James King and Steve Greenblatt debut a creative episode format called Maintain/Update/Deprecate. Questions are posed with three answers, which James and Steve each rank from best to worst and explain why. The theme of this episode is skills, qualities, and career growth for AV programmers.   What skills are most important for the success of AV programmers? a. Platform expertise b. Software development c. Networking/IT   What is most important for AV programmers’ careers? a. Certifications b. Experience c. Mentorship   What is most important in hiring an AV programmer or any technical person? a.Technical capability b. Communication skills c. Cultural fit   This podcast is supported by Control Concepts, the industry leader in AV software development and API integration. Control Concepts develops the building blocks programmers use to seamlessly integrate products or add functionality to their systems. To learn more, visit controlconcepts.net and ccisupported.net. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt debut a creative episode format called Maintain/Update/Deprecate. Questions are posed with three answers, which James and Steve each rank from best to worst and explain why. The theme of this episode is the selection and design of AV control systems.   What is the future of AV control? a. Traditional dedicated control systems b. Software-based homegrown with off-the-shelf hardware control systems c. Control built into other products   What user interface is most effective? a. Touchpanels b. Button panels c. Web pages   What control architecture is most effective? a. Local control b. Centralized control c. Cloud control   This podcast is supported by Control Concepts, the industry leader in AV software development and API integration. Control Concepts develops the building blocks programmers use to seamlessly integrate products or add functionality to their systems. To learn more, visit controlconcepts.net and ccisupported.net. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back guest moderator Dan Ferrisi, Group Director of Content + Editorial, Industrial + Tech at Emerald, to share his commitment to and investment in the AV industry and pose the question: How has AV programming or a programmer’s job become easier or harder over the last 10 years? Dan Ferrisi can be reached on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-ferrisi-55675a7/), CommercialIntegrator.com, Securitysales.com, CEPro.com, and the Demand Gen report. Be sure to also check out Dan's previous appearances in episodes 269, 253, 254, 237, 236, 212, 213, 200, 199, 182, 181, 173, 174, 124, and 125. This podcast is supported by Control Concepts, the industry leader in AV software development and API integration. Control Concepts develops the building blocks programmers use to seamlessly integrate products or add functionality to their systems. To learn more, visit controlconcepts.net and ccisupported.net. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back guest moderator Dan Ferrisi, Group Director of Content + Editorial, Industrial + Tech at Emerald, to share his personal AV journey and pose the question: What is the most common bad assumption people make about AV programmers or AV programming? Dan Ferrisi can be reached on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-ferrisi-55675a7/), CommercialIntegrator.com, Securitysales.com, CEPro.com, and the Demand Gen report. Be sure to also check out Dan's previous appearances in episodes 253, 254, 237, 236, 212, 213, 200, 199, 182, 181, 173, 174, 124, and 125. This podcast is supported by Control Concepts, the industry leader in AV software development and API integration. Control Concepts develops the building blocks programmers use to seamlessly integrate products or add functionality to their systems. To learn more, visit controlconcepts.net and ccisupported.net. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Eugene Dunn, Ecosystem Project Support Engineer at Q-SYS, to share about his role in establishing standards and providing resources and support for AV programmers. Eugene Dunn can be found on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenedunn3/ or on the Q-SYS Communities for Developers https://developers.qsc.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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome Eugene Dunn, Ecosystem Project Support Engineer at Q-SYS, to share how he has applied his affinity for problem-solving throughout his AV journey and programming focus. Eugene Dunn can be found on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenedunn3/ or on the Q-SYS Communities for Developers https://developers.qsc.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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Mark Franklin, Senior Director of Computing Services at Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, to go deeper into the technology of OpenAV, discuss its evolution to meet the needs of users and support staff, and share how it addresses many of the common needs of maintaining AV systems. OpenAV can be found at https://github.com/Dartmouth-OpenAV/. Mark Franklin can be emailed at [email protected]. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome Mark Franklin, Senior Director of Computing Services at Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, to discuss how the common approach to AV system design, programming, deployment, and management was not working for him and his team, leading to the creation and development of the "OpenAV" solution, an IT approach to AV systems. OpenAV can be found at https://github.com/Dartmouth-OpenAV/. Mark Franklin can be emailed at [email protected]. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome back Fred Loucks, Founder of Hyperscale AV, to elaborate on the need, business case, challenges, and successful approach to AV monitoring. Fred previously appeared on episode 263. Fred Loucks can be reached via email, [email protected], or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-loucks/. Hyperscale AV can be found at hyperscaleav.com. Fred's article Monitoring A/V Sucks can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/monitoring-av-sucks-what-you-can-do-hyperscaleav-fc6ec/ Fred is teaching a three-day class on AV monitoring at InfoComm26 called Applied Monitoring for AV Systems TD05 https://www.infocommshow.org/2026-sessions/applied-monitoring-for-av-systems?&filters.stream=design-and-integration-1&searchgroup=libraryentry-2026-sessions. 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 LinkedIn, 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.

James King and Steve Greenblatt welcome Fred Loucks, Founder of Hyperscale AV, to discuss his AV journey, background in theater and show control, and his passion for effective monitoring solutions for the AV industry. Fred Loucks can be reached via email, [email protected], or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-loucks/. Hyperscale AV can be found at hyperscaleav.com. Fred's article Monitoring A/V Sucks can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/monitoring-av-sucks-what-you-can-do-hyperscaleav-fc6ec/ Fred is teaching a three-day class on AV monitoring at InfoComm26 called Applied Monitoring for AV Systems TD05 https://www.infocommshow.org/2026-sessions/applied-monitoring-for-av-systems?&filters.stream=design-and-integration-1&searchgroup=libraryentry-2026-sessions. 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 LinkedIn, 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.