David Wickstrom

Field recordist of bird songs. President, Celebration Sound Inc., Ithaca, NY 1972-1978, see also Celebration Sound. 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. Consultant, Electroacoustics 1978-present Supervising Engineer, Library of Natural Sounds, Laboratory of Ornithology Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1980-1988 Lecturer, Advanced audio and media production School of Communication Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 1984-1985 Senior Audio Engineer, Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive, Thomas Alva Edison Re-recording Laboratory, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 1990-1992 Member of the Technical Staff, Digital Equipment Corp., Acton, MA 1992-1994 Director of Engineering, Media Machines International L.L.C., Syracuse, NY 1994-1998 Programmer, Multimedia Courseware Studio, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1997-1998 Director of Special Projects, eCornell, Ithaca, NY 2000-2004 David Wickstrom works in the field of media and media archiving with a career in the technologies of communications. 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 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. 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.