75: Some of This Sounds Like A Spreadsheet Problem
AV SuperFriends: On Topic1 Elo

75: Some of This Sounds Like A Spreadsheet Problem

Recorded July 17, 2026

Building an internal AV integration team sounds simple enough: hire a few people, buy some tools, and stop paying an outside integrator to discover that the display was unplugged. In reality, it means navigating staffing models, capital projects, facilities partnerships, student labor, service agreements, institutional funding, and the mysterious process by which everyone agrees an idea is excellent while still refusing to provide an FTE.

Special guest Tim Dickson joins to discuss Clemson’s effort to expand its internal AV capabilities while supporting more than 300 classrooms with a very small team. The panel digs into which skills should remain in-house, where outside labor still makes sense, how to justify positions through savings and recurring service work, and how existing staff can grow into programming, design, field supervision, and other specialized roles.

Note that this is Part 1 of 2 because the show is allegedly a 30-minute monthly roundtable, but no one involved appears capable of stopping at 30 minutes, or stopping at all. Part 2 will continue the conversation with no meaningful evidence that anyone learned from the experience.

Connect with Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdickson0ctsd/

Alternate show titles:
  • A design apprentice, so to speak
  • Don’t bring up your dirty math!
  • Support Plus
  • I could save them $100,000 a year
  • I’m going to tag onto Marc and then change
  • I can take care of you and you can take care of me
  • The AV consultant doesn’t know how we do it on campus
  • Just like a consultant would…
  • That’s not the way levers are pulled
  • Which isn’t a service we actually offer… but it’s a service we offer
  • This was actually a good show
  • It’s not like math…

We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com

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