Show Notes
Recorded July 17, 2026
Building an internal AV integration team sounds simple enough: hire a few people, buy some tools, and stop paying an outside integrator to discover that the display was unplugged. In reality, it means navigating staffing models, capital projects, facilities partnerships, student labor, service agreements, institutional funding, and the mysterious process by which everyone agrees an idea is excellent while still refusing to provide an FTE.
Special guest Tim Dickson joins to discuss Clemson’s effort to expand its internal AV capabilities while supporting more than 300 classrooms with a very small team. The panel digs into which skills should remain in-house, where outside labor still makes sense, how to justify positions through savings and recurring service work, and how existing staff can grow into programming, design, field supervision, and other specialized roles.
Note that this is Part 1 of 2 because the show is allegedly a 30-minute monthly roundtable, but no one involved appears capable of stopping at 30 minutes, or stopping at all. Part 2 will continue the conversation with no meaningful evidence that anyone learned from the experience.
Connect with Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdickson0ctsd/
Alternate show titles: A design apprentice, so to speak Don’t bring up your dirty math! Support Plus I could save them $100,000 a year I’m going to tag onto Marc and then change I can take care of you and you can take care of me The AV consultant doesn’t know how we do it on campus Just like a consultant would… That’s not the way levers are pulled Which isn’t a service we actually offer… but it’s a service we offer This was actually a good show It’s not like math…
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More from AV SuperFriends: On Topic
Recorded June 26, 2026 Freshly returned from the show floor at InfoComm 2026, the AV SuperFriends gather for a full-length roundtable on trade show regrets: the booths they missed, the sessions they skipped, the demos they should have recorded, and the party they may never emotionally recover from missing. This episode wanders through the aftermath of a massive conference week, including arguments over who should really be explaining AI to the AV industry, what happens when AVIXA TV is more networked than expected, why show-floor “hidden gems” are still somehow hidden behind the wrong booth wall, and how even seasoned attendees can come home realizing they saw only a tiny slice of the show. Along the way, the crew revisits booth tour challenges, suspicious conference sandwiches, tote bag logistics, USB-C mysteries, browser-based control, over-caffeinated presentations, and the now-legendary Panasonic dinner brownies. It’s part InfoComm recap, part confessional, and part warning label for anyone who thinks they can actually see everything at a trade show.
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