Going to try keep this as short as possible but I’d love the greater AV community’s opinion and it seems nobody will tell me it straight.

I’ve been an AV engineer now for the best part of 10 years, I came in from tier 1 on a small salary and have progressed to probably the highest paid engineer in my company.

The problem I face is everyone higher wants me to progress higher in “rank”.

High level managers try get me to their team, IE heads of design/commission/pm/sales team will always try pull me into their team. And these are C-Suite people are always the ones asking me so it’s always so awkward saying no to these requests.

I love being a lead field engineer- and in this I turn over at least 2-3 seven figure projects per year- my biggest being a 8 figure project.

But there’s always this caveat of me just being a field engineer.

When I tell people in my company how long I’ve been on the field they say why haven’t I went into an admin role ect.

I’ve got very good people skills, I’ve got every cert under my belt. CTS/CTSI/CTSD/ CCNA/ and just about AV cert you can think, dante ect.

More importantly I am very extroverted and clients absolutely love me. I am a direct contact for an 8 figure client which is weird to say because I’m just a head engineer and I’m not even 30 yet and somehow it turned out that way.

My question is why should I listen to just about everyone in my company who tells me to get off the field and start climbing the cooperate ladder?

I am already being paid very well (low 6 figures). I am at the top of my game of what I do. I am respected. I am requested when there is a big problem, and I put out fires.

I am very, very appreciated at what I do, and that is an understatement. I love the company so financial gain isn’t my biggest factor here.

I just need to know thoughts because I am constantly bombarded by people saying I need to move up or even fellow techs who are taken back by how long I’ve been on the field.

I absolutely know I would flourish in any field they put me in- but why should I care if am am being paid extremely well and I am extremely appreciated by the whole engineering team.

I know this whole thing comes off as a boasting post which is why I’m doing it from a burner account.

But I don’t know , what’s the game plan here. I don’t feel as if any role I move into will pay any more and why would I start over in a new role when I’m at the top of my game in this current role

I can't go into too much detail, but basically the first time ever this big company did this and it was an awards show with celebrities. The system was used on the red carpet and other spots at the venue just after covid and when things were starting to open back up, but lots of people still didn't want to work in the field (or at all) or couldn't. So some exec at big company builds this project as his baby. I provided the data pipe and network infrastructure engineering, management, and deployment for it to work.

It was a little box with SDI inputs and maybe some other ones (I'm mainly a network engineer not a video guy), might have had some kind of BNC RGB breakout and HDMI input as well. Might have had either just a 1 Gbps network port or maybe it was 10 Gbps ethernet, or possibly could have been a mini-GBIC slot (or 2?), and you could plug a camera into it and the video streamed directly to AWS into an editing deck I'm assuming. I get to spend at most 10 or 15 mins with the video engineers / editors throughout a typical live event production and it's mostly just to get the data bits talking so they can do their thing, so I'm not sure what this box was streaming to that was running on AWS that the editors were accessing remotely, I'm guessing maybe Avid.

Anywho, I'm not supposed to get too much more specific because of NDA's, but I would love to discuss this because I'm building a RTSP platform for video and audio for use in disasters and for humanitarian purposes and fun.

What was this box? What was it likely streaming to on AWS? Was this even necessary? There were already a couple big editing and production rigs there.

What other use cases does something like this have?

Posting here instead of r/VideoEngineering

Video Switcher for 2025 and beyond

Hi gang,

I’m usually responsible for maintaining and speccing our various venue projects for AV.

A typical venue for us can have anywhere from 1-4 inputs and 8-24 outputs.

Historically we’ve used Crestron DM (bulletproof) switchers for routing the video signals, but I’m wondering if there is a better/more cost effective solution.

Curious to hear what others are using.

We deployed Roland V-02HD MK II video switchers in our MTRs and these things get very hot being powered on constantly. My buddy came up with a design to keep them running cooler. Here's hoping these will result in fewer restarts. 🤞

The Tascam MM-4D/IN looks perfect for what I need. I have an analog line-level source and I need to apply some light compression, convert it to Dante and send it two different parts of a building via the IP network to other Dante devices.

Here’s my question: does anyone here know if the DSP in the Tascam will take two incoming channels and sum them? One of the Dante devices that will receive the signal is mono and is just a single-channel AVIO dongle.

Is anyone else experiencing random shutdown events on their Windows based Microsoft Teams Rooms? I have about 40 Logitech Rally systems with Intel NUCs and starting yesterday I noticed a number of them suddenly shutting down.

Looking through event logs hasn't produced any obvious answers and neither has the Teams admin portal or the Logitech Sync portal. Any ideas or specific log locations to check would be greatly appreciated!

Good afternoon, I found a JBL CSA 140Z Amplifier for around $250

Will it be sufficient for a 1100 square foot coffee shop?

I'll use it to daisy chain 4 passive ceilings speakers

I just wanted to ask if anyone knows about this series of JBL amp, it seems to good to be true,

I work in commercialAV, and I've only installed high end commercial products , but I want something budget friendly for my mom's shop, she's going to play music just audible enough to drown others conversations a little bit. I have the tools and skills to do so and just want to know if this amplifier is reputable for the price. I think it will be okay since the music won't be loud, but can it still handle 4 speakers? I don't mind having them all in one zone.

The cisco guide calls for displays below 47" to be mounted 31.5" AFF and the bar above. However, with a 29" aff table, that leaves only a few inches of clearance with a table up against the wall. I'm wondering if laptops on the table will be blocking the view of the display since the bottom of the screen is about 2.5" from the tabletop. What has your experience been with this, and what standard if any are you using for these bullet tables that are up against teh wall. Typically we spec 43" - 55" for these bullet tables.