I've been working in various roles in the Audio-Visual field for 20 years.  Other than a short period in college when I thought I wanted to be a Biochemist, I've worked in AV related fields.  I've been a front of house audio engineer, wireless microphone tech, sound designer for theater, a theater lighting technician, lighting programmer, camera operator, install tech, systems engineer, production manager, account manager, and project manager.  I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a lot of gear in a lot of different buildings and venues all around the world.  The genesis for my interest in consulting was a strong desire to make life easier for operations teams and experiences more vibrant for users.

 

 

 

My primary experience is in audio and lighting systems for performing arts and live event venues with additional experience in recording and broadcast.

 

Besides conference attendance, I think nothing beats going to visit newly constructed spaces to see how new AV technology is, and can be, implemented.

With CENSEO it's been exciting to work on the Liliʻuokalani Center which will open this summer here in Hawaii.  It's an education center for native Hawaiian youth that includes a Theater, Dance Studio, Recording Studio, Maker's Space, and more.  Other notable recent projects with previous firms include Google's Pier 57 Event Center (NYC) and Bay View Event Center (Mountain View, California).

 

 

 

Across those projects I was a design manager and AV design engineer.  All three of those projects had extremely complex architectural designs with strong visions dictated by the design brief.  The challenge was to implement AV solutions that were seamlessly integrated with the buildings, but still high preforming, as well as offering flexibility for many different event configurations.  Being high profile projects, they each had an impressive number of stakeholders.  Getting buy-in for AV design solutions required constant and clear communication with many stakeholders of different types—both technical and non-technical.

 

 

 

We often hear from clients about equipment that is not functioning and that their AV service provider is having trouble keeping up with the issues.  As experts in the industry, we know that there could be a variety of contributing factors from user error, to access issues, to insufficient HVAC systems, to building wiring faults in addition to the more-often-blamed broken equipment or poor maintenance.  In our AV designs we always consider the wider context of the rooms our systems are going into....what are the room acoustics like?, is the infrastructure sufficient?, how can we make the equipment easy to access and maintain?, how can the system be easily expanded in the future?

 

 

 

Regardless of project size or whether we are working for an architect or another engineering firm or directly for the end user, efficient but thorough communication is key.  We want to ensure all our staff who are contributing to an av design understand the design intent of the facility and especially how these systems will ultimately be operated.  Is there a whole team of broadcast technicians, or do one or two technicians need to be able to keep all the controls within close reach most of the time?  This way we avoid wasting design effort working toward solutions that are effective from an engineering point of view, but ineffective from a usability/ operational point of view.  Detailed drawings and specifications are a very important communication tool, but we always ensure these are accompanied by well written narratives as well as plain language presentations to the client throughout the design process to ensure that key stakeholders are bought in, and we aren't missing critical requirements.

 

 

 

We focus on the user's needs from the very beginning all the way through to the final stages of the design process.  Auditing the system design through the lens of a user journey often reveals elements that are overly complex and require too much input.  With increasingly flexible systems sometimes comes endless optionality and configuration choices.  As designers we can provide detailed specifications regarding our intent, but ultimately, we are reliant on the expertise of contractors, our client's tech teams, and the users for the success of our AV systems.  We try to gravitate toward more "agile" products that respond well in a variety of use cases without requiring extensive adjustment.

 

 

 

As a former designer of live events and live audio engineer, it pains me a bit to say that the remote audience experience is equally important if not more important than the in-room experience in today's world.  Respecting the remote audience requires careful design, paired with the right technology to make streaming and broadcasting more accessible.  Across sectors, we see an emphasis in effective participation of remote attendees.  Ensuring those attendees can be heard is a big part of that.

 

 

 

Creating lasting value for our clients is a big one.  Commerical real estate is under more scrutiny than ever before.  Clients are looking for high-performance, low-maintenance, and flexible spaces that won't need to be "refreshed" every couple of years.

 

 

 

The Sennheiser MD 421 is one of my favorites because it's still one of the best sounding mics for many live and recording situations, which is impressive for a 65-year-old product.  As far as more recent offerings, we really enjoy the TeamConnect Ceiling microphone line.  They look great, integrate well with a variety of different conference room types and systems, and consistently result in excellent speech intelligibility.

 

 

 

The Big Kahuna grinder at Timmy T's in Kailua.