The answer to the ever-shrinking pool of qualified engineers is (drum roll, please) more I/O. That was just one takeaway from our second Studio Master Class hosted by Jay Tyler with panelists Rob Bertrand, CEO for Inrush, and Alex Bonello, Insoft (HDVMixer).

The premise is that the more I/O, the more pathways you have to the components in the airchain for troubleshooting and fixing problems remotely. Rob pointed out that adding more Blade I/O seems like overkill at first, but it’s often impossible to troubleshoot and correct problems remotely without that access. “There are not enough of us out there to keep all the stations going that need help. We’re going in and constantly thinking, ‘What can we leverage to ensure that we’re able to respond wherever we are, to whatever problem comes up for a client?’” commented Rob.

“Unfortunately, we’re not growing new broadcast engineers,” agreed Jay, adding that Blades decentralize the Ethernet switch as a practical, affordable way to get to problems quickly in the absence of a nearby engineer.