Chris Kelly (Creighton University, Interim Manager for Learning Environments) recaps the HETMA Roadshow held August 7 at the University at Buffalo, which drew about 70 higher ed attendees and 25 sponsors. UB CIO Heath Tuttle opened with a keynote on staying curious and investing in people, Viktoria Porter presented on standardizing programming across roughly 200 classrooms, and Rebecca Rotundo covered campus space auditing and utilization analysis, alongside tours of the esports facility and behind-the-scenes classroom support operations. Kelly's takeaway: good documentation and standardization turn one-off room projects into repeatable processes, and the relationships built along the way matter more than the technology itself.

Dustin Myers breaks down multicast networking without leading with jargon, explaining how a single encoder stream can reach many displays because network switches - not the encoder - create copies only where an active subscriber (via IGMP snooping and querier processes) is requesting the content. The piece is aimed at demystifying a concept that underlies most AVoIP deployments on campus. It's a solid primer for anyone supporting or troubleshooting converged AV networks.

Sabastian Kwantreng, Classroom & Desktop Support Wage Coordinator at George Mason University, describes moving from GMU's IT Help Desk into AV support and being encouraged by colleague Brooke Paige to apply for HETMA's Prism Scholarship, which provides AVIXA Elite Membership, CTS exam prep, and exam fee coverage for underrepresented professionals entering higher ed AV. Kwantreng says he's looking to build his knowledge of AV networking and audio systems and is looking forward to attending InfoComm. His advice to prospective applicants: apply even if it feels intimidating, because "it gives you a chance to grow."

Joe Way, PhD, CTS (UCLA, Executive Director of Digital Spaces and HETMA co-founder) argues that AI's real value in campus AV is removing technical friction, not replacing people, by adding an inference layer that interprets natural language and adapts to users automatically. He describes how AI can tie together previously separate systems like scheduling, security, lighting, and HVAC into one coordinated campus ecosystem, giving AV teams a way to demonstrate value through energy savings, better room utilization, and even new revenue from facility rentals. His conclusion: AV professionals don't get replaced by this shift; they become managers of intelligent environments.