EN.HISTORY PRE-ENGINEERING
Ten years of shows, installs, and load-outs before I ever touched a PLC.
My first career was audio. For ten years I ran lights and sound for an Elvis tribute act, which means I've mixed "Suspicious Minds" in more rooms than I can count. I also worked professionally at ACS Sound and Lighting and Gattis Pro Audio here in Columbia, running hundreds of shows and installing systems in schools, churches, businesses, homes, and offices.
Music came before any of it. I played clarinet and baritone in marching band in high school, taught myself guitar and keyboard, and played in a metal band called I Fought Abe. Fixing my own guitars and effects pedals was the first electronics I ever did, and it's a big part of why I ended up in electrical engineering. Running sound was the natural next step once I figured out I liked the gear as much as the playing.
Audio is also how I got through engineering school. The DSP and math classes got a lot easier once I realized I already understood the concepts from working with signals, filters, and gain structure every weekend. That led to an internship at MR Systems, where I found out the same principles apply to control systems, and I never really left.
A mixing console and a SCADA system are the same job: a lot of signals, a few that matter right now, and an operator who needs to find the right one fast. Everything I know about building a screen someone can run under pressure started at front of house.
It's also where I got serious about safety. I worked with a lot of older audio engineers living with hearing loss, and it stuck with me. Wear ear plugs is my favorite safety minute, and I give it to every guest who comes along to a show.
This is the job in one picture: a lot of channels, a few that matter right now, and a person who has to find the right one before anybody in the room notices. Gain structure, signal flow, knowing which meter to believe. I didn't know it at the time, but I was learning to build an HMI.
The channels I mixed most: an Elvis tribute act for ten years, plus hundreds of other shows through ACS Sound and Lighting and Gattis Pro Audio in Columbia. Installs in schools, churches, businesses, homes, and offices.
My dad is a retired AM/FM radio engineer. When a storm hit one of his tower sites, he'd get the call, and when I was a kid I'd ride along at whatever hour it was. One night we went out to WTCB to put the station on the aux transmitter. He killed power to the primary to start troubleshooting and handed me the "Jesus stick" to ground out the high voltage plate transformers.
It started arcing the second it touched. I looked at my dad. He said, "Well, don't keep it there!"
It melted a good chunk of the grounding rod and taught me more about trusting a disconnected circuit than any class did. A disconnect that says open is a claim, not a fact. Test for live circuits. Every time, even when you're sure, especially when you're sure.
If you run a water or wastewater plant and your HMI is older than your newest operator, I'd like to hear about it. Same if you want to talk hydroponics, VTScada, or how to get a Proxmox VM to stop doing the thing.
Based in Columbia, SC. ICS Automated's office is in Greenville.