Making technology easier to use does not necessarily mean there is less for an AV professional to learn.
In many cases, it means the knowledge moves somewhere else.
Today’s collaboration systems increasingly bring together audio, video, networking, cloud management, security, device administration, and platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. A room may look simpler from the user’s perspective while the person responsible for deploying and supporting hundreds of those rooms needs an increasingly broad set of skills.
That creates both a challenge and an opportunity for people entering AV.
Yealink, a sponsor of the HETMA Golf Classic supporting the Prism Scholarship, approaches part of that challenge through training and certification designed to help AV professionals develop the skills needed to deploy and support modern collaboration environments.
A Place to Keep Learning
At the center of that effort is Yealink Academy.
The company’s training platform provides online and onsite certification and technical courses, along with knowledge resources and guidance intended to help professionals build expertise across Yealink’s technology portfolio.
Those learning paths extend into areas increasingly relevant to Pro AV. Yealink Academy currently includes certification tracks for ProAV solutions and Microsoft solutions, along with video conferencing and other communications technologies.
For professionals working specifically with Microsoft environments, Yealink’s certification program includes both regular online training and self-study options. Training covers audio and video solutions, device management, pre-sales knowledge, and technical implementation.
That combination matters for someone trying to build skills while already working a full-time AV or IT job. Not everyone can travel to a multi-day class or step away from campus for training. Online courses, self-study materials, webinars, and recorded sessions create additional ways to keep learning.
Yealink has also tied some of its Pro AV education directly to continuing professional development. The company describes its AV ONE training as free structured learning that is eligible for AVIXA Renewal Units.
That provides another opportunity for AV professionals to expand their knowledge while working toward or maintaining industry credentials.
Learning Beyond the Product
There is also education happening outside formal certification programs.
Yealink maintains an ongoing webinar program addressing subjects such as enterprise AV strategy, meeting-room standardization, centralized management, collaboration, and the changing role of AI in workplace technology.
Higher education is part of that conversation as well. In September, Yealink offered a session focused specifically on the modern classroom, collaboration, and the student experience.
That broader context is important.
Learning how to configure a product is useful. Understanding why an organization might standardize rooms, how devices are managed across hundreds of spaces, or how collaboration technology fits into the larger IT environment gives an AV professional something they can carry beyond a single product.
Those are increasingly the kinds of questions campus AV teams have to answer.
Supporting More With Smaller Teams
Stephen Richards, Director of Strategic Sales for Yealink, sees that operational reality regularly when visiting campuses and other large organizations.
“The technical team or the AV team is always small,” Richards said. “It’s very light, but they have a ton of things to manage.”
For Richards, that makes ease of deployment and management increasingly important.
He sees organizations trying to reduce the number of separate systems, manufacturers, and management portals their teams have to support. That can mean simpler room designs, more standardized systems, centralized management, and technology that requires less hands-on work to deploy.
For someone beginning an AV career, however, simpler rooms do not eliminate the need for technical knowledge.
They change what that knowledge looks like.
An AV professional may spend less time manually configuring individual devices while needing to understand Microsoft Teams administration, networks, device management, remote monitoring, security, and how hundreds of rooms fit into a larger technology ecosystem.
That makes continuing education particularly important.
Preparing for the AV Environment Ahead
There is a natural connection between that changing AV environment and the purpose behind the HETMA Golf Classic and Prism Scholarship.
Bringing new people into AV is part of the challenge. Giving them places to continue developing after they arrive is another.
The person entering higher education AV today may ultimately work across disciplines that were once separate jobs. Audio and video are still there, but so are networking, collaboration platforms, cloud services, remote management, security, and an increasing amount of software.
Programs such as Yealink Academy, free AV training, certification paths, webinars, self-study materials, and opportunities to earn AVIXA Renewal Units provide more ways for professionals to keep adding those skills.
Richards’ comments also point toward where some of that learning may be headed.
As AV environments become easier for faculty, staff, and students to use, the people behind those environments will increasingly be responsible for making simplicity work at scale.
That requires people who understand more than the box in the room.
By supporting the HETMA Golf Classic and Prism Scholarship while providing training and professional-development resources to the AV community, Yealink is contributing to both sides of that equation: helping create an opportunity for the next generation to enter the industry and providing places for them to continue learning once they get there.
