Imagine yourself sitting in chapel: the stage lights are dark and background music is playing. The worship team comes out on stage as Mark DeYoung welcomes everyone to chapel. Suddenly, the lights turn bright, and DeYoung’s voice pops from the stage as he speaks. When worship begins, you hear the instruments and the singers’ voices loud and clear throughout the chapel. However, while this is happening, there are people working together “in the shadows.” Some people are at the sound booth in the balcony, making sure that the lights are shining, and the microphones are picking up enough sound. Others are running the cameras throughout the chapel as they gather the “best shots” for the Chapel livestream. These people at work are among the STANDOUT team members of the Northwestern Audio Visual (AV) Department. They are trained and equipped to tackle tasks such as Chapel, and more, across NW’s campus.
Located in the lower level of the Learning Commons (LC), the AV Department helps with all the technical needs of NW. If your class has an audio or visual problem with speakers or projections, AV works to fix those problems and get the class back on track. If you need a camera to record a meeting or a theatrical production, AV will be ready to help.
That is just the tip of the iceberg as AV also helps with a lot of campus events, which includes orientation weekend, NED Talks, Hospers’ Coffeehouse, homecoming, the winter formal, Raider Days and Commencement ceremonies. Basically, for any event that requires a microphone, you can guarantee that the AV team had a hand in setting up the equipment needed. There is also the tearing down and the transportation of equipment, to and from events, that AV covers. All these tasks and responsibilities give the AV team so much to do for NW. However, thanks to the amazing people that lead the AV team, that weight is easier to carry, thanks to their support and direction.
The AV team is spearheaded by Mike Stokes and Isaac Clausen as they serve the campus and train students with their technological knowledge. Stokes has been serving as director of the NW AV department for 21 years while Clausen has been a part of the team since he was a first-year Raider in 2014. Stokes states that the overall mission of the AV department is to “minimize and, ultimately, eliminate technical malfunctions in presentations, classrooms and events” while also making people “look good and sound good.”
When considering a “typical day in AV,” Clausen revealed that “every day is completely different, you never know how a day will go. AV problems are not scheduled and can happen at any point, so I have to be ready for those in addition to the constant flow of events that come into the schedule.”
Stokes also adds that him and Clausen work well as a unit as they “often brainstorm together” about what they “feel are the best processes and procedures in making the classroom and AV efficient.”
While Stokes and Clausen work together to give the team their tasks, there is another in their midst. Melissa Thompson, a sophomore computer science major, is the team manager. She is responsible for arranging the team’s schedules and giving the team a healthy dose of laughter from her email memes. Thompson says that the “outside of work stuff” is a big responsibility to her as she has to handle “scheduling and getting people to do stuff throughout the week as people are responding” to her messages as well as her needing to “track people down who don’t respond.”
Even in those moments, Thompson does an excellent job working with Stokes and Clausen in setting the AV team up for success by providing a fun space where the team can learn how to best serve the campus.
AV plays a valuable part in serving the campus. The work they put in is full of dedication and a love to serve. They make the audio and visual parts of an event stand out. They will do their best in fixing technical mistakes. They will also learn how to solve any problem under Stokes’s and Clausen’s direction. So, remember the hard work that AV puts in for NW for they are a remarkable team that will help in any way they can across campus.
