The SAE Institute recently opened its seventh U.S. campus in Chicago, equipping all four production suites at the brand new 19,000-square-foot facility with matching Argosy studio furniture products.
Each of the suites is outfitted with an Argosy Mirage Edit Desk with accompanying Single Monitor Arm, a Mirage R11 Rack and a pair of Classic Speaker Stands.
“I’ve been using Argosy furniture for a long time, including quite a few 70 series and 90 series and a lot of workstation furniture over the years,” reports Bill Smith, SAE Chicago’s Director of Education and the National Curriculum Advisor for SAE Institute in the U.S.
“In an educational environment the studio furniture needs to be pretty tough; it gets constant, heavy use, and things are moving in and out constantly,” he continues. “The Argosy pieces have always held up beautifully.”
Plus, Smith says, “They look great in the room; you walk in and it looks very polished and professional. You want any student or client to walk into the room and feel good about where they’re working.” And as for the assembly process, he adds, “It’s definitely easier than some things from Ikea.”
At SAE Chicago, a newly constructed facility located in the downtown River North neighborhood, the initial program offerings will include Beat Lab Production (BLP) and Electronic Music Production (EMP), which are both 12-week courses.
The learning tools in each of the four Production Suites are essentially computer-based, explains Smith. “Most of it is “in the box.” Each suite has an Apple iMac running Avid Pro Tools LE, Apple Logic Pro, Propellerhead Reason, Ableton Live and Native Instruments Komplete software.”
Each Argosy Mirage desk and rack also houses an M Audio Axiom Pro 49 keyboard controller, Samsung display monitor, a pair of Yamaha HS series studio monitors and a Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 Firewire I/O interface. “The suites are all attached to live rooms, so they have the ability to record as well as production work,” Smith says.
Four full-sized Production Studios will also shortly be brought online at the Chicago facility. The institute has previously announced that it expects to expand its current Creative Media Programs to also include Postproduction, Photography, Music Business, Live Sound, Digital Journalism and Pro Tools classes over the coming months.
Established in Australia in 1976 and introduced in the U.S. in 1999, SAE Institute maintains over 50 campuses around the world and offers a practical and theoretical curriculum for creative media education.
