A Conversation with Raj Singh
Senior AV/IT Solutions Architect, University of Southern California
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Thank you for joining me today on Higher Ed AV Media’s very first “Tech Manager Spotlight, Presented by Sennheiser.” Start by tell us a little about what you do and a little about your background.
Thank you for the honor of having me for this spotlight. I am the Sr. Solutions Architect for USC and I am responsible for designing Classrooms AV Technology at USC to provide teachers/learners an optimal customer/learning experience. I am an electrical and computer engineer by education, and I have been in the AV for more than 15 years. What has really helped me in this industry that I have a hybrid background in IT as well in addition to AV. Given the current direction that we are going towards Cloud based systems in AV, it is imperative that we have a holistic understanding future systems.
Have you always worked in AV? What did the path look like for you to get to where you are?
That is a great question, while I have not always worked in AV. I would like to say I have worked in AV for most of my working career. I starter off as a student worker for IT when I was a Computer Engineering Student at CSU Pomona, that led to a job with EMC as Technology Consultant for a few years in IT Storage and then I had a chance to work for Extron Electronics for 12 years in the AV space, which was an amazing experience. I transitioned from that into Private Equity Consulting for Technology Mergers and Divestures, which was very interesting. From there when the position here at USC for Sr Solutions Architect opened up, I reached out to you and applied to the role and after an amazing 6 months, here we are!
There’s no doubt that most tech managers in higher ed know you from your time at Extron. How has that transition gone, and how has your time working as a manufacturer serving the higher ed vertical helped you in your role now working directly for a university?
Working for Extron for 12 years, gave me a tremendous opportunity to work with almost all the Universities/Higher Ed Institutions across North American and the other parts of the world. This work allowed me to get an intimate understanding of the needs of the Higher Education community. The time spent at a major AV Manufacturer has given me better appreciation of manufacture product workflow, realistic manufacture product timeline which I can use to my advantage for project planning.
What is your morning routine?
I am up early in the morning and there is nothing that I enjoy more than my cup of morning joe with some mindful reflection! I usually try to get a workout in or a bike ride. I like to invest and usually look at the market in the morning to make any course correction for my investment portfolio. Once that is done then I usually head out to work and take conference calls while I am driving into work.
What does an average week-day look like for you?
My average workday at USC is action packed with meetings with the AV/IT Teams, Vendors, Academic, USC Schools, Capital Construction, Facilities, Operations and Accounting.
Once I get off work, I usually try to spend time doing things that relate to physical activities, spending time with family/friends and learning things related to my work/career.
What does your busiest day look like? What are the challenges your role faces, and how do you overcome those?
My busiest day involves me having to constantly switch modes depending on who I am talking with. I could be meeting with Finance to review budgets, to meeting with Capital Construction to review projects which are in the pipeline, to determining operations for the ITS Learning Environment Team, vendor management for all the different products which we use or will use in the future and working with the CX on ensuring optimal customer experience.
I try to overcome these challenges by making sure that everything that I am doing is to ensure a positive customer experience for our students and frame every decision through that lens. Once that has been established, the solutions to these challenges are apparent.
What energizes you and inspires you?
What energizes me is knowing that the work that I do is helping to improve student learning outcomes and it inspires me to do/learn more in the field of Education Technology.
If another tech manager were to follow you around all day, what would they most be surprised by? What would they learn?
If another tech manager were to follow me around all day they would be most surprised in the level of technical involvement that I have with the AV Products and their programming. Another surprising element is the level of interaction that I have with all the different constituents, stake holders and departments (within technology and outside) on a daily basis. One that sticks out and will be surprising to tech managers is the level of budgeting and planning that goes into my role, since ITS at USC reports up to Finance. There is an extensive amount of detailed budgeting involved in planning for technology improvement and budgeting for department operations.
Tell us about the project you are currently working on now?
We just did a major upgrade with Crestron NVX Streaming Systems, Ceiling Microphones, and Software-based DSPs. For this next round of upgrades, we are looking at Projectors, Dante Audio Amplifiers/Speakers, Computer Labs and Next Generation Technology Lab.
The one project that I most excited about is our Next Generation Technology Lab, here we are looking to create spaces for AR, VR, eSports, Video Production Studio and Podcasting Studios. This is a service which we currently do not offer to the general USC Student Body and has been requested for many years by our students, this space will allow us to prototype next generation technologies for teaching and learning at USC.
Comparing your career path over time, what are some of the moments, accomplishments, or projects that you’re most proud of?
Comparing my career path over time, there are many moments, accomplishments and projects that I am proud of. There are two projects which come to mind which I am proud of accomplishing.
The first is the project which we just completed here at USC where we upgraded 250 Teaching and Learning Spaces across the USC campus. This was a huge accomplishment as we did a completely new Cloud Based AV System which allowed the university to utilize the learning spaces for hybrid teaching/learning during this challenging time of Covid.
The second accomplishment that I am proud of is a major divesture project that I worked on for Thomas H Lee Private Equity Group, where they were divesting the commercial arm of a technology real-estate company. This involved the complete operational split of all the software which ran the company from the DevOps Environment, IT, Development, Engineering and Facilities. This project utilized all my knowledge of AV, IT and Project/Vendor Management. Given all the intricacies of this project, it was delivered under budget and ahead of time.
What do you enjoy doing on weekends? How do you spend your time outside of work?
My weekends are spent doing outdoor activities, I enjoy spending time at the beach, cycling, hiking and exploring all the culture that LA/OC have to offer. I have a huge love for reading and have an extensive book collection. My interest in reading used to be in fiction but is now spent mostly on non-fiction business books. My time outside of work is spent in doing activities that bring me joy, examples of those things are spending time with family, friends and doing things that lead to a better version of me. I am also in the process of getting my master’s in business administration from University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, that takes up a lot of my time as well.
It seems that you stay quite busy and have a demanding job, how do you maintain work-life balance?
My current job at USC is very demanding both in terms of responsibility and technical challenges. I always try to keep things in perspective and look to focus my efforts on things that bring value to the university and my department. I do not take things personally and use the time outside of work to rejuvenate by doing things that bring me joy. Given how important the mission of the university is to foster an environment of successful teaching/learning, I try to stay ahead and that has helped in maintaining work-life balance. Something else that also helps me is yoga and meditation, these activities allow me to keep everything in perspective and provide clarity on what is essential vs non-essential.
What is your life motto and how do you apply it to your daily routine?
My life motto is that “Success is never owned but success is rented, and rent is due everyday”. I apply it to my daily routine by ensuring that everything I do, I am doing it better than past Raj used to do and something that future Raj would happy that I put in the effort to improve myself
What is one lesson you’ve learned through this COVID pandemic?
The one lesson that I learned during the COVID pandemic is to have faith in the ability of humans to adapt/change given unforeseen circumstances which we have seen during this pandemic. We have workflows and pedagogy change overnight to accommodate teaching/learning and working. We live in a world that we can account for these massive changes with technology and I am happy that we as a department were able to facilitate this change event for USC.
This Month’s Manager: Raj Singh
Raj Singh is an experienced professional with broad understanding of all aspects of AV Design & Engineering, Product Strategy and Technology Architecture of Learning Technologies in the Education Technology Space. After spending more than 15 years working as a Technology Architect for Fortune 500 Companies, Higher Education Institutions, AV Manufactures and Private Equity Consulting, Raj truly knows what it takes to design Learning Spaces of tomorrow.
Raj is currently with USC as their Sr Solutions Architect for Learning Space design. He has presented at various conferences over the years and is sought after for technology advice by various institutions across North America.
Raj holds BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona and is in the process of getting his Master’s in Business Administration from University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign.
