Bad decisions in updating or implementing technology are usually very expensive, because many times the way to solve them is with a new project and a new investment.
Richard Santa
As an exhausting work but at the same time stimulating and satisfactory at the time of seeing the projects finished and working, this is how Diego Campos Chinchilla describes his work in the audiovisual industry, in which today he serves as director of the engineering department of the Colombian company Construcciones Acústicas.
This Electronic Engineer from the National University of Colombia was linked to the AV industry 20 years ago, in the area of event assembly and live sound. But his taste for technology began when he was in high school, from which he graduated as a technical bachelor in electronics from the Salesian industrial technical college Centro Don Bosco in Bogotá. During his professional career, he has specialized in electroacoustics and audiovisual technology applied to all types of venues.
He remembers that his first projects were with Maloka and Corferias. Then, he joined Construcciones Acústicas as Resident Engineer for the audiovisual project of the reconstruction of the El Nogal club in 2003. He spent several years as a project engineer and for 10 years he assumed the Direction of the engineering department, from where he has had the opportunity to lead the most important projects of audiovisual implementation, lighting and automation in Colombia and Panama.
"Thanks to the experience and trajectory of the company, with more than 28 years in the market, we have achieved, together with the entire group of engineers and architects, a very important position in the market related to audiovisual technology integrated into all architectural acoustic solutions manufactured by us and focused on auditoriums, theaters, concert halls, convention centers, courtrooms, boardrooms, classrooms at universities and colleges," he said.
Between the urgent and the important
Diego Campos Chinchilla assures that in this industry it is known at what time the work begins, but it is difficult to know where and at what time the day ends. "Generally there are projects, bids, tenders in progress, in addition to all the day-to-day issues that have to be resolved in the projects. In such a way that it is essential to organize the issues between the urgent and the important to be able to define priorities and evacuate the issues efficiently, this implies having a continuous displacement covering ongoing projects, customers, suppliers and manufacturers inside and outside the country. "
Just from that relationship with customers there are several anecdotes, but one in particular stands out. He assures that in this industry they usually find "geniuses and connoisseurs" with very little idea of what they say and on one occasion he was doing the calibration and tuning of the sound system of a very important theater in Bogotá. After finishing calibrating the system and getting it ready, an architect appeared who was the auditor of the entire project and told him that he thought the system was sounding with many "shines" and that he should improve the equalization.
"I asked him if he had any music that he knew and wanted to listen to to make adjustments. He passed me a memory with Mp3 files and suggested a clue, I told him to stay in the room I went to the booth I put his file to sound. I told him that I had made some changes to the equalization, he told me that it had improved but that it lacked a little and so he suggested a couple of more adjustments. Then he said that it was perfect, that the room sounded wonderful and signed the delivery certificate. Anyway, the point is that I never touched a parameter of the processors or the console, because I knew that the room was well adjusted. These things happen and are part of the exercise," he added.
Evolution hand in hand with the economy
For our Professional of the Month, the fundamental challenge in this industry is not to keep up to date and updated, it is to be at least one step ahead and solve the needs of the market in the most efficient way, which implies that the people who collaborate must be in a continuous growth, studying and training in the new technologies offered by manufacturers, identifying trends in niche markets.
He pointed out that one of the main objectives for industry professionals should be to know how to solve the needs to the requirements in AV technology in an integral and efficient way, because the industry is "bombarded" daily with proposals and technological devices and the challenge is to know how to define what really works and is projected to be maintained or, on the contrary, it can become a problem.
"For clients, we as integrators and designers have the responsibility to implement efficient, functional, profitable and sustainable projects, in such a way that the responsibility is great and does not give space to improvisation or to commit without having experience. On the part of clients, I consider it of the utmost importance to be advised by recognized designers and integrators with proven experience in this industry. It is very easy to ruin a project of this type if you are not well advised."
It ensures that the development of the audiovisual industry is linked to the economic growth of the countries of the region. This determines the level of investment in new projects and therefore the consumption of AV solutions. In addition, the evolution of this industry has come hand in hand with the development of communications and networks, it is increasingly necessary to integrate with mobile devices and their applications in such a way that today there are more professionals in the area of systems, communications and advertising.
On the industry in his country, Colombia, he indicated that "in the AV industry in the previous year it could be more than 20 million dollars in general terms and the growth is continuous for this year, between 4% and 5%. I think we are very well positioned at the level of Latin America, especially in the Andean Region."
Between family, music and careers
When Diego Campos Chinchilla is not in charge of audiovisual projects, he is next to his wife Animaría and their daughter Ana Sofía, 3 years old, with whom he shares as much time as possible. With his wife he makes two of his passions, trips to natural sites and diving, which take advantage of any opportunity they have to travel and practice it.
"I consider myself a good music lover. Interestingly, and although for my work I must be updated in AV technology and in the subject of hi-Fi and music, I am convinced that there is nothing that surpasses acetates and tube amplifiers. In such a way that in my music room I have returned to the origin and I enjoy it to the fullest," he said.
He added that in the exercise of his work he has had the fortune of knowing several countries and continents, with their customs and cultures, including Latin America, Asia, Europe, as well as the United States. And now that the Colombia National Team has qualified for the World Cup, it has a reason to know Russia. Football is another of his passions. He is a fan of the Bogota team Millonarios, of which he had the opportunity to play in their lower divisions. In the end he had to decide between studying or playing. And we already know the result.
Finally, he stressed that "sometimes, after strenuous weeks of work, to relax a little I go to the racetrack and run for a while. I belong to a motorsport club and simply as an amateur I like to race. That relaxes a lot."
