– I can say that my journey in the AV industry was, is and probably will be, an exciting one!
It all started on 6th of October 1999. I found a job on the Rental business in one of the biggest AV companies in Greece at the time. Two years later, still working for the same company, i have been moved to the AV Automation Programming department as an assistant. I was so fascinated with my new role that six months later i was running the department myself. Since then AV Automation Programming is the only thing that kept me moving.

– A new person in the AV industry today has to face for much more challenges than my “generation” faced, almost 15 years ago. Here are some points:
a) There are a lot of different Signal Types and Signal Properties. Some of them are not Hardware Based (Streams).
b) The AV equipment are complicated devices and not just simple boxes working on the “1,2,3,4” discipline.
c) Clients nowadays are quite educated on what they need from an AV system and how this system works.
d) AV Integration should not be called “AV” anymore. Today’s AV needs are more and more connected to the IT world.

– That one is a good question since in one’s profession mostly negatives come in mind 🙂 I would say that “experiences” is the most positive part. Interacting with different Technologies, different Places and different People. The work of an AV Designer, Installer, Programmer is certainly not a boring Office job.

-Changing something in the AV industry is not an easy task. To Change something in the AV Industry means to change something in ourselves. We, the people of the AV Industry, should think what we do wrong and then decide on the best way to fix it.

-Ideal client? Oh… ok, that is close to Science Fiction. Ideal client to my opinion, is the client that knows 100% what he wants, what he needs and what he will get eventually.
I wish my clients knew how difficult task is to deliver a good integration. In a fast changing industry there are more needs arising than solutions given.

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-Start over from were? My first steps 15 years back or today having the experience and the knowledge of all these years?
If it was to start over by placing my self 15 year back then there wouldn’t be many things to do differently since the experience i have today would not be present to guide me.
If we are talking for the present day, then i can say that i did start over a year ago. What i did differently is nothing more than organizing differently my company’s resources. I manage to achieve more in these 2 years of operation than i did in the past 13!!

-Well, not everyday is the same. Some days is more of “this” and some other more of “that”.
In general we have a Yearly, a Monthly and a Weekly task list planed. The day’s work aims for the goals of the Weekly task list. The week’s work aims for the goals of the Monthly task list and so on.
My day disciplines are first to respect our way of work and second the Week’s plan. Work with passion, precision and accuracy against our vision and use these qualities to serve the clients’ needs. 

-APPS:
a) AV Industry software (Netlinx Studio, SIMPL Windows etc)
b) Notepad++ text/source editor
c) Termite RS232 terminal
d) KiTTy telnet/ssh terminal
e) HxD Hex editor
f) yEd Flow chart designer
g) Freemind for storing ideas
h) Various utilities developted by us
i) Visual Studio, Code Typhon for Development

-GEAR:
a) MacBook Pro, 15”
b) USB to RS232 adapter
c) D-SUB9 gender changers
d) D-SUB 9 null converter
d) Long, custom made, RS232 female-female cable
e) 2 Extron compact screw drivers
f) USB Drive 16Gb for file transfers

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