AVIXA Faculty

Benya Lighting Design

As a teacher of lighting design and applications, Jim Benya, PE, FIES, IALD, LC, is one of the world's best. He started teaching lighting in 1974 and in 40 years has become recognized worldwide as a clear communicator, practical environmentalist and passionate designer. He is a certified AIA professional development education provider, a certified ASID/IIDA interior design continuing education provider, and one of the top public speakers in the field. A former adjunct professor of architecture and design at California College of Art, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan and Lawrence Institute of Technology, he has taught more than 400 CEU programs, 300 college classes, and given more than 200 speeches about lighting at LightFair, NeoCon, Designers Saturday and other gatherings of the trade.

Benya is also an accomplished photographer and widely published in the field of architecture and interior design. In 1994, he started teaching a basic class in photography for architects, interior designers and lighting designers that has become one of his most popular.

He has been an AVIXA Instructor since 1998.

Brawn Consulting

Alan C. Brawn is a principal of Brawn Consulting, an audiovisual and digital signage consulting, educational development and market intelligence firm with national exposure to major manufacturers, distributors and integrators. Brawn was previously President of Telanetix and National Business Development and Product Marketing Director for Samsung Electronics.

An AV industry veteran with 30 years’ experience, Brawn was one of the founding members of Hughes-JVC. He is a recognized author for leading AV industry magazines such as Systems Contractor News, Digital Signage Magazine and AV Technology.

Brawn is a member of the Imaging Science Foundation and Managing Director of ISF Commercial. He is CTS® certified, on the Senior Faculty of AVIXA and as moderator of the ANSI Projected Images Task Group, created a new contrast standard for the industry.

He is a member of the International Commission on Display Metrology for the Society of Information Display. Once a chairman of the Digital Signage Foundation, Brawn continues to develop the groundwork for certifying professionals as a Director of the Digital Signage Experts Group.

Brawn was awarded the coveted AVIXA Volunteer of the Year Award for 2011 and Hall of Fame recognition from rAVe in 2004.

Technical Advisor, AVIXA

Greg Bronson, CTS-D, is currently a Technical Advisor for AVIXA’s Learning Department. Prior to joining AVIXA staff, Greg provided technical support of AV/IT technologies for higher education in both private and public university settings. Greg has worked as technician, service manager and system designer/project manager over a 30+ year career in AV. He is also a long time volunteer and SME with AVIXA including leadership roles within it’s standards, education and committees/councils programs.

CEO, IAS Technologies

With a bachelor’s degree in Audio Arts and Acoustics from Columbia College and 11 Years in the audiovisual industry in sales engineering and design engineering, Jeremy Caldera is CEO of IAS Technology in Peoria, Illinois. He specializes in AV design for higher education, medical simulation, command and control centers, conference and training rooms, and any other facility with AV systems or needs. Jeremy is part of the elite group of dual certification CTS®-D and CTS®-I holders.

Along with instructing for AVIXA, Jeremy currently assists with curriculum development and is an instructor in the Audio Arts and Acoustics department at Columbia College in Chicago teaching Audiovisual System Design. Jeremy is also a part of the AVIXA faculty teaching CTS Prep. He spends free time being involved with AVIXA committees, doing professional voice over work, with his two children and competition shooting and golfing.

Owner, Campanella Associates, LLC

John V. Campanella, CTS®-D, is President/CEO of Campanella Associates, LLC. Campanella was one of the first recipients of the CTS-D designation. He has been designing systems for more than 23 years and has completed more than 2,500 projects. His career spans four disciplines of the AV industry. Starting in 1981 with Blonder Tongue, he helped engineer and oversee manufacturing of some of the first pay-per-view systems equipment. In 1984, he joined Smith-Meeker Engineering and was involved in the design and integration of AV systems for FORTUNE 100® companies. Campanella joined Shen Milsom & Wilke in 1986 as head of the newly formed company's audiovisual design consulting department. In 1997 he formed MDCI, a company that provides design engineering and control system software for corporations, educational facilities and residential projects. Campanella is an AVIXA Academy Senior Faculty member. He is actively involved in CTS-D certification development and the creation and delivery of AVIXA's design curriculum.

Global Business Development Manager AV Integration Market, Cisco

His background in the AV industry includes many years as a systems sales specialist for Pro Line Video in Austin, TX, and VP of Sales for Technical Industries in Atlanta. Both were systems integrator/dealers. He has also worked for Panasonic BTSC, Faroudja Laboratories and ASPI Digital in sales, marketing and management capacities.

Depperschmidt served many years as AVIXA's Professional Education and Training Committee's (PETC's) InfoComm Conference Subcommittee Chair, where he implemented the "Super Tuesday" programs and facilitated its Technology Trends program and has been instrumental in expanding the program to more than 9,500 registrations in 2009.

Consultant, K2

Gain (yes, that is his real name) has worked for 20+ years in the audio/visual industry. His duties have ranged from basic install, service and programming of A/V systems to the management of multi-million dollar integrated systems. Gain has recently defected from the Integration side of the A/V industry and is now a consultant for K2 Audio.

A/V Division Manager, Network Cabling Services

Mike is the A/V Division Manager for NCS in Houston, TX. He has been involved in the AV industry for over 20 years. He first started as a live sound engineer in the music industry then moved into the commercial AV world. Mike worked as an Installer, Project Manager, Design Engineer, and Technical Operations Director prior to joining NCS. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee as a Music Business major with an emphasis in Audio Engineering. He also earned his CTS-D and CTS-I certifications through InfoComm International, and his CQD and CQT certifications through AQAV. Mike has been an AVIXA university faculty member for the last 9 years, has also served on numerous industry committees, and written articles for Industry publications.

Director of Training, Middle Atlantic Products, Inc.

Max Kopsho has 28 years of in-depth experience with AV systems, computers, computer networks, network security, telecom, videoconferencing and collaborative systems. He holds advanced certifications in project management, networking, network security, operational excellence, QA/QC and audiovisual design and installation. He has achieved a great deal of success in network security, technology channel sales and channel/market development. He has been a Senior Faculty member for AVIXA for over a decade and was the 2010 Educator of the Year.

Kopsho has developed and executed comprehensive global training programs for industry associations, channel partners and technology manufacturers. His experience in unified communications includes video conference and collaborative environment design for global enterprises, development, training and implementation.

He served in the U.S. Army for 10 years where he gained his initial experience in computer/electronics technology and worked with complex computer networks, advanced radar systems, specialized electronics, and thermal and night vision imaging devices. Kopsho is also the author of The Art and Science of Da Vinci Sales—The Seven Keys to Selling Like Leonardo, which outlines the keys to selling technology in today’s marketplace.

VP of Technical Operations

Travis Lisk, CTS®-I, is Vice President of Technical Operations for Advanced AV Systems Integration in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Since starting with Advanced AV in 1988, Lisk has held many diverse positions with the firm — from Installation Technician when he was installing systems, to Engineering Manager, when he was responsible for the oversight of the day-to-day operations of the engineering department and quality assurance program at the firm. Prior to joining Advanced AV, Lisk was the Director of Instructional Technology Support at Eastern University in St Davids, Pennsylvania. He is has been instrumental in the continuing development of AVIXA's installation courses and handbooks.

CEO, Audio Visual Resources, Inc.

Mario J. Maltese, CTS®-D, CTS-I, is CEO of Audio Visual Resources, Inc., an ISO 9001:2008 registered company. Maltese has been in the industry for more than 41 years, with extensive experience in AV systems design and installation, as well as the leadership and management of the engineered systems integration business. Awarded AVIXA’s Educator of the Year in 2004 and the Fred Dixon Service in Education Award in 2010, he holds an MEE (Electrophysics) and a BEE (Microwave Engineering). He is a Senior Faculty member at AVIXA, and is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Maltese formerly served on the AVIXA Professional Education and Training Committee as the Chairperson for Curriculum, and he currently participates on the AVIXA Certification Committee. He is the author of “AV 9000: Defining Quality in Engineered Audio Visual Systems” and holds an Amateur Extra Class FCC license.

President, Audio Visual Resources, Inc.

James E. Maltese, CTS®-D, CTS-I, is President of Audio Visual Resources, Inc., of Williston Park, NY. He has received his MSME from Stanford University, and his BSME from the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). He has been in the AV industry for more than 12 years. He is an AVIXA Faculty Member, and has instructed for several Institute for Professional Development (IPD) design courses at InfoComm trade shows.

His undergraduate education focused on management, manufacturing and presentations, while he pursued a more design-oriented program in his master's curriculum. He has worked his way through the ranks as an AV technician, assembling as well as installing. As Project Engineer (Project Manager/Engineer), he has led very successful and profitable projects in the high pressure, high profile financial markets, from design to integration to completion. Maltese has consistently managed his projects at a high level of efficiency, effectively completing his projects at a fraction of the estimated time.

Vice President, Sales, Lectrosonics, Inc.

Gordon Moore, CTS®, is Vice President at Lectrosonics. Selected Educator of the Year 2000 by AVIXA, Moore has been active as an instructor for AVIXA since 1991. He is a Senior Faculty member for AVIXA University and a member of PETC.

"I started teaching for AVIXA in 1991 when I was invited to teach short segments on audio for Fred Dixon and Scott Sharer at the summer IPD. The 'A' in AV was not getting a lot of training exposure and I found it very rewarding to work with the AVIXA crew developing audio course materials. The effort really took off in later years and soon I was teaching IPD classes and University sections. By 2000, I was teaching 20 days per year.

"Today's staff at AVIXA are among the most dedicated adult teaching professionals I have ever met. The programs and the value of the CTS certifications have come such a long way since 1991. I'm really honored to be invited again to continue teaching in this interesting and exciting industry."

InfoZe

Principal, Biamp Systems

L. William Nattress III, CTS®-D, CTS-I, worked in the audiovisual industry for 15 years before joining Shen Milsom & Wilke in 1999. He began his career as an electrician while studying electrical engineering at Northern Illinois University. He is well known throughout the professional audiovisual industry, and has more than 30 years of project management experience in the design, engineering, installation and integration of audio, video, conferencing and control systems. As an Associate Principal at SM&W, he was responsible for developing and maintaining client relationships, maintaining project deliverable schedules, quality control of deliverable documents and drawings, and ensuring that the project's established budget is maintained. His experience in control system design and programming was used as the foundation for his authoring of the chapter on remote controls systems in the book Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design: Revised Edition.

Nattress has been recognized by the industry for a number of his facility designs along with assisting many manufacturers in designing and improving system integration products and applications. His extensive "hands on" project experience and interest in his profession have fostered practical and creative approaches for audiovisual systems. Nattress developed the technology concept that lead to construction of Chicago's Millennium Park Video Fountains using LED video wall technology in a true waterfall environment. This project was awarded first place honors by ARCHI-TECH Magazine in 2005 for its design excellence.

A member of AVIXA’s Professional Education and Training Committee (PETC) since 1999, he has served as chair of the certification subcommittee from 2003-2005 and PETC chair from 2006-2008. He is a senior faculty member for AVIXA. He has taught several sessions of AVIXA's design track courses and presented at InfoComm trade shows both in North America and abroad. He played a key leadership role in the technical research and editing of AVIXA's power and grounding curriculum. He was awarded AVIXA's Educator of the Year in 2009.

ROAM Consulting LLC

Peter H. Putman, CTS®, ISF, is President of ROAM Consulting LLC in Doylestown, PA. He provides consulting, training and product testing/development services to manufacturers of electronic displays, interfaces and digital TV and video equipment. In addition, he edits and publishes HDTVexpert.com, a website focused on digital TV, HDTV and display technologies.

Putman has written extensively on HDTV and display technology for numerous consumer and trade magazines, and is a frequent speaker at major trade shows and technical conferences, including the Consumer Electronics Show, the National Association of Broadcasters trade show, the Hollywood Post Alliance Technology Retreat, and the U.S.-based InfoComm International trade show. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Seton Hall University and a Master of Science degree in Television and Film from Syracuse University.

Putman is a member of AVIXA faculty, as well as a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and Society for Information Display (SID). He also holds certifications from AVIXA(CTS) and the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), and has held Amateur Radio Extra Class license KT2B since 1982. He received the Educator of the Year Award at InfoComm 2008.

AV Systems Designer, Western Kentucky University

Justin holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Information Systems, a Master's Degree in Facility Design/Sports Administration and is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Homeland Security Sciences. Justin has worked at Western Kentucky University for 10 years and is the owner of an AV consulting firm. Justin has served on several AVIXA committees and task forces including PETC, Networked AV Systems, and the AV Implementation Handbook task force. Justin also has presented at UBTech12 on Project Design and Management.

Founding Partner, Navigate Management Consulting

Bill Sharer, CTS®, has more than 25 years of AVIXA seminar, workshop and Institute for Professional Development (IPD) course design and leadership. As a founding partner at Navigate Management Consulting, he’s a seasoned consultant to the communications industry in marketing, management, sales and human resources. He was AVIXA Educator of the Year in 2003 and currently serves as President of Exxel Management & Marketing Corp. in Lambertville, NJ.

Executive Team Member, Sound Control Technologies

Currently employed by Sound Control Technologies, Jim Smith, CTS-D®, has been involved in the design and integration of innovative electronic systems for more than 25 years. His experience includes design of audio system electronics, telephone interfaces, cameras and other subsystems while at PictureTel. He was heavily involved in the development of Certified Videoconferencing Engineer testing and certification programs at both PictureTel and Polycom. Prior to the communications industry, Smith was involved in the design and development of advanced electronics for military laser and smart-weapons systems.

He has been published in the AVIXA reissue of the Wadsworth classic The Basics of Audio and Visual Systems Design, The BICSI System Integration Handbook, and was awarded full faculty status by AVIXA. He is frequently called upon as a consultant in the use and applications of conferencing technology by companies around the world.

Training Manager, tvONE Ltd

Paul Streffon, MBA, CTS®-D, CTS-I, tvONE Ltd is a Senior Staff Instructor for AVIXA. With more than 25 years in the industry, Streffon has worked in many audiovisual areas: production, technical, sales and marketing, management and education. He was the national sales manager for Digital Processing Systems, a regional supervisor for Sony Electronics, and director of sales for JAVS. Streffon holds an MBA, a BS in Broadcast Electronics and an FCC General license. He is an AV volunteer for his local church community.

Principal Consultant, Thorburn Associates, Inc.

Steven J. Thorburn enjoys helping others understand the principles of acoustics and audiovisual technology. His dual degrees in electrical engineering and technical theater give him a balanced left brain/right brain approach to project solutions. As a founding principal of Thorburn Associates, he is a licensed engineer with 20+ years' experience in the architectural application of acoustic and audiovisual technology. Educator of the Year, two AVIXA Facility Design awards, noted author and teacher, and experience on more than 2,000 different projects round out his professional career.

"I like teaching because I enjoy helping others understand the principles of acoustics and audiovisual technology. Teaching is not about filling people’s heads with facts; it’s about learning new ways to think about fundamental principles. In that sense, I get as much out of teaching as the students."

D'Angelo and Associates, Inc.

Justin Watts, CTS has spent more than 15 years in AV related endeavors ranging from staging and live production to IT centric collaboration related technologies. He has spent the last 10 years working in the oil and gas industry with a focus on collaborative technologies and the advancement of ultra HD imaging and display technologies.

Starting in 2012 Justin began working for the Apache Corporation as the Global IT/AV Program Manager with key deliverables supporting over 400 conference rooms globally and a number of mission critical operations spaces. In this role he advocated heavily for the consolidation A/V technologies into a core company discipline resulting in a standardized role in design and delivery globally. Justin has a strong passion for the science and art form of AV execution within the IT realm and works regularly with his peers in his local industry to foster this developmental process.

Technical Applications Manager, Lutron Electronics Co., Inc.

Jim Yorgey, PE, CTS®, LC, has been employed by Lutron since 1970, working in quality control, engineering, marketing and sales. He is currently Technical Applications Manager Professional Audiovisual (ProAV) Channel providing lighting, lighting control and window treatment products and support. Yorgey holds memberships in IEEE, IESNA and AVIXA and is currently chair of the NLB (National Lighting Bureau). He has served committees of the IESNA, including the Multimedia and Videoconference Lighting, Energy Management, Progress and Residence Lighting committees. He is also a member of the ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1 Project Committee, Energy Efficient Design of New Buildings. Yorgey has a Bachelor Degree of Engineering Technology from Penn State University, is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Pennsylvania and has obtained his lighting certification (LC). He is a faculty member at Parsons School of Architecture and AVIXA.

Enterprise Solutions Manager, Harman Professional

Paul Zielie, CTS®-D, CTS®-I is a multi-disciplined generalist with more than 30 years of experience designing and integrating IT, telecommunications and audiovisual (AV) solutions. He is a prolific writer and speaker and is the recipient of the 2015 AVIXA Educator of the year.

His varied specialties include: Solutions architecture, video transport over telecommunications networks, IT security accreditation and mitigation (especially US DoD), network protocols and standards, design for scalability, design for security, design for maintainability, technical documentation and technical education.

Currently Zielie is the Manager of Enterprise Solutions for Harman Professional, a leading manufacturer of control and automation, system-wide switching and audio/video signal distribution, as well as digital signage and technology management. His primary responsibilities are solving the integration issues of enterprise wide AV integration including, security, scalability and maintainability.