Recorded July 17, 2026
In Part 2 of our conversation about building an internal AV integration team, the panel turns from the organizational obstacles to the practical question: how do you actually justify, staff, and scale the operation?
We dig into translating outsourced labor costs into FTE requests, documenting hidden workloads, using dashboards and project data to make the case to leadership, and allowing a little strategic failure to expose where the existing team has reached its limits. The discussion also explores whether the next hire should be another technician or someone higher in the stack, such as a project manager, field supervisor, designer, or other knowledge-focused role.
Along the way, we consider how student employees can free up full-time staff, why “internship” may be a better recruiting pitch than “student worker,” how good integrators can complement rather than replace an internal team, and why every staffing plan needs to be ready before a stray FTE or pile of magical, mystical money suddenly appears.
Connect with Tim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timdickson0ctsd/ (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
▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀
►Website: (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbGtZbEhIN3VROENWZGxiZjlKaUpQc2Q0YWtEd3xBQ3Jtc0ttcFZ1ZjBqQjVuOXgyTTREZ21tU1ZPdWpOeG9qb0lPaGlPSHJKTFRZdWFXWXZ5TTFMRENsWUsyeHFxY3NJSEdHSXkzZ25RSWRFU1hTTlFVY0NYT25IdlBmNXNSRkhSLTNFOHVJbW1zVWtkYUJGRmxPYw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fobdmpod.com%2F&v=pOS2b_raTIw)https://www.avsuperfriends.com (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/)
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends (https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends)
►LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends (https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends)
►YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends (https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends)
►Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social)
►Email: mailbag@avsuperfriends.com
►RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss (https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss)
Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support)
1 Aug 2026
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/ (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
▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀
► Website: (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbGtZbEhIN3VROENWZGxiZjlKaUpQc2Q0YWtEd3xBQ3Jtc0ttcFZ1ZjBqQjVuOXgyTTREZ21tU1ZPdWpOeG9qb0lPaGlPSHJKTFRZdWFXWXZ5TTFMRENsWUsyeHFxY3NJSEdHSXkzZ25RSWRFU1hTTlFVY0NYT25IdlBmNXNSRkhSLTNFOHVJbW1zVWtkYUJGRmxPYw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fobdmpod.com%2F&v=pOS2b_raTIw)https://www.avsuperfriends.com (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/)
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends (https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends)
► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends (https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends)
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends (https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends)
► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social)
► Email: mailbag@avsuperfriends.com
► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss (https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss)
Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support)
15 Jul 2026
74: You're Not Allowed to Tell This Story
Recorded June 26, 2026
Freshly returned from the show floor at InfoComm 2026, the AV SuperFriends gather for a full-length roundtable on trade show regrets: the booths they missed, the sessions they skipped, the demos they should have recorded, and the party they may never emotionally recover from missing.
This episode wanders through the aftermath of a massive conference week, including arguments over who should really be explaining AI to the AV industry, what happens when AVIXA TV is more networked than expected, why show-floor “hidden gems” are still somehow hidden behind the wrong booth wall, and how even seasoned attendees can come home realizing they saw only a tiny slice of the show. Along the way, the crew revisits booth tour challenges, suspicious conference sandwiches, tote bag logistics, USB-C mysteries, browser-based control, over-caffeinated presentations, and the now-legendary Panasonic dinner brownies.
It’s part InfoComm recap, part confessional, and part warning label for anyone who thinks they can actually see everything at a trade show.
Alternate show titles:
It was a wet wrap
Back door Uber ride
Cold air blowing on your butt
The brownies… like popcorn!
Another Larry-free Friday
Just a conference center with a bunch of tech
That little bit of confidence was shattered
Y’all got chili dogs?
Just buy the damn meat
We stream live every Friday at about 315p Eastern/1215p Pacific and you can listen to everything we record over at AVSuperFriends.com
▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀►
Website: (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbGtZbEhIN3VROENWZGxiZjlKaUpQc2Q0YWtEd3xBQ3Jtc0ttcFZ1ZjBqQjVuOXgyTTREZ21tU1ZPdWpOeG9qb0lPaGlPSHJKTFRZdWFXWXZ5TTFMRENsWUsyeHFxY3NJSEdHSXkzZ25RSWRFU1hTTlFVY0NYT25IdlBmNXNSRkhSLTNFOHVJbW1zVWtkYUJGRmxPYw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fobdmpod.com%2F&v=pOS2b_raTIw)https://www.avsuperfriends.com (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/)
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends (https://twitter.com/avsuperfriends)
► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends (https://www.linkedin.com/company/avsuperfriends)
► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends (https://www.youtube.com/@avsuperfriends)
► Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/avsuperfriends.bsky.social)
► Email: mailbag@avsuperfriends.com
► RSS: https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss (https://avsuperfriends.libsyn.com/rss)
Donate to AVSF: https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support (https://www.avsuperfriends.com/support)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
12,995
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 42 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
27
Social presence
0
YouTube
72
Engagement
68
Contact AV SuperFriends: On Topic
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of AV SuperFriends: On Topic?
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