewal. The station went on to excel with 133 voluntary staff, over 17 hours of programming a day, sustainable advertising and a reputation for high quality output.

The book, Sound Knowledge, is recreated from his BBC Wood Norton training days, his lecturing of BBC recruits, production courses and staff on-station training. This is further refined through lectures to schools, College and University to create a unique and comprehensive training resource for the next generation of sound technologists.