Playback Engineer

The Playback Engineer runs music playback on set — for dance numbers, performance scenes, lip-sync shoots, anything where the cast performs to a pre-recorded track that the sound department also captures cleanly for editorial.

What the role does

• Sets up + operates the playback system on set
• Ensures the playback track is sync-locked to camera
• Coordinates with the Production Sound Mixer to keep the production sound clean of playback bleed
• Manages multiple takes with cued track starts
• Provides timecode-stamped playback files to post

Position

Reports to Production Sound Mixer. Coordinates with music supervisor / composer on the production-side music team.

Career progression

SI Competency Framework Level 4 — Expert. Specialist role; often reached laterally from music or sound-engineering backgrounds.

Working pattern

Freelance, project-by-project — not present on every production.