30 question AV challenge

30questionav challenge With Liam Winter, Head of LED at PSCo

1What was the last in-person AV event you attended? The ARRI Open Day at their Virtual Production studio in Uxbridge. There was a demo on the future of filmmaking using a huge immersive LED volume to replace traditional green screen. Incredibly exciting stuff!

2

Share your favourite charity or volunteer opportunity. We’ve recently set up a new social committee for Innovation House that I’m lucky to be a part of. It aims to grow our fundraising, both for national causes and local charities around Bracknell.

3What’s your favourite AV logo? I like the branding piece that our Head of Brand and Marketing Alex Couzins 4 developed for Innovation House. He did a great job in capturing a fresh mix of ‘a new home for our partners’ with a ‘new tech innovation’ vibe. Share your biggest WFH fail… or win The best thing for me about WFH is being able to walk my kids to school, especially on sunny mornings. Although they may have interrupted a few meetings when they get back in the afternoon…

5

Are you team dog/team cat/ team lizard? My cousin is a zoologist and gave us the chance to take on a couple of crested geckos for the kids. It wasn’t until I’d installed a massive bioactive vivarium that I realised they really do sleep all day. Plus they live over 10 years. Not my best pet selection!

7

What do you run on, coffee, pizza, fumes, or tea? Pints of tea. Literally, pint size tankards, 3 bags. 60/40 tea to milk ratio.

6

What is your current role in AV? Head of LED for PSCo. We’re a team within Midwich based at Innovation House that specialise in supporting our customers with LED videowall display and image processing technologies.

8

Do you prefer working from home or working from the office? I generally prefer the office. I’m lucky to have a busy AV tech playground as my workspace.

9What’s the hardest part about working virtually for you? I used to find myself answering calls when I was really busy, due to some misplaced feeling that I need to prove I am working. Luckily, I’ve learned how to have boundaries at home and find a better balance.

11 Where do you find your AV news? Probably the usual like AV Mag, InAVate, LinkedIn etc. I also really like some of the display focused tech articles on DisplayDaily.

13

What do you like more, regional, or large trade shows? Honestly, both!

15

How did you start in AV? My dad worked for a small business called the Plasma Screen Company and I got a job in their warehouse.

17

What is your most memorable moment at an AV event? Samsung launching their MicroLED platform “The Wall” at ISE in 2019. This was the first time I’d seen MicroLED shift from display manufacturers showcasing working prototypes to a commercially viable mature mass production format. MicroLED is the future of display tech, set to supersede LCD and OLED, so it felt like a pivotal moment. 10 What’s the easiest part about working virtually for you? I like being able to jump on calls with people that would be difficult to physically get around a table all at once.

12 Who is another AV ‘influencer’ that people should know of and be following? I really enjoy following Michael McKenna, CEO of FinalPixel on LinkedIn as these guys are doing some super cool things in virtual production and xR applications.

14

If you weren’t in AV, what would you be doing instead? Perhaps if I knew the answer to this question, I wouldn’t have found my way into AV!

16

What has been your best moment, since you’ve joined AV? We’re currently working with a partner, Jigsaw24, on a new virtual production studio. Later this year Film Soho will open V Studios. I am so excited to see Film Soho producing movies at V Studios and to be a very small part some movie magic!

18

Recommend one training course that you found valuable? We recently hosted a training course for UK LED processing manufacturer Brompton at Innovation House. It was a really valuable and inciteful course, especially as we move into a new era of virtual production and xR applications where LED on camera applications are seeing explosive growth.

19 What would be your AV superhero name? PixelMan…?

21 Yay or nay: metaverse? Yay!

23 What is your favourite AV podcast? Honestly, I do not listen to podcasts. This question makes me think that maybe I should…

25 What’s the weirdest term or expression you have heard in AV? There is a technical term COB, an acronym for Chip-on-board, which is part of the manufacturing process for some MicroLED videowall displays.

27 What was the first piece of AV you geeked out about? When I first started work for PSCo in the early 00’s I found some stock of a Fujitsu 21” plasma screen. It was super slim compared to CRT TVs at the time but would look prehistoric now.

29

What’s your VC platform of choice? 30 What’s one thing on your desk set-up that you wouldn’t be able to live without?

Microsoft Teams or Zoom. 20 How do you explain (in one sentence) what you do for a living to your family? The easiest way I have found with my kids (4yrs and 6yrs) is to simply say that daddy sells “big TVs”.

22 I chose AV as I love tech, Why did you choose a career in AV, or did AV choose you? particularly display tech. I still feel there is no better industry than AV for this.

24

What note or piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

Get on the property ladder as fast as you can.

26 What do you consider the holy grail of installations? One day when we have people living on Mars, I’d love to have some involvement in the first installation of a big video display in space.

28 Is there one feature that you’ve seen on a product that you thought was amazing? I absolutely love the ‘set extension’ feature on the disguise xR platform that lets you infinitely expand the virtual world around people presenting on a LED stage.

USB-C enabled displays. I love being able to quickly connect one cable and be up and running with my desktop setup in seconds.