Here is some general background of some of my activities:
David
Wickstrom is an internationally known expert in the field of media and
media
archiving with a wide-ranging career in the technologies of
communications. He
possesses an entrepreneurial spirit and his background includes both
start-ups
as well as day-to-day operations. He currently serves as a consultant
in the
fields of electro-acoustics and media preservation. As they evolve,
David makes
each new technological development his own. Not just because it's good
for
business, he says with a grin, but because it's fun.
This
passionate enthusiasm for playing with technology predates his paid
career. As
a kindergartener, David began teaching himself about wiring and sound
amplification. To the amazement of his parents, he made disparate
pieces of
equipment work together and began 'radio' broadcasting records from his
home to
the surrounding neighborhood.
David's first regular paid recording
jobs--working as sound and recording engineer for recitals and
concerts--began
when he was twelve. In high school, he began engineering for the local
radio
station. In spite of the distraction, he graduated from high school and
went on
to Ithaca College where he quickly became chief engineer of the college
radio
station.
While in college, David began Celebration
Sound Inc. to provide location sound reinforcement that included
performers
such as The Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac and The Modern Jazz Quartet.
As the
business grew, David added a multi-track recording studio as well as
professional equipment sales and service. In 1978 he began his
audio-acoustical
consulting practice, offering services to clients such as Corning
Glass,
Cornell University, Coconut Grove Playhouse and ABC Television Network.
In 1980 he joined Cornell University's
Laboratory of Ornithology, working as the supervising engineer for the
Library
of Natural Sounds, the largest natural sound archive in the world.
While there
he produced records, cassettes and radio programs, as well as designing
facilities and equipment for bio-acoustic research. One of the things
David
developed was the special technology used to discover and research
low-frequency sound communication by elephants.
David left the Lab of Ornithology in 1988
to be the Senior Audio Engineer of the Belfer Audio Laboratory and
Archive / Thomas
Alva Edison Re-recording Laboratory at Syracuse University. At the time
this
lab was the most technically sophisticated media archive in the world.
As the
senior engineer he was in charge of all technical aspects of the
facility and
was a key participant in research projects in multimedia production,
distribution, and archiving.
In 1992, David joined Digital Equipment
Corporation as a member of the technical staff, corporate engineer, for
its
entertainment business unit. He was responsible for finding new
computer-based
solutions for meeting the needs of the entertainment industry and
evaluating
their technical viability. An industry expert, he was charged with
understanding customers' needs, educating customers about Digital's
capabilities and educating Digital's engineering, sales and marketing
management about the media industries.
David left Digital in 1994 to be part of a
high tech start-up: Media Machines International. He was the director
of
engineering for MMI, a company focused on the convergence of the
computing and
media worlds. While acclaimed for it's advanced vision and technologies
it
ultimately failed due to business reasons. Much was learned.
Following the closing of MMI David worked
for the Cornell University Courseware Studio which created innovative
computer
based instruction. Most of David's time
was spent working on a CD-ROM textbook in Fluid Mechanics . He
completely
reworked the glossary database, produced QuickTime videos, wrote
portions of,
edited and structured the on-line help.
In the Spring of 2000 David joined the
staff of Cornell Universities Office of Distance Learning as the
Coordinator of
Special Projects. Two major projects were the upgrade of the
University’s
Distance learning classrooms and moving the office to a new space. The
new
space was off campus and required a full build out, installation of
internal
data and telecom networks with high bandwidth connections to the
outside world.
This was accomplished in a little more than a month.
Cornell University made the decision to
transition the Office of Distance learning to eCornell, an independent
for-profit company providing online education, starting July 1, 2000.
David
chose to move to the new company as the Director of Special Projects.
Among the
many projects was overseeing eCornell's wide area network and
telecommunication
systems, that seamlessly interconnected eCornell's three locations and
connected eCornell to the world. Other projects involved video
production
systems, environmental controls, and business processes. One project
that was
especially satisfying was an easy to use on demand video conferencing
system
that quickly integrated into the company’s culture.
David has taught sound recording at Ithaca
College and the Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse
University. He has
engineered more than a dozen nationally distributed records and CD's,
published
a chapter in Kroodsma's and Miller's book on Acoustic Communications
and
authored a number of other articles. He has given presentations and
conducted
workshops in the United States, Canada and Europe.
He has a Bachelor of Science in
communications from Ithaca College and a Master of Science from the
Newhouse
School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is a member
of the
Audio Engineering Society and the Society of Motion Picture and
Television
Engineers. He has served as a member of the Audio Engineering Society
Standards
Committee for the Preservation and Restoration of Audio, as well as
chairing
the subcommittee for transfer standards with the American National
Standards
Institute (ANSI) Joint Technical Commission for Magnetic and Optical
Media and
Systems.
David has built his own home along with
other buildings and holds an electrician's license. Other interests
include
boating, wind-surfing, woodworking, music and photography.