If the pro audiovisual industry is to truly grab the attention of young professions curious about a career in tech, the industry needs to start thinking of AV as a STEAM career.
That’s according to Mike Pedersen, the audiovisual experience manager at Iowa State University who led speaking session on the tail end of the AVIXA All Council Meeting during InfoComm 2020 Connected.
STEAM builds on the STEM acronym – science, technology, engineering and math – by adding arts to create a comprehensive framework upon which to design curriculum in education of all levels.
Particularly in the U.S., entry level workers in each of those fields are in high demand as companies look at a short list of candidates to fill those empty positions. That’s especially true in the pro AV industry, which is in dire need of an injection of youth.
“STEAM is the best way to achieve that,” says Pederson, also the chair of AVIXA’s Technology Manager’s Council.
However, pro AV is not on the list of STEAM fields that educators teach, Pedersen says.
“I suspect that not many high school counselors are thinking of our industry when they’re talking to their students,” Pedersen says. “This is what I’d love to get changed.”
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To do that, the AV industry needs to start thinking internally and realize for pro AV fits into a STEAM education. To show how it does, Pedersen broke down each discipline and illustrated how AV is a combination of each.
- Science – Pro AV uses aspects of physics, biology and chemistry when designing, manufacturing and installing systems. Electromagnetism, acoustics, light polarization, human senses materials are all sciences that are used in pro AV.
- Technology – Every component of pro AV is technology, which is defined as applying scientific knowledge for practical purposes. It’s one of the primary tools the AV industry uses to create unique experiences for people.
- Engineering – Every piece of technology we use was engineered by someone, and the AV industry takes it a step further. It’s everywhere within AV, including manufacturing, integration and consulting. Any technical drawing or line wiring diagram is engineering.
- Arts – A growing trend is to include an element of creativity in STEM, thus the addition of arts. In AV, that includes things like live events, projection mapping and digital art exhibits. Since a major component of AV is the design and installation of audio equipment, AV is inherently artistic.
- Math – I personally didn’t realize it, but math is used extensively throughout the industry. Geometry is used for projection layout, speaker coverage and sight lines, while logarithms are used frequently in audio.
Using that knowledge of how AV can fit into a STEAM education, the AV industry needs to do a better job of reaching out to local schools, colleges and universities of all levels, Pedersen says.
While local schools and career fairs are the best way to start partnering with educators, there are also national organizations like Project Lead the Way and FIRST that help prepare students for the workforce by exposing them to STEM fields.
Pederson also suggested offering externships to both students and teachers so they can knowledge of the pro AV industry back to the classroom.
And of course, promoting AV as a STEAM education on social media will help connect the industry to that desired demographic.
“We need to be strongly promoting AV as an industry and as a valued, viable career for those in the next generation,” Pedersen says.
