The best way to understand the day to day activities of Yacht AV/IT Engineer is to hear from someone with firsthand experience!
Although work and schedules vary greatly between yachts, below is an example of what you can expect from a typical day working onboard. This example is based on a small yacht, with guests:
Note: All systems will be checked thoroughly a few days before, just in-case parts are needed. Nothing worse than needing a replacement JAP router or WAP the night before! Also this is specific to smaller yachts and systems.
18:00 – Go through entire system, all AV inputs, lighting, and security cameras, etc. Do a “Walk around” Step on the yacht as if you are the owner and do exactly as they would do. Connect your phone to Wi-Fi straight away, how is the signal speed? Watch the news, sports game, turn on music. Ask other crew to do the same with their devices. Stress the system as much as possible as you will have extra devices and more systems being used.
07:30 – Wake up! Shower, shave and get presentable for the day.
08:00 – On deck and do a walk around to check lines, anchor and fender, morning meeting.
08:15 – Head to the rack and see if all systems are running properly. Owners, like most people check their phone as soon as they wake up so even if you haven’t seen the boss yet, be sure he will want his Wi-Fi network working first thing!
09:00 – Run TV’s and test all AV throughout the yacht where the owner will be, sundeck TV for breakfast news, Main Saloon for movie nights. Go through every input and signal to make sure everything is working seamlessly.
10:00 – Set up TV for the breakfast news, have whatever channel the owner likes on and if a swivel or adjustable TV have it facing the owner’s normal seat at the table. Make sure all remotes are within reach, clean and charged with batteries.
11:00 – Finally time for food and a break!
12:00 – Depending on owner, have a quick chat with them after breakfast. What are their plans? Will they be inviting friends over in the evening to watch the boxing? In which case, are you going to stream through 4G cellular data or is it accessible though SKY? Is there going to be a(nother) karaoke session after dinner? Get as much info as you can to do all the prep and what you can expect!
12:30 – Lunch.
13:30 – Log on to the network and check your average data speeds, what devices are using the most data, do you need to throttle speeds for the crew? If using a 4g Data plan are you on track with your data allowance?
15:00 – Do another walk around if guests are off doing water sports or ashore. Check the rack is clean, free of dust. Racks are very high fire risk areas and need to be checked and maintained as much as possible.
16:00 – Boss has brought on new music/ films/ TV series that need to be imported to the yachts media library, always have a backup drive for all media. Upload everything onto the system and to the secure backup. Test and see if new media is working.
19:00 – While guests are getting ready for dinner, make sure music and playlist is playing in areas of the yacht where they may be having pre-dinner drinks. Set the ambiance!
20:00 – Guests are sitting down for dinner and want to watch the sports game. Usually this is streamed through an apple device with an app that lets you access British channels which is then forwarded to a TV with Apple TV. Depending on current data speed/ setup you may have to ask crew to disable their devices so all data can be used for steaming, especially live and HD streaming.
22:00 – After dinner is cleared away guests may want to use a karaoke machine or games (depending on what they drank for dinner!) or if with family may want to just relax and watch a movie. This is where the preparation comes in, if all areas have been checked and organised they will need minimal involvement from yourself. They may want to do everything themselves which is why you have remotes accessible and a clear AV structure and setup.
23:00 – If you haven’t eaten while the guests are eating now is your time! Stay on standby until guests have gone to bed just in-case any situations arise.
