Your Universal Remote Control Center
RemoteCentral.com
Custom Installers' Lounge Forum - View Post
Up level
Up level
The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:

Login:
Pass:
 
 

Original thread:
Post 213 made on Monday December 28, 2009 at 12:31
Gizmologist09
Advanced Member
Joined:
Posts:
May 2009
762
Name is Bill. I have been in the AV biz since 1959 with my dad as a little kid. He was one of the original crew to set up several TV stations in Indiana, West Virginia and Washington, DC.

That was when a TV station needed only about 5 people and a city could by an an entire station- control and transmitter- from RCA, delivered on one semi for the gear and a couple others for the tower and antenna.

Back in the day, "remotes" were achieved by literally stringing camera cable (3/4" diameter) from phone poles down to the high school to cover basketball games. Phone line transmission of signals was just getting started.

When we lived in DC he was the film director, editor, and newscaster for WMAL(now WJAL). At age 6, I went with him to show the camera dolly guys how to coil camera cable. We were always the first to have a TV in our area and I learned at an early age how to re-tube them and stared working on them learning what did what.

I was always the geek in elementary school and in third grade I was the only person in school to run the 16mm projector and set up the old RCA audio tape recorder. Remember the green blinking tube that was the VU meter back then?

Stayed with the AV and self taught electronics, got shocked few times and learned those lessons well. In sixth grade I was allowed to repair the school PA system and just stayed with the AV and stage crew activities all through school.

IN DC and working with my dad I had a a LOT of exposure and involvement in government activities and presentations with congressmen, the President and numerous government agencies.

After school I worked for several high end sound and AV companies over the years and developed a reputation in the industry for building or modifying equipment that most techs said could not be done. Simply because they lacked imagination, IMO. I specialized in remote control repair/redesign of existing hotel ballroom lighting and sound systems. I started building remotes for Extron equipment that even Extron did not have.

Last company I worked for went through a slew of acquisitions and name changes in such a short period of time our clients would call and ask "Who are you today?" We called ourselves "AV de Jour".

The final corporate employment ended when I suggested on a Friday that the company install security cameras to catch the thief or thieves who were stealing us blind. On the following Monday I was "downsized". A month after I left I found out from friends that the thief was the brand new manager and his buddy from one of the companies we acquired.

(The manager they displaced when the new "mis"management team came in came in was the most admired guy in the company (by the employees) and the highest net profit office manager in the entire company but he was an ex Air Force guy and didn't play office politics.)

The new "manager" was escorted out of the building by FBI agents as he was linked to interstate theft, fraud, buying materials from out of state under false ID and authorization and grand theft.

So now I build the same stuff I did and sell it back to me original company and their competitors. I still do on site repairs and reworks of hotel and church installations and several conference rooms.

Best part is no office politics.


Hosting Services by ipHouse