Ask the Programmer

Ask The Programmer Episode 229 - Guest Jeff Perkins Discusses the Value of Varied Training Paths

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Jeff Perkins, Q-SYS Control Curriculum Developer and Trainer, to share his perspective on how varied training paths are the best way to serve AV programmers, designers, and software developers.

Jeff Perkins previously appeared on episode 228 of Ask The Programmer.

Jeff Perkins can be found on X/Twitter at perkins_jeff, on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-perkins-cts-d-59659674/, and via email jeff.perkins@qsc.com.

Here are links to the resources Jeff mentioned: Control Quick Starts: https://training.qsc.com/course/view.php?id=178 Q-SYS Communities for Developers: https://developers.qsc.com/s/ QSC Training: https://training.qsc.com/qsys.php

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 228 - Guest Jeff Perkins shares his AV Journey and Approach to Training

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome guest Jeff Perkins, Q-SYS Control Curriculum Developer and Trainer, to share his AV journey and discuss his programmer-centric approach to training, as he has been in the shoes of a programmer for many years.

Jeff Perkins can be found on X/Twitter at perkins_jeff, on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-perkins-cts-d-59659674/, and via email jeff.perkins@qsc.com.

Here are links to the resources Jeff mentioned:

Control Quick Starts: https://training.qsc.com/course/view.php?id=178

Q-SYS Communities for Developers: https://developers.qsc.com/s/

QSC Training: https://training.qsc.com/qsys.php

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky, and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 227 - Guest Leon Prather Discusses Soft Skills and Human Interaction

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Leon Prather, an industry veteran and co-host of the brAVe Skills podcast, to discuss the importance of soft skills and how to work and interact with people.

Leon was previously on episode 226 of Ask The Programmer.

Leon Prather can be found at his website, leonprather.com, on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-prather-cts/, or on the brAVe Skills podcast at higheredav.com.

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky, and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 226 - Guest Leon Prather Shares His Journey and Discusses What is Simple

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome guest Leon Prather, an industry veteran and co-host of the brAVe Skills podcast, to share his AV journey and discuss what is simple.

Leon Prather can be found at his website, leonprather.com, on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/leon-prather-cts/, or on the brAVe Skills podcast at higheredav.com.

Leaon's article What is 'simple', anyway? can be found at https://www.leonprather.com/blog-2-1/what-is-simple.

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky, and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 225 - What do you wish more people understood about AV programming?

James King and Steve Greenblatt discuss what we wish more people understood about AV programming.

Here are some ideas that were discussed and debated:

- Saying one system is just like the other except for a few things is does not mean it is easy to program

- Programming involves much more than writing code

- Scope creep and ongoing changes ead to unexpected problems

- Programming is not as easy as good programmers make it look

- Not all control platforms are equal

– Just because you can master one, doesn’t mean you can master them all

What do you think?

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 224 - What's the Toughest Part of Being an AV Programmer?

James King and Steve Greenblatt discuss our thoughts on the toughest part of being an AV programmer.

Here were some ideas that were discussed and debated:

- Dealing with vague or changing requirements

- Getting blamed for things that aren’t code issues

- Not being included in the design process

- Explaining complex systems to non-technical clients

- Helping everyone else do their job so that programming can be verified

What are your thoughts?

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky, and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer. The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 223 - Guest Mike Krejci Talks about Version and Source Control

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Mike Krejci, Director of Programming for CTI, to discuss the importance of version control and source control for AV programming.

Mike's previous episodes are 222, 111, 34, and 35.

Here are some resources that Mike mentioned in the episode: https://git-scm.com

https://github.com

https://bitbucket.org

Mike can be reached on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/themikekrejci/, and CTI can be found at cti.com.

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode.222 - Guest Mike Kriejci Discusses Using C# Programming Language in AV

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Mike Krejci, Director of Programming for CTI, to discuss using C# as a programming language in AV. This episode was inspired by a request from  ⁨@jamesbond-lb7se⁩ from YouTube.

Mike's previous episodes are 111, 34, and 35.

Here are some of the resources Mike references for learning and leveraging C#:

https://www.youtube.com/@nickchapsas

https://www.youtube.com/@IAmTimCorey

https://coddy.tech/explore/tag/csharp

Mike can be reached on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/themikekrejci/, and CTI can be found at cti.com.

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 221 - How to debug a system if it works most of the time?

James King and Steve Greenblatt discuss a question from the mailbag about the best way to debug a system when it works "most of the time."

What tips can you share for other community members? What are some of your memorable stories?

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.

Ask The Programmer Episode 220 - Is It Worth Getting Certified, and Which Certifications Matter?

James King and Steve Greenblatt answer a question from the mailbag about the importance of getting certified and, if so, which certifications matter. This episode is recorded after InfoComm25.

Which certifications do you have that provide you value? What are some of your goals for certifications?

To join the conversation or have your question answered on a future episode, join the Ask The Programmer group on LinkedIn and post a message, leave a comment, or reach out to us @AV_JamesKing or @stevegreenblatt on X/Twitter or Bluesky and be sure to include #AskTheProgrammer.

The Ask The Programmer podcast can be found at @AVProgrammerPod on X/Twitter or on Bluesky as @asktheprogrammer.