Arlen Carlson
In parallel to this, Arlen was also using his free time volunteering for installing temporary and permanent sound systems. At the same time he was diving into reading the 2nd Edition of Don Davis' book, "Sound System Engineering " (required reading for any serious audio professional). It was, in part, a combination of these items that then brought Arlen to Ontario, for bigger and better things; first to the Ottawa area to work on the design and install of a year-long project involving audio, fire alarm, and other communications systems.
From there it was on to 10 years of volunteer work at a campus-size institution, which was part of Arlen's early-life career goals. Of course, the work was in the technical departments. Repair and maintenance, electronics design, HVAC and building control systems, design and support of the audio, visual, CATV, and telecomm systems, and installation and support of the telecomm/network infrastructure.
When changes in life came in 2004, it was time to start thinking of the further steps in the career path. Having run a business once before, the thought of once again doing so was not intimidating. Now there was much more experience and specialization to draw upon.
Company History
Thus, Arlen, as the founder of the company set on a mission to keep up-to-date with the necessary training and certifications that would better focus his growing business. Certification as a Crestron Programmer was key in this solution, along with follow-up through yearly Masters Classes, recently achieving a Silver Level. Extron certifications for configuration of any programming as well. And, audio--training and certifications for a myriad of product lines--Biamp Audia and Tesira, BSS Audio Soundweb London, Symetrix Symnet and Symnet Composer, ClearOne Audio and Video Conferencing Technical Specialist, and QSC Q-Sys.
Any venture where audio is involved is not complete without training from Synergetic Audio Concepts. So far, three of their courses have been attended, including the ECS Speech Intelligibility Workshop and the new Sound Design Seminar.
In December 2013, CarlsonTech became registered as a CSP, or Crestron Services Provider. As of May 2014, we were also recognized as a 3rd Party Programming Resource for Biamp products as well. Then in December 2014, we became recognized as an Extron Qualified Independent Programmer (EQIP), the second company in Canada to achieve that status.
As a member of the Extron EQIP program, the opportunity to attend the inaugural Extron Authorized Programmer training was extended, accepted, and successfully completed.
However, the next big chapter of Arlen's life came in December of 2016, when he became a member of the Advanced Support Team at QSC, in a role as Systems Control Engineer. It was a great time to join the company, as QSC was moving beyond just speakers, amplifiers, and audio-only DSP usage, to take on control and video. This also meant that CarlsonTech could no longer act as a CSP, EQIP, or 3rd Party Programming Resource for Biamp. While these platforms do have their strengths, it is truly hard to match where QSC's Q-SYS is placed in the market. Certainly Q-SYS is the most powerful audio DSP there is, bar none. That is because of it's underlying platform. Top that off with the ability to do controls and video, and you truly have an integrated platform!
What this means though, is that Arlen generally may not have the time to take on big projects. And he is almost definitely going to steer you to using something from QSC, or at least something that includes Q-SYS. But then, why not? It is the platform that a great many in the industry are raving about right now.