I started in the 60's, whilst in my very late teens, lighting for night clubs to pay my way through college, in the days before university was available to every one. I qualified with a full tech in telecoms and went on to get a diploma in studio technical operations and engineering. My break came by being accepted by the BBC as a junior cameraman, in those days a cameraman also had to have some engineering knowledge. After a couple of years I bent the system and was promoted to a vision control assistant. Then in the early 80's video effects for TV was in its infancy, film had been using effects for decades. The BBC developed a system called CSO (colour separation overlay) which was developed further by ultimate and referred to as Chroma Key (known today as green screen though it started using a blue screen due to the engineering limitations of the TV signal). I was lucky to be one of the pioneers and become a Video Effects Supervisor.  Eventually I was rewarded for all my work by being promoted to Technical Manager 2. In those days this was one of the top studio technical operations job (along with TM1 / lighting director and sound supervisor), any higher was pure office based management. As technical manager, I had the chance to study for professional management qualifications, with the BBC sponsoring the cost.  In the latter years I was permanently working on Children's BBC and as such was also responsible for lighting the studio, to save cost they didn't have a TM1. I became a member of the Society of Television Lighting and Design (STLD) a registered British Professional Institution. In 1996 I was made redundant from the BBC, the TV bubble had burst, the golden days were over and the BBC was preparing to move to Salford Quays selling TV Centre in London for a luxury housing development. TV jobs were hard to find so I worked for a time in IT. This is were I learnt about IT networks which later helped me to adapt to video and audio over IT and I climbed the ladder again. In 1997 Quest Technical services approached me to work on part of the Covent Garden refit and a Broadcast project for Barclays Capital, from there I was poached by Marcom Systems, then one of the UKs largest integrators. I worked on government broadcast and encrypted video communication systems, including video conferencing. Marcom eventually merged with a large Norwegian company called Impact Europe and the name changed to Impact Marcom. In 2009 the group globally became Impact and all the separate divisional names also became Impact. My role within Impact was as a System Design Consultant / Project Manager, within the UK. I worked on secure communications, such as Broadcast and video conferencing. I was also  involved in secure content distribution and designed and commissioned two of the largest TV / media distribution systems using Cabletime Pro Hubs and Evolution IP products, the rest of the time I work on command and control centres. In 2010  after Impact lost the MoD contract I was considering retirement when I was approached by the Electrosonic Group to join them and help the BDM to rebuild its 'Command and Control Room Solutions' division within the UK. I worked for the Electrosonic Group within the 'Command and Control Room Solutions' division designing and integrating Audio Visual, IT and communications systems for the intelligence / national security sector in the UK, USA and NATO, for both military and police. In January of 2011 I was asked to join the Professional Education and Training Committee (PECT) of Infocomm (now AVIXA), which I accepted and remained a committee member for 2 years, declining the third year as I was planning to retire. Then in 2013 I decided to retire from full time work and to work part time as freelance designer / consultant, through the Electrosonic Group. Then 2 years later I fully retired, but still undertaking mentoring / advice from time to time  In addition to engineering and management qualifications I have certification from CESG for Tempest design and have held British MoD SDA/IDA (JSP480) status, and security clearance for most British and NATO departments. I have held technical partner status with Tandberg (now a division of Cisco) and have attended accredited designer courses with most of the major AV product manufacturer's. I am a member of several professional bodies including 'AVIXA (former Infocomm)', having passed the Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) exams (now lapsed) .