“My Take” on MCUAV 2023 with Aaron Peterson
By: Aaron Peterson
In the commercial AV industry, there are many different verticals that our end-users are categorized into: “Federal Government,” “Entertainment,” “Hospitality,” etc. Many of these end-users have Technology Managers, or teams of people that ensure their AV spaces are operational. Some of these teams even do their own installations, programming, and even design. Last weekend, I got to spend time with the higher education community from the Midwest at the Midwest College and University AV Summit (MCUAV) in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Hosting the event this year was the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire.
I will always refer to the higher ed vertical as a “community,” and that adjective was ever-present during this conference. The keynote, by UNLV’s James King presented “The Importance of AV Professionals Building Community” where he discussed everything from the #AVTweeps community on Twitter, to the Slack channel he created exclusively for Higher-Ed AV/IT Professionals. He pointed out that it’s the users of these groups that have them create the community. He observed that predecessors to the Slack channel on various other platforms that never took off, but users’ interactions have flourished on the Slack platform by creating the community.
The sense of community continued in the breakout sessions. Even though sessions were “led” by certain people, participation from the attendees was welcome. Mike Pedersen from Iowa State University walked through the process his team created for tracking projects from inception to completion. While he was not able to go into detail due to time constraints, Mike made it clear that he was willing to share details, and answer questions after the session. This is just another example of the sharing of information among the individuals in that makeup this community.
The AV Summit had sessions on a variety of topics. Including a session on what one user learned from working with Mac computers over the last few years. And another session about how a few colleges have been solving the myriad of issues with USB-C they have been encountering. I attended another session where experts from Biamp discussed audio optimization techniques for learning environments. He discussed things like the specifics in how human’s hearing at different frequencies and volumes, Noise Criteria levels, acoustic treatments, and EQ settings all impacts the overall quality of the learning space.
The AV Summit was a great chance to interact with the Higher Ed AV Community in the Midwest area, including attendees from small community colleges up to large universities. Attending gave me the first-hand experience as to what the issues are in your spaces, and gives me ideas in how I can help you overcome them. Next year’s Summit is being held at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and I am already excited to see what that event will bring.
