{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/sound-engineering-technicians/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Sound Engineering Technicians",
    "soc_code": "27-4014",
    "category": "Media",
    "us_employment": 13080,
    "median_annual_wage": 73130
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 38,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 8,
    "embodiment": 12,
    "liability_shield": 1,
    "trust_premium": 8,
    "judgment_accountability": 9
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "An 8 reflects the split: iZotope RX, Auphonic, Adobe Enhance Speech and Dolby's automatic loudness normalisation already handle the dialogue repair, de-noising and LUFS-compliant delivery that used to fill your billable afternoons, but nothing automates coiling a snake, taping a lav under a shirt, or catching a feedback ring at 2.4 kHz before the audience does — hence mixed, not condemned.",
    "embodiment": "A 12 comes from load-in and load-out work in venues you don't control — flying line arrays, running XLR under carpet, boom operating on location in wind and traffic noise — but the modal week still ends in a chair at a DAW with a control surface, which is what keeps this out of the 13-plus band where the entire job happens on a truss or in a field.",
    "liability_shield": "A 1 is accurate because nothing gatekeeps this work: no state licence, no mandatory certification, and Dante Level 3 or Avid Pro Tools certification is a hiring signal a producer may ignore entirely — if a mix is unusable, the client re-books someone else rather than filing against a credential.",
    "trust_premium": "An 8 recognises that repeat clients hire the engineer who already knows their vocalist's sibilance and their room's 80 Hz null, and that FOH engineers tour with specific bands for years — but album credits and session work are still awarded on demo reels and rates, and a broadcast facility will slot any qualified operator into the Tuesday shift.",
    "judgment_accountability": "A 9 fits calls that are real but recoverable: choosing the mic pattern for a noisy interview, deciding how much gain-before-feedback you can steal for a soft speaker, judging when a take is unfixable and must be re-recorded — decisions with schedule and budget consequences, made against loudness specs and delivery standards rather than in a vacuum."
  },
  "rationale": "The post-production half of this job — noise reduction, de-essing, dialogue cleanup, level matching, mastering, stem separation, podcast editing — is where AI tools already deliver commercially acceptable results at a fraction of the hours. What survives is physical: rigging and cabling a room, placing mics on a drum kit or a lectern, ringing out a PA in a bad-sounding venue, and riding a live mix in real time while a band changes the set list. The modal worker splits time between a studio/edit bay and load-ins, so exposure is real but not total.",
  "outlook": "Studio and post-production headcount keeps shrinking as editing tools absorb the grunt work, while live sound, system tech, and installed-AV roles hold up and increasingly become where the paychecks are.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: as Izotope/Adobe/Auphonic-class tools absorb the routine cleanup tier (dialogue denoise, leveling, podcast edit, loudness-spec delivery), the residual job is live mixing, mic placement on unusual sources, system tuning in untreated rooms, and creative mix decisions — tiers with no usable AI substitute. This raises the score of what remains even as total hours fall.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Growth in live/touring and corporate AV work as recorded-audio hours shrink pushes the modal worker toward load-ins, rigging, RF coordination in crowded spectrum, and FOH — plus FCC wireless-mic spectrum churn (post-600MHz repacking) making frequency coordination a recurring on-site human task.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Union and guild credit/labeling rules: IATSE Local 695 and CAS (Cinema Audio Society) contract terms requiring named human mixer credit, plus streamer/broadcaster delivery specs that require a human-signed QC pass on final mixes. A 'human-mixed' disclosure norm in music (following AI-labeling moves at Spotify/Deezer and the Grammys' human-authorship rule) would extend this to records.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Life-safety and code hooks on the install/tour side: NFPA 72 mass-notification intelligibility (STI) testing and ADA assistive-listening compliance being signed off by a certified technician (AVIXA CTS-D, or a state low-voltage license), and rigging sign-off requiring an ETCP-certified rigger. This applies only to the systems-integration/touring slice, not studio post.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Live show sound-pressure-level and hearing-safety limits enforced on the operator — as in municipal noise ordinances and EU-style occupational noise rules — making the mixer the named person accountable for on-the-night SPL calls.",
        "plausibility": "unlikely",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Ceiling is low. There is no licensure body for audio engineering as such, and the credit/label route protects reputation, not work volume — a named human mixer can still supervise AI-produced stems. The only durable floor is physical: rooms, mics, rigging, and real-time mixes. Post-production hours are unlikely to return."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 13370,
        "wage": 55810
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 13510,
        "wage": 52390
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 12890,
        "wage": 54740
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 10870,
        "wage": 53520
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 10800,
        "wage": 60500
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 13420,
        "wage": 60670
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 14600,
        "wage": 59430
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 13050,
        "wage": 66430
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 13080,
        "wage": 73130
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -2.2,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}