It Makes AV better
Steve Gibbs Jr.
Siblings. They are part of life. You love them and you sometimes want to hate them. Getting along with your brother or sister kind of reminds me of the relationship that AV has with IT. We both want to sometimes go our separate ways and be independent but we need each other and we need to figure out how to get along because we should all just be part of one big happy family. Much already has been said about this topic. I hope to share why I think this relationship is key and important to our industry’s success. I believe we can still achieve much growth in this relationship but we need to understand why it is so necessary so that we can get past the arguing and fighting.
KNOWLEDGE GROWTH
The part of the AV community that does not know about IT needs to learn about it and also be prepared to include it where it makes sense. There will be very few installs that don’t have IT involved in some aspect. I know this might be a humbling experience especially if this was never your background, but maybe if we see it as a new skill that we can add to our resume this can be the motivator. I also feel like there might be times where people find a love for IT instead of AV and vice versa so being a professional that is fluent in both is not a bad thing but instead just job security.
We need to work on bridging the gap with IT especially if there is a clear-cut division between IT and AV. We need to see these people as friends and colleagues. They are playing for the same team and we need to work towards the same goal. We need to convince them that they can trust us so we need to know what we are talking about instead of expecting that they know what we want to do. If we bring good intentions to the table and humble ourselves a bit I think other experts will want to work with us. In my experience, this usually works much better than each side digging in their heels. I could be wrong, I believe you can never have too many friends so I challenge every AV expert to find a counterpart on the IT side to learn from!
CONVENIENCE
IT allows us to be remote and to monitor devices. 20 years ago AV was always about being in the room or going to the room. IT allows us to be mobile and have the tech do the hard lifting. We can develop good reporting that can allow us to justify budget decisions. The more time we spend configuring our equipment allows us to save time later on. We can see what is being used and we can hopefully fix issues earlier than they are reported. The more that we can do off-campus allows us the ability to help from home which is nice to be able to do now more than ever.
PEACE OF MIND
Security is another reason why the AV and IT relationship is important. We need to understand IT so that we can make our devices and network safe from attacks. Having devices live on a separate VLAN and making sure that our equipment can only be accessed by the people that need it is a benefit of learning at least a working knowledge of how this communication works. We can allow these skills to enhance what we do so that we don’t have to worry about the wrong person taking over. This is another way we can earn IT’s respect and this can be a challenge to our AV manufacturers as well. Please do not try to sell a device that you want us to install in higher ed if we cannot make it secure. This is where we need to grow and show IT that we care about security just as much as them. When this starts to happen, we will be trusted more and allowed a seat at the table.
STANDARDS EXAMPLE
AV is also working on establishing a common language of what is the right way to do things. Standards are being created and encouraged. This is another example of something we can learn from IT. Having a way to do things that are established allows a multitude of people to speak the same language and know what type of work is required. Our work can be appreciated by others if they can see the value of what we do and how we do it. When standards are not used, then it becomes an unpleasant experience to troubleshoot things especially when we need to ask our IT friends for help. This is one area where can we grow by following a model that has been laid out for us.
I hope that some of these reasons allow you to understand the importance of this impactful relationship. AV people are still going to geek out over a fancy display or a new touch panel. The IT side is still going to care about making the network secure and that workflow is followed as it should be. Regardless, I hope that the value of working together can be learned and emphasized so that we can grow the family and realize that with the help of each other we can do much more!
Steve gibbs jr
Stephen Gibbs, Jr. is a Senior Educational Technology Engineer at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. He enjoys spending time with his three young kids and interests outside of AV include disc golf and soccer.