My passion is the AV industry with a career that's covered retail, distribution, manufacturing and services. I have had the privilege to serve on the board of Avixa and am actively involved in supporting the association and industry wherever possible.
AVIXA Mourns the Loss of Brad Sousa
Started my career in the insurance industry, specifically Workers comp. Eleven years ago I answered a call from an old friend I went to grade school with and he asked me to come help him manage his broadcast cabling company. That old friend is Carl Craver and the company is Viper Cabling Inc. WE handle everything from small voice and data /AV installs to large broadcast projects. I took over Carl's spot on the ITS Council and have been volunteering ever since 2012. I am excited to have been recently elected as the ITS Council chair. As the new Chair I hope to recruit new members that would like to be a part of our next charity project.
Up through May 2022, I managed the AV Engineering & Operations team at the University of North Georgia. We maintained multiple campuses of classrooms with control systems in each and we worked with a team of support technicians who handle work on incident management while we handled incident escalations as well as problem management, change management, and request fulfillment (to use the ITIL vernacular).
In May 2022, I became a Design Engineer 1 for AVI-SPL, based out of the Atlanta, GA office. I worked with the Account Managers to design systems for customers prior to sales, then worked with the post sales team once a system is purchased. Over the next two years, I was promoted to Design Engineer 2. In October 2024, I became an Engineering Manager for AVI-SPL, managing the Design Engineers and Project Engineers in the Atlanta, GA office.
Bill Larsen, CTS, serves as District AV Technology Coordinator for ISD 197 (West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan, Minnesota), managing AV services across nine buildings including two high schools, two middle schools, and five elementary schools. He holds the CTS credential from AVIXA and serves as a Subject Matter Expert for CTS exam development.
Bill is the founder of Backstage Essentials LLC, an independent consulting practice focused on K-12 performance space and AV systems. His forthcoming book, Backstage Essentials: Skills for Stagehand Technicians in Live Event Production, is being published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis in 2026.
He also serves as Education Coordinator for IATSE Local 490 and brings more than 30 years of experience in educational technology and live event production.
