New Technology – Encouraging words from Bill Sellers

By Bill Sellers

Challenges are nothing new. Bill Sellers urges us to embrace the new technology and take more training so we can use it for our gain.

Brenda and Pat,
First of all, Merry Christmas to you both!

Now on to the serious business…
Your letter brought forward several key points about the recent past and the future.  The challenges that we face are no greater or less than many of the mountains that we all climbed in the past.  Presentation quality audio designed for the venue and executed by professionals who understand the physics involved is needed just as much now as it was in the past.

Photo from medival timesWe are all involved in a further evolution of our environment.  Just as tube amplifiers and lead soldered directional horns were once regarded as the state of the art, we now see steerable arrays flown with signal processing amplifiers mounted in the cabinets.  Input and output signals are driven over fiber and Ethernet, processed on digital consoles or even on laptop computers.  Nothing is the same, everything has changed… or has it?

We are as challenged today as societies have been since the first language carried the first story from man to man.  Reproducing or reinforcing the original performance is what we are about.  Story tellers evolved to scribes and Gutenberg reproduced the written words for distribution to the masses.  Societies have evolved and grown as communication skills have improved.  We have witnessed and are living in an age so modified by packet switched data… a concept that would seem as foreign as Gutenberg and his press would seem to the first tool wielding story telling Homo Sapiens.

The challenge to us all is to step up to the evolution.  Rather than decrease our training and our understanding of new technologies we must charge forward.  Embrace technology.  Use technology to improve education.  In these times we must train smarter, work to understand more and redefine our stake in the Audio/Video realm.  Leverage technology to save money, learn more and share the knowledge that you gather.

Imagine how the first ‘word’ publisher must have regarded the first ‘picture’ book.  It is time to step up.  Video systems without audio?  Of course not.  High end video with high end audio?  Absolutely if we educate and communicate.  If your company isn’t a player in the video realm, form a partnership with someone who is…  study learn and become.  That is the root of evolution.  Carve your own niche.  Video might not be a part of everyone’s business plan, but then again high end audio might not be a part of every video presentation company’s plan either.

You can’t build a case for high quality audio without education and training.  Train yourself, train your clients.  Allow everyone to see the difference between what can be done versus what is usually done.  It’s the difference between an architecturally designed home and a plan book home.  Both may be nice but one stands out over time for the functionality and space use.  It’s the difference between Frank Lloyd Wright and Abraham Levitt.

New Technology - Photo showing Ideas

Troubling times or growing pains?  Change, the only constant defines evolution.

Thank you so much for the training that you provided to me so many years ago here in Peoria.  I value and have built upon the knowledge that you and Pat shared with me.  Without the understanding of the applied physics that you so ably provide my career would not be as rich.

In this holiday season we are often reminded of our blessings, and I am blessed to know you and Pat.  Merry Christmas.  May you be well and prosperous in the new year!

Best Regards,

Bill Sellers

Thompson Electronics Company
905 South Bosch Road
Peoria, Illinois 61607