Ask the Programmer
Ask The Programmer Episode 258 - Guest Joe Way Shares Lessons from a Ground-Breaking AV Solution
22 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
From the world of AV programming and control with James King, I'm Steve Greenblatt, and this is Ask the Programmer. James, how are you today? And I'm looking forward to our fun conversation. We have a returning guest that we all know and we all enjoy speaking with.
Oh, I'm doing great, Steve. And it's always great when we have this guest, especially this one, because I can really sit back and just let him talk. He will talk and talk.
Is that a compliment? I don't know if that's a compliment or not.
On a podcast. Well, that voice, if you don't recognize and if you didn't listen to our previous episode, he is none other than Joe Way. He is the executive director of digital spaces at UCLA and also co-founder of HEPMA and also many other things, a podcaster and award-winning AV professional. So welcome back, Joe.
Hey, thank you so much, Steve. It's a pleasure to be back. Thank you so much, James. It's good, good, good to always see you.
Thanks for being here. And if you didn't catch our last episode, please do because this one is going to be kind of part two and continuing the conversation a bit. In episode 257, Joe spoke about what he's doing at UCLA and had
truly where the difference between a server-based cloud system and a, and a genuine cloud system and, and some of the really creative solutions that he is providing in taking, going from an AV system to more of a smart campus. So we'll, we'll kind of pick it up there. And yeah, Some of the things that Joe shared was that they're unifying a lot of the systems on campus.
It really is elevating what we think of when we think of programming and an AV solution. And this is really revolutionary and something that we know hasn't been done to this extent. Others have done more things. things that are creative and less standardized from what you think of in an AV system.
Joe, let's just start by talking about what are some of the things that you learned in going through this process? What were some things that were eye-opening and maybe some of the challenges that you faced?
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Chapter 2: How can AV professionals expand their roles beyond traditional boundaries?
Can we incorporate this? That's where systems grow, where we grow as humans is in the weeds and doing the work and not saying, well, We did it this way, so we always have to do it this way. One of my favorite questions I always ask is, why are we doing it that way? And someone will be like, we always did it. Cool. Can we change that? Things change.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Joe Way face while developing unified technology systems?
Today is different than yesterday. Can we learn from it? Can we improve it? Do we have to pay for that system if we can incorporate it into this already? You know, saving money is always big, especially higher ed. So I think you have to go out there. You got to venture out because if you don't, you're going to be sitting on the sideline.
I definitely agree with you there. And it's taking risks, knowing what you can and can't do, and being able to stretch yourself and having the resources to be able to back that, which is, I think, where I want to go with Joe. And obviously, you're the man behind the curtain. And you're the one that your name and your reputation is on the line in being able to pull this through.
How do you go about knowing that you have the right team in place that can do this? Because the engineer in me says, this is all great, but somebody actually has to do it.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Great, great, great point. You know, again, I was very blessed and I came to UCLA as part of our, you know, re-imagine IT thing where it was, you know, we did a full reorganization of the organization. The point where, again, we knew that something had to get done. Um, so with that, I already knew kind of where I wanted to go.
I knew with my peers, I have an incredible peer group. Um, it is also the advantage, you know, another lesson learned. Every institution needs an AV person at the highest level of the university. I sit on the entire working group that has our, you know, vice provost on it. It has our, you know, two vice provosts, teaching and learning center, the upper administration, um,
The VP for facilities management, a registrar, and myself, five of us at the top level of the university work on this working group for what we're going to do. And so that comes with, you know, yes, pressure to perform, but also it comes with the ability to have support, right? Right?
I'm not just speaking from, you know, eight levels down an org structure saying, do this, we need to do this, and hope that somebody does it. I've got the direct ear, you know, and I have the greatest boss, two bosses, Lucy and Veronica, for Veronica, WCIO, and then to Lucy or CIO, who believe in this. Ironically, we were all on the same team at USC together, too, doing the same thing. And...
And so with that, we knew that we needed to move the university forward. It got to a point where that was part of a five-year strategic plan that was created before we came in. And the university said, let's do it. Brought in our boss. We recruited our teams. And because we had the vision that was signed off on, I was able to hire to the vision. Right.
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Chapter 4: How does AV technology integrate with other campus systems?
I'm very the outside, right? I'm the bleeding edge person. People know that. I figure if something fails, who cares? But I know that's not normal. And I also know that's not normal for ones and zeros people. Right? Because the math maths for people. Math doesn't math for me, okay? It's vision. Don't know how it gets there, but it's going to get there.
So for your audience, allow yourself to be a little unpredictable. Right. That's okay. You know, I'm kind of just what you were like to what you were just kind of saying, James, with, you know, your old boss set the vision. You can, you went and do it. We were actually in a meeting the other day as kind of a team and a little, uh, next group, my directs and their directs down.
So the next level down and someone brought up in another department, right? One of my little digital signage people, because I have the digital signage teams underneath and another one of my verticals under Melissa. and she said something like, well, kind of if we could do this, and Nick turns to Kenny and is like, I think Kenny can spin that up by, what do you need, a couple hours?
Like, wait, she had this like idea of, whoa, what if we could connect this to this? And Kenny's like, yeah, sure, I don't know. I'll go take a look at it. I think I can spin you up a webpage for that. And it was like, But who thinks about that is in AV, right?
Like, but the fact that someone said something and we're not, and you create that environment for, you know, what's the worst case scenario? He throws a few hours into it and says, I can't do it. I thought I could, but maybe here's where we could go, right? That's the worst thing that happens.
The best thing that happens is we just gave someone their own private web portal dashboard to go control 400 screens around campus without having to go do sneaker net.
knocked it out overnight you know like it's crazy stuff like that that i know that programmers have the ability to do but advocate for yourself to say hey i know we can do it and you talk about this we've got the solutions it doesn't have to be you know the tron programming and that's your box right both are great you know the different trons are great and all that stuff and they do all the good but i'm saying that doesn't have to be your box in fact
Kudos to the different Trons and the Qs, all of them. They're actually much more. Here's my takeaway. Sorry, you asked a question. But takeaway from ISE this year was I was very impressed with the major control manufacturers all being like there wasn't a lot of new gear, but there was a we're going to play well in everybody else's sandboxes now. That wasn't the case a few years ago.
So even if you are a certain ecosystem, they're now all willing to work with others and open up and play, which you as a programmer, God, that's gotta feel good to have that kind of freedom. Not to just go advocate to your bosses to say, hey, let me do some of that and look at the value I can bring in X, Y, Z. So- That was a long answer to your short question.
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