This is Aaron Benson. He’s a Project Engineer for Touring at TAIT. In this episode of #TAITTakeOver, Aaron shares a day in his life at TAIT HQ which includes his design and engineering responsibilities. Join him as he attends meetings, design follow ups, destructive testing and PING PONG! Stick around until the end of the episode to meet Albus, Aaron’s pup.
I am Aaron Benson. I am a Project Engineer for Touring at TAIT. This is my TAIT Take Over.
Work environment wise, it’s great at TAIT. It’s an open office with a lot of windows and natural light. It’s a very collaborative space.
If you ask me to layout my typical day at TAIT, usually what it starts with is following up with all of our design leads. Immediately after that, I follow up with our third-party engineers to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Touring projects typically last less than a year. These are anything from Rock N’ Roll shows to pop up installations. Permanent installation projects are primarily with our theme park clients or large theatre and opera venues where they need to last for decades at a time.
Working for TAIT and the entertainment industry as an engineer, you’re constantly developing new solutions and machines that fit the needs of your clients both artistically and functionally.
As a Project Engineer, I am constantly thinking about “how can things break, how can things fail, how can I make this system as safe a possible for the needs it’s required to do?”
In the touring world, everything that we hang from the ceiling hands off truss. Everything that is hung off of truss, hangs over peoples heads. So it’s highly critical that these connectors and pieces of truss are engineered and destructively tested to validate all of our mathematical concerns.
All of that is honestly about four hours worth of work before lunch time. The best part about lunch time is PING PONG! The worst part is “Chaz the Spaz,” who is a local cardinal that keeps pecking at our window for literally over a year!
Alight, it’s design review time!
Design reviews are my opportunity to sit down with the designers, go over the analysis I performed and discuss where improvements can be made and any modifications that need adjusted.
During the research and development phase, there’s a lot of math equations and engineering concepts that need to be developed depending on what we’re working on. What’s nice is that our desks are also whiteboards so it helps with doing this on the fly.
After we do the initial design and engineering efforts, our job is not done in the least. We are constantly supporting our integration teams who are there to install and implement the solutions that we create and fabrication teams in-house while we’re developing these solutions.
The best way to get a sense of that is being out on the road and loading in shows in less than a few hours. One of the best parts of my job is being able to see what I make come to life in reality and get my hands on it.
One of the biggest perks of working here is actually our gym. It’s a gym that trains professional athletes and collegiate athletes.
Typically, I like to end my day at the gym. After the gym, I go home to make dinner with my wife and hang out with my dog, Albus. After that, I am off to sleep so that I can wake up tomorrow and do it all over again!
Want to learn more about engineering careers at TAIT? Click here!
