It was an honour to be part of this year’s LTSMG conference held at University of Hertfordshire

With Visualization AV Rack Build director Nick Pidgeon being invited to speak about the best practices for rack build and testing. During his session, he educated delegates about what they should be asking from their integrators to ensure they get the best possible quality and servicability from their audio-visual systems.

The most eye-opening part of the day coming from our “middle man” point of view as such, was the panel debate chaired by Clive Couldwell, editor of AV Magazine who was joined by Daniel Lee of Hewshott International, Gary Keene of Google UK, Chris Lavelle of AVIXA, Toni Barnett of CDEC & Marcus Saunders of the University of Arts London.

The debate opened with the burning question of how do we keep up with technology & continuous change in our industry? Various answers were discussed including that we need to focus our attention on engineering simplicity & reliability in HE and most importantly getting our heads around the requirements for & capabilities of the space we have available.

In short, we have concluded the main points of the debate below which undoubtedly raise further discussion...

• Continuous change in our industry – how do we keep up with technology
  • Engineering simplicity & reliability in HE
  • Education sector could teach the corporate sector this understanding
• The students should be a key part of the equation – they are the future after all
• We should take time to educate lecturers awareness of products being installed and their capabilities to improve their teaching and level of student engagement
• Is the lecture theatre something required moving forward?
• Keeping up with tech trends… do we need to?
  • If so, what do we need to understand?
    • Capabilities & requirements of a space
• Product point of view… asking the right questions about needs/requirements – know your end user and do not sacrifice the UX - “user experience”
• Sharing sites & spaces of neighbouring universities to offer a wider range of resources.

Rounding up after an insightful day the evening turned out to be a spectacular show held at the Royal Air Force Museum, including fine dining and a performance by the 1940s inspired singers, The Candy Girls UK.

We would like to extend special thanks to Adam Harvey & the team from University of Hertfordshire for a perfectly executed event.