From Slide Projectors to Intelligent Workplaces: The Evolution of AV

How did we get from slide carousels and analogue conferencing to today’s one-touch meeting experience? BoomSpace founder Steve Larkins looks back at four decades of AV innovation and the technologies that changed workplace communication forever.

Today, joining a meeting takes seconds.

Walk into a room, tap a touchscreen and join the call.

It is easy to take that experience for granted.

Behind that single tap sits decades of innovation, and a remarkable transformation in the way people communicate and collaborate.

Digging into the BoomSpace archives got us thinking about just how far the industry has come, and the knowledge that comes from experiencing that change first-hand. So, we sat down with BoomSpace Founder Steve Larkins to revisit the technologies, manufacturers and moments that have shaped his journey.

From repairing televisions in Australia and servicing professional audio equipment, to designing modern workplace technology environments, Steve’s career has mirrored the evolution of AV itself.

What emerged wasn’t just the history of an industry.

It was the story of how curiosity, problem solving and a fascination with technology helped shape the foundations of BoomSpace.

AV Snapshot: The 1980s

• IBM PCs running DOS
• Microsoft BASIC
• Analogue televisions
• Cassette tapes and vinyl records
• No PowerPoint
• No laptops
• No video conferencing
• No digital collaboration

The 1980s

Where it all began

Long before meeting rooms, touchscreens and collaboration platforms, Steve’s interest in technology started at home.

Growing up in Australia during the 1980s, he was constantly experimenting with electronics and computers, driven by a simple desire to understand how things worked.

“We had an IBM PC at home running DOS with Microsoft BASIC installed, so I started writing my own programmes,” Steve recalls. “At school I learned Pascal, COBOL and Assembly Language, and spent most of my time trying to create my own games.”

The technology available at the time was limited by today’s standards, but that almost made it more appealing.

Every programme required problem solving.

Every line of code taught a new lesson.

One project in particular stood out.

At just fourteen years old, Steve created a basic hearing-test programme. It generated a frequency sweep through the computer’s speaker, which when no longer heard the user would press the space bar, providing an indication of possible hearing loss.

“I wasn’t asked to build it,” he laughs. “I just wanted to see if I could.”

Alongside computing came another lifelong interest.

Music.

“I loved music across a wide range of genres and was fascinated by how separate instruments, vocals and rhythms could be layered together to create something much greater than the sum of their parts.”

Without realising it, Steve was already developing interests that would eventually converge in the AV industry: technology, software, electronics and audio.

The Early 1990s

Learning the fundamentals

At eighteen, Steve began a radio trades apprenticeship in Australia.

The title sounds old-fashioned today, but the work was incredibly varied.

Televisions.

VCRs.

Record players.

Microwaves.

If it stopped working, it came through the workshop.

“We repaired pretty much anything people brought through the door,” Steve explains.

Much of the technology being serviced at the time was still analogue.

Digital electronics existed, but they hadn’t yet become dominant nor affordable for many people and organisations.

That changed through an unexpected side project.

A Spider-Man pinball machine.

At eighteen, Steve placed an advert in a local newspaper looking for old pinball machines.

One owner got in touch, so with the money Steve had from being a freelance engineer he followed the lead.

“I turned up and told him I only had fifty dollars,” Steve remembers. “He said it wasn’t enough. His wife told him to let me have it anyway.”

He still owns that machine today.

What made it special wasn’t the game itself.

It was what was inside.

Whilst televisions taught Steve about analogue electronics, that pinball machine introduced him to digital electronics, processors and logic systems.

Looking back, it represented the direction the industry was heading.

“I bought a pinball machine because they had digital electronics. Everything else I was working on was analogue, but you could see the future was going to be digital.”

The Late 1990s

Entering the world of professional audio

Steve’s next move took him to TASCAM’s headquarters in Port Melbourne.

For someone fascinated by music and electronics, it was the perfect environment.

TASCAM formed the professional side of the wider TEAC business, supplying commercial recording and broadcast equipment.

For Steve, it was an introduction to equipment designed for long-term professional use, where servicing and accurate technical documentation mattered.

Individual pieces of professional audio equipment could cost tens of thousands of pounds, making skilled maintenance an essential part of protecting that investment.

Working in the service department, Steve’s role was to maintain, repair and restore equipment sent back by customers.

“We’d clean tape heads, replace rubber belts, repair faults and fully service everything before it went back into use.”

These products were built to last, but they still required specialised maintenance and servicing when faults occurred.

“It wasn’t unusual to be maintaining equipment that was ten years old and still had years of life ahead of it. You didn’t just throw things away and replace them.”

For Steve, audio was becoming more than technology.

It was craftsmanship.

AV Snapshot: Professional Audio in the 1990s

Key technologies included:

• TASCAM recording equipment
• TEAC systems
• Eight-track recorders
• Reel-to-reel recording
• Professional mixing consoles
• Broadcast audio equipment

From Slide Carousels to Digital Presentations

When presentations took months, not minutes

One of the biggest surprises for younger readers may be how presentations were created before modern software.

There were no laptops.

No cloud storage.

No “quick update before the meeting.”

“You couldn’t decide in the morning that you needed a presentation for the afternoon,” Steve explains. “Everything had to be planned well in advance.”

Corporate presentations often began with artists physically creating visual content.

Those designs would then be photographed and converted into 35mm slides.

The finished slides would be loaded into carousels ready for projection.

Manufacturers such as Kodak and 3M became synonymous with the format.

“You’d create the artwork, photograph it, produce the slide and then load it into the carousel. It could easily take months.”

Some organisations had custom-designed control interfaces, allowing presenters to advance slides and dim lighting using wired relay systems.

At the time, pressing multiple buttons and remotely changing a slide felt remarkably sophisticated.

Then vs Now

The Move to London

When AV became business critical

Moving to London exposed Steve to a completely different scale of workplace technology.

The city was already becoming a centre for corporate video conferencing and presentation environments.

Major organisations such as Arthur Andersen and JP Morgan were among the earliest corporate adopters of this innovative technology.

Meeting rooms featured technologies most organisations could only dream about.

Rear projection systems.

Control systems.

Video conferencing facilities.

Integrated presentation spaces.

One particularly memorable example involved rear projection rigs.

Hidden within purpose-built cabinet work, the projector sent its image onto one angled mirror and then another, enlarging it before it reached the rear-projection screen. From inside the room, it appeared almost like an enormous television.

“At the time there wasn’t a realistic alternative. Large displays were incredibly expensive, so rear projection was how many organisations solved that challenge.”

The Early 2000s

When video conferencing cost hundreds of thousands of pounds

Today, a laptop and an internet connection are often enough to join a meeting.

The early 2000s were very different.

Video conferencing existed, but only large organisations could justify the investment.

“It was incredibly expensive,” Steve says. “Meeting rooms could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

The process itself was equally different.

Rather than clicking a join button, meeting rooms were booked thirty minutes before every conference call.

Dedicated AV operators would test systems.

Connections were made through video bridges.

Audio checks were carried out at every location.

Only then would the room be deemed ready for participants to use. The pressure was real.

While the AV team prepared the link, porters cleared plates and coffee pots from the previous meeting. Fresh coffee and biscuits would arrive as the final checks were completed.

Even the hospitality around the meeting operated to the rhythm of the technology.

“If we were connecting London and New York, there would be an operator on the bridge. They’d test both locations independently before joining everyone together.”

Audio however, remained the priority.

“If the video failed but the audio continued, communication could still happen. That’s why audio has always been so important.”

The rooms brought together several specialist manufacturers. PictureTel, Polycom and Tandberg were associated with conferencing; ClearOne with audio; and Crestron and AMX with integrated room control.

Several of those names would later be acquired, rebranded or absorbed into larger technology businesses.

Many of those brands, through mergers and acquisitions, continue to influence workplace technology today.

ETC Venues

An early glimpse into the flexible workplace

One of the most interesting stops in Steve’s journey came through ETC Venues.

Long before flexible workspace providers became commonplace, ETC Venues was creating managed event and conference environments within London.

At its flagship Hatton Garden venue, ETC Venues offered several event spaces with varying levels of integrated AV.

Steve maintained the installed systems and adapted them to suit each client’s event, adding staging, projection, mixing desks and repeat displays where the audience or format required them.

One event remains particularly memorable.

A technology company demonstrated a 3D mapping platform capable of visualising cities and fly-through environments.

Years later, technologies like Google Maps would make those experiences commonplace.

At the time, it felt like looking into the future.

“It was incredible seeing where technology was heading.”

The Mid 2000s

Designing simplicity

Throughout Steve’s early career, effective service depended on accurate technical information.

At TASCAM, he worked with extensive libraries of product schematics. If a document was missing, a request could be sent to Japan and the drawings faxed back to the team.

Steve also helped create service bulletins for repair agents across Australia. These highlighted recognised symptoms, relevant areas of a schematic and components that technicians should inspect.

In later years, the aim was to shorten diagnosis times, reduce disruption and provide a better experience for the person waiting for the equipment to be returned.

That principle would follow him into workplace AV: a system could only be supported properly if it had been designed, documented and handed over properly in the first place.

As Steve’s career progressed, his responsibilities expanded.

He moved beyond support engineering and service management into technical operations, consultancy and system design.

This was also where workplace AV began moving from complex specialist systems towards more user-friendly environments.

Audio and video signals were still largely analogue, but the way rooms were controlled was changing.

Systems such as Crestron QuickMedia made it possible to create more structured room designs that could be repeated or expanded, while programmed graphical user interfaces began replacing banks of individual buttons and bespoke relay controls.

The objective was straightforward.

Make technology easier to use.

“Our goal was always to reduce the number of button presses and decisions users needed to make.”

The ideal meeting room experience?

Walk in.

Press ‘Join / Start’.

Choose whether you want to present, audio conference or video conference.

Let the technology do the rest.

Sound familiar?

Many of the principles behind today’s meeting room experiences were already emerging two decades ago.

2009

Why BoomSpace was born

By the time Steve founded AVPlus in 2009, he had worked in almost every corner of the AV industry.

Repair.

Service.

Support.

Programming.

System design.

Technical operations.

Consultancy.

More importantly, Steve had seen what happened when technical design, installation and long-term support were treated as separate stages.

In his service roles, he was frequently brought in after delivery to resolve issues that could have been addressed earlier through stronger technical planning and documentation.

“I was often brought into situations where the customer wasn’t getting what they needed,” Steve explains. “Being on the service side gave me insight into what customers ultimately wanted.”

The problem wasn’t usually the technology itself.

It was the disconnect between design, installation and support.

Steve wanted to create something different.

Solutions that considered the complete lifecycle, not just the installation.

“My goal was to create systems that reduced friction for the customer and didn’t put them in embarrassing situations when they needed the technology to work, and I knew I could do it.”

That philosophy became the foundation of AVPlus.

AVPlus Ltd was established in 2009 and later adopted the BoomSpace brand in 2015.

The name changed, but the service-led foundation remained.

Today, that same thinking runs through BoomSpace’s end-to-end AV services, bringing consultancy, design, integration and long-term support together rather than treating them as separate stages. 

BoomCare carries that service-led foundation forward, helping clients maintain reliable, supportable AV environments beyond installation and handover. 

Four Decades Later

Today, workplace technology has evolved beyond anything imaginable when Steve began writing code on an IBM PC.

Meeting rooms are intelligent.

Audio is processed by AI.

Collaboration happens instantly across continents.

Modern meeting room AV solutions may look very different from the systems Steve first worked with, but his thinking hasn’t really changed: design the room properly from the start, think about the people using it and how it will be supported, and make sure the technology works when they need it.

But despite all that change, one principle remains exactly the same.

People simply want technology that is reliable.

Reflecting on more than four decades in the industry, Steve’s philosophy remains remarkably consistent.

“What I’ve learned over the years is that clients rarely remember the technology itself. They remember whether it worked when they needed it most. They need confidence in what we put together. We’re fully accountable for what we put forward, and the client project leads should look good at the end of it.”

From repairing televisions and maintaining reel-to-reel recorders to designing intelligent workplaces and modern collaboration environments, the technology has changed dramatically.

The responsibility behind it hasn’t.

And perhaps that’s the most important lesson in the history of AV.

Where the journey leads today

Planning a workplace fit-out, meeting room upgrade or wider AV standardisation programme? Explore how BoomSpace brings consultancy, system design, integration and long-term support together.

Explore our AV Services

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