Profile: Elbert Lee
Elbert Lee is the technical services and audiovisual supervisor in Media Services in IT. He provides AV support to the College’s 70+ classrooms that have installed projection systems. This entails training the faculty on the various AV equipment, including helping them connect their laptops to the projection systems and set up their Zoom webcams. He also supervises AV equipment delivery to certain spaces on campus that do not have AV installed and need temporary setups.
Lee is a very familiar face on campus, as he collaborates with multiple academic and administrative departments that host special events in the Bordy Theater, the Beard Room, the Owens Multipurpose Room at 172 Tremont, and the Lion’s Den and Private Dining Room in the Dining Center. He works on at least two or three events per week, and that number increases toward the end of each semester. Most of the events require wired or wireless microphones, as well as slideshows and video presentations. In recent years, he has needed to incorporate Zoom into events that have hybrid presenters and audiences.
At the events, Lee sets up laptops, projectors, microphones, webcams, and PA systems and trains staff and faculty on the equipment. For more complicated AV requests, he runs the equipment himself during the events. He also provides videoconferencing support for VIP events for the President’s Office, such as the Board of Trustees’ semiannual meetings on the Boston campus.
He works with the Iwasaki Library to provide digitization and dubbing services for audio and video titles in the collections that are not available in a digital format. Once he completes his work, faculty and students are able to view the titles through Panopto, the streaming service that currently hosts the College’s media content.
As one of IT’s Zoom videoconferencing whizzes, Lee is a go-to person for helping users with account settings and webinar activations. He also provides live support if something goes wrong during a Zoom meeting and sometimes simply reminds users to sign in with their Emerson account in order to host a meeting that runs longer than 40 minutes. If he’s not busy running around campus, he can be found at the IT Help Desk, mentoring work-study students on topics including AV troubleshooting and equipment checkout and inventory.
Lee is a double Lion; he obtained a BA in Mass Communication from the College. He has worked here for 22 years and loves the quirky and creative atmosphere. He said, “From all the way back in the days of the Beacon Street brownstones to today at our campus on the Common with larger multi-use buildings, we find a way to create a robust and unique environment that you really have to immerse yourself in to understand….It’s hard to describe in words.”
Lee and his family immigrated to the US from Taiwan in the ’80s. He grew up in the New York City/Westchester area, Brooklyn, and Yonkers. During his college years, his family moved to Queens, where they remain today. After graduating from Emerson, Lee decided to stay in the Boston area.
He is a self-proclaimed expert when it comes to Boston’s Chinatown restaurants and is always happy to provide recommendations. He also enjoys some collectible hobbies, such as trading cards and comics, Takashi Murakami artworks, and pop music. After taking a break from fitness during the pandemic, he’s returned to doing yoga, Zumba, and weightlifting.
The pandemic also affected his vacation planning. He usually travels to a foreign location annually, mainly Asia and the Caribbean. But during the pandemic, he’s had the opportunity to discover the charm of New England through road trips to Maine and Vermont. He tries to send a postcard to Media Services/User Services from each of his trips, and they are displayed on the department’s bulletin board. He invites everyone to stop by and see them once he and his colleagues finish decorating the new IT Help Desk area at Walker 530.
Nancy Howell (Communications and Marketing)