Greetings from KCMO, USA

[crashin]

I have recently moved to an Audio Visual position. It is sort of a return to the area for me with a slight twist. I was Combat Camera in the Marines and I did everything from Videography to Photography and made my start into the IT industry with helping to build one of the first digital labs in the Marines at MCAS Miramar. My current employer didn't have a full time A/V position but I was filling most of the role from the Help Desk. I just found this forum and it appears to have some good information, I am specifically looking for information regarding possible training material or opportunities. I have been undergoing the trial by fire stages of trying to learn maintain and improve our current systems all at once. So any help is greatly appreciated.

[nordal]

Hello Josh, glad to have you with us..

I hope you find what you are looking for!

[Entropy3XD]

Welcome to the group Crashin. Combat camera.........I am so envious. I did a job at MCAS Miramar about a year and a half ago. Those Marines were one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of doing a job for. I hope we can help you in any way.

[emello]

welcome, Josh!

I think a few of us kind of tripped into the business in one way or another, so its interesting to see how we all ended up here.

For some suggestions on training, I would say that any of the vendors have training facilities that you should take advantage of (ie, Extron, Crestron, Tandberg, Polycom, etc.)

And an excellent organization you should check out is www.icia.org. The ICIA has a lot of training, both on line and in person, and it's a good way to get some overviews as well as specific types of training. They also run the Infocomm conference, which will be happening in June at Las Vegas, where you can take some on site classes and talk to vendors on the showroom floor. I highly recommend that you take a look at that and see if your company will send you to Vegas for the show. You wont' regret it. ;)

Elaine
Distance Education Technology Administrator
MIT

[crashin]

Well looks like the board is a bit more stable now. I will be checking in more frequently now. I am still trying to figure out the training I got budget approval for the ICIA event last year they day it started which was way too late to actually go. So this year should be a go. I still need to find some good courses for designing conference rooms.

[emello]

Take a look at the Infocomm site, they have an on line design course which is one of three courses you can take. However, there are some prep courses you might want to do before then, if you've been out of things for a bit. They usually like people to have the CTS certification prior to starting the Design school (which leads to a different designation past the CTS certification.) But I do know people who have taken the course anyhow. Here's the link:

http://www.infocomm.org/Education/index.cfm?objectID=EB5F8B4F-1F18-40C1-BF2382408E6EAD11

They also have some great books out that you will find helpful. You'll find a link to the Best Practices book on the same link above. Also, individual vendors will have their own training programs that you can take as well.