Hello everyone, how’s everyone doing this week? It is time for another update of my placement diary! Last week I have mentioned briefly with the background of the AV industry and some overview with my placement job. Therefore I’ll be introducing each department I have stayed so far, shall we begin then!
大家好！不知道大家這週過得如何呢～又到了每週更新我實習近況的時間了！上禮拜我有大概提到A/V產業的背景產業的背景還有一些對於我實習工作的介紹，那麼這禮拜我就要繼續更詳細的跟大家分享我目前待過的各個部門囉，那麼我麼就開始吧！
If you guys can remember, the departments that I have mentioned last week including CAD, PE and Rack Build/Test, and this week I have experienced the other two more department which are pre-sales and service. Following by the project life cycle, I will start from pre-sales as today’s introduction. Pre-sales, as you can see this is a department to deal with all the design and communication between the client and suppliers before a project has been actually sold and confirmed. Before going into the department and shadowing the member in the team, I thought this department was more sales related. However, this department did actually require a certain amount of technical background since they are in charge of as said the first draft of design that will be send through and compete with another competitors. At the same time, having contacts and good relationship between the client and suppliers is also another key. This week, I got an opportunity to visit one of our distributors, PSCo to attend their new office launch party in Bracknell. Distributors often invited their clients (AVMI is one of their biggest buyers) to showcase their latest products which we might considered using them in the future design. PSCo is a distributor that mainly focus on displays, such as LED panel, OLED and LCD monitors. Apart from monitors, such as Epson and Blackmagic are also included in the PSCo group. Blackmagic does quite a lot of broadcast devices like vision mixers and cameras, but nowadays they are trying to merge A/V industry with broadcast industry to bring out a more efficient methods.
如果大家還記得我在上一篇文章提到過的部門，包含了CAD, PE 還有Rack Build/Test，這禮拜我又多參觀了兩個新的部門分別是pre-sales和service。那今天的部門介紹就依照專案的流程，我會從pre-sale開始跟大家講解～Pre-sales顧名思義就是在一個項目賣出確認之前負責所有設計和與客戶、供應商之間溝通的部門。在我到這個部門見習之前，我還以為這個部門是做跟採購差不多的工作內容，不過這個部門其實是需要蠻多技術性背景的，因為這個部門是必須負責整個專案的設計初稿，也會被拿去跟其他同業競爭。同時跟客戶和供應商建立良好的關係也是在這個部門工作的一大重點。這禮拜我也得到參觀供應商PSCo在Bracknell的新辦公室落成派對的機會，供應商們會時不時地邀請他們的客戶(AVMI算是他們其中一個大客戶)去參觀他們最新的產品，以得到新商品被採買到他們的項目的機會。PSCo是一家專們供應顯示器的經銷商，像是LED,OLED跟LCD都包含在他們的業務範疇。除了螢幕以外，像是Epson跟Blackmagic也在PSCo集團下。Blackmagic祝要是做影視傳播的設備，不過近年來他們也逐漸擴展他們的產品結合A/V懺業和傳播產業，已達到最高品質高效率的結果。
LED walls!
After the pre-sale department has made their design and got the project confirmed, the project will be distributed by the project manager to each different PE team. If say the pre-sales team is doing the general design and list out the project proposal, PE (Project Engineer) department is to design in details to get all the connections and cables correct and working on the schematic and constantly communicate with the rack build/test team to make a design into a physical thing. CAD is also very similar to PE but less technology related, what they do is kinda like interior design that draw out every AV equipment, power supply and cables on the floor plan to clarify each location and dimension. After the project has went through PE and CAD, the schematic will be send through rack build/test team, to follow step by step on the schematic and build the rack physically and test if it can actually work. I have been terminated different cables for my two days in rack build, which is quite cool since I bet not a lot of people has seen inside a plug or power supply. Some hands-on practical is always more interesting then just looking at drawings sometimes.
在pre-sale部門確定了他們的設計和拿到案子之後，專案會交接給專案經理來分配工作給不同的PE組別。如果說pre-sales是負責做整體設計跟條列客戶的需求，PE就是負責做後續的細部設計，包含每條線每個連接器都要一個一個仔細的畫在工程圖上，後續還要和Rack build/test一直反覆查看有沒有什麼問題，讓他們的設計正確的被操作跟建造出來。CAD部門跟PE有一點像，主要也是要把pre-sale給的設計大綱做更仔細的規劃，而他們的設計會更偏向室內設計。他們要把每一項要在現場擺放的影音硬體精確的話在樓層塗上，還要規劃更多有關線路的安排。專案經過CADC和PE的設計之後，工程圖就會交給Rack build team來一步一步依照工程圖上畫的指示來建造出一個實體的硬體櫃(Rack)還有給Rack test team來測試每一項硬軟體都是正確運作的。在rack build部門的兩天之內，我焊接了好多不同的電線，真的還蠻酷的因為我相信應該很多人都沒看過電線的裡面長怎樣。而且有一些時間來接觸實作的工作也是比光看圖看電腦好玩。
Outdoor display and food truck😋
Another department was service, which is the process of maintain or repair after a project has been sold or even take over someone else’s installed project. The contract can be sold in different time restrictions from 3-4 days to 1 hour, which is the time that our engineers has to be onsite and take a look of the faults. I have also been onsite with one of the onsite service engineer to look and solve the faulty and all the problem shooting process. The company was Zurich Insurance in London that they have some dial issue in their conference rooms. Following by the diagnose methods and problem shooting, we have solved the problem properly onsite also I got the whole structure of onsite engineering process. Furthermore, finally got a chance to go into London for work is always very fascinated and making me feel like an official workers now😆
另一個部門就是服務部門了，也就是在專案順利被安專運作之後提供各種維護和維修的部門，有時候我們也會拿到由別的公司安裝，但是我們做服務合約的案子。服務合約有不同的時間限制，像是從3-4天到一小時都是我們的服務工程師需要趕到現場解決的時間。在見習服務部門的時候，我也有跟著其中一位服務工程師到現場來見習他維修的整個過程。我們的客戶是Zurich Insurance在倫敦的辦公室出現了一些電話撥出的問題。跟著維修工程師到現場診斷，我們最後順利解決了會議室裡面的問題，也讓我看到了整個維修的過程。還有就是終於有機會進到倫敦工作，一切都讓我感到非常新奇，也讓我漸漸有了成為正式職場人的感覺😆
Don’t know if you guys have enjoy the article I have brought to you guys this week? A very detailed department introduction! Next week is the last week of my shadowing month, and I will be starting to do some real job in certain department in the future. Tomorrow is also the last bank holiday vacation before Christmas. Enjoy the sunshine in the UK and have a nice week! See you later~
不知道大家喜不喜歡我這週為大家帶來的文章呢？真的是把我待過的所有部門都大公開了！下週是我見習月的最後一個禮拜了，我接下來會真的開始在一些部門接工作了。明天也是英國的Bank Holiday假日，希望大家都能享受這週在英國的陽光度過美好的一週喔～下次見啦！
Mandy xx
