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Payap also wants to work closely with the project on new student programmes: audio engineering (mastering, lathe cutting), IT, business administration and more. New docs/payap-partnership.md: why it fits (mastering/cutting engineers are the hardest hires; Payap has music, IT, business, communication arts, an English-language International College and pharmacy labs; the plant has a lathe, production data and a real factory application), programme areas mapped to the docs they draw on, and what it changes: a reason to bring the cutting room (roadmap item 27) forward, a cutting engineer before the students, lacquer and stylus cost of teaching, pre-release security for customer audio, student access and safety, IT work on staging only, the link to the Payap land, BOI R&D merit. Suggested form: MOU, internships, short certificate courses first, degree tracks later; what to settle in writing and questions for the next meeting. Links from README (bullet, layout), site-candidates, roadmap item 27, the supplier map's open training item and the BOI open items.
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Payap University Partnership
Two strands came out of the October 2026 conversations with Payap University: land it would lease to the project (see site candidates), and close collaboration on new student programmes built around the plant: audio engineering (mastering and lathe cutting), IT, business administration and more. This page holds the programme strand. Nothing is agreed yet; scope, form and money are open.
Why it fits
- The hardest hires are the programme subjects. Mastering and cutting engineers are an open item in the supplier map, and the plant needs one or two at maturity (scale). A cutting and mastering programme is a hiring pipeline for the plant, and for the region.
- Payap brings what a factory does not have: a College of Music, IT, business administration and communication arts faculties, an International College teaching in English, and a Faculty of Pharmacy with analytical labs.
- The plant brings what a university cannot: a working cutting lathe, real production data and a factory application with real users.
Programme areas against the plant
| Area | What students work on | Where it lives in this repo |
|---|---|---|
| Mastering | Mastering for the physical limits of the groove, side length against format, technical QA, the approval workflow with the artist | process flow stages 1 and 2, the audio checks on the artist platform |
| Lathe cutting | Test cuts and lacquers, groove microscopy, dead-wax scribing, pitch and depth automation (Sillitoe Space / Time Control or the Agnew route) | vendor landscape, part marking in quality automation |
| IT | The factory application (cnx-factory), data acquisition, traceability, the artist platform, operations on the NixOS fleet |
digital factory, traceability, artist platform |
| Business administration | Costing and the price calculator, production planning and lead times, export sales and logistics, fan-funded campaigns, BOI compliance | revenue model, production timeline, BOI |
| To discuss | Music (recordings for the programme and the platform), communication arts (label and artist marketing, plant tours), science and pharmacy (the PVC material lab, galvanics chemistry) | quality automation, galvanics and stamper prep |
What it changes in the plan
- The cutting room moves up the agenda. The roadmap puts mastering and cutting last (item 27), earlier only if title-services demand shows up. A teaching programme is a second reason to bring it forward, as a room that trains students and cuts customer lacquers. The teacher comes before the students: an experienced cutting engineer, or the lathe vendor's training, has to be in place first. Student test cuts consume lacquer blanks and styli, a running cost to price into the programme.
- Pre-release security. Labels ask how unreleased audio is protected. Teaching uses own or licensed material (Poy Records, recordings from Payap's College of Music); customer masters only under NDA and the room access control in facility security.
- Safety and access. Students on the plant floor fall under the worker safety programme; the galvanics clean room is seen through the visitor corridor window, not entered (crane, workshop and tours). IT students work on a staging copy of the factory application and on exported data, never with write access to production systems.
- Location. On Payap land the plant and the classroom share a campus; at Mueang Chi they are ~35 km apart. The programme works better with the Payap site but need not depend on it.
- BOI. R&D contracted with a Thai university and training cooperation may count toward the R&D merit measure; an open item in BOI.
Form, to agree with Payap
Start small and formal: a memorandum of understanding, internships and work-integrated learning, and jointly taught short certificate courses in mastering and lathe cutting. Degree tracks come later, because new degree programmes go through the university's own curriculum approval and national accreditation; Payap knows those lead times.
To settle in writing: who teaches what; who owns equipment used for teaching; lathe and room time for teaching against production; fees and how they are shared; who owns student work that uses plant data; and confidentiality.
Questions for the next meeting: which faculties and programmes, on what timeline; what Payap expects from CNX (instructors, equipment, internships, funding); whether the programmes are tied to the land lease.