We understand that Audio Visual (AV) services continue to be a pain point for many units. The good news is Engineering IT has been able to fill long-vacant AV staff positions and AV support has much improved. We will be launching a search in the coming weeks for one more AV Specialist to increase our capacity for support and projects.
The bad news is that due to industry-wide shortages and unprecedented nationwide demand for AV upgrades in the wake of the pandemic, we continue to experience long wait times for new constructions and room upgrade projects.
AV Support
We have been very active in supporting existing classrooms and conference rooms. In the last year, our AV team closed over 830 AV support tickets versus the 443 tickets in 2021. Improved staff has enabled proactive room checks and faster response to support requests.
AV Projects
We have also been actively working on projects this past fall and we expect the pace to increase as hardware becomes more available. You can view the current list of active and pending AV projects on the new AV Projects List we recently launched on our website.
Now that we have filled most of our technical vacancies, we recognize project coordination is the next area of critical need. An active search is underway for a new AV Coordinator role that will focus on capacity planning, coordination with vendors, tracking of active projects, and communication with unit stakeholders around AV projects.
How You Can Help
We encourage units with active projects to be as responsive as possible to proposals, quotes, and inquiries so that orders can be submitted as early as possible. We also encourage units with active AV projects to keep your unit stakeholders updated on the status of your projects so faculty and staff know what to expect in their classrooms and conference rooms. We have been fielding many inquiries about rooms put on hold at the request of the unit requester due to resources and alternative priorities.
We thank you for your continued patience and support as we continue to rebuild the AV services. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to the AV team at engrit-help@illinois.edu.