New Trainer in Town at Chief

Posted on 10/20/2015 by Chief Team

If you keep up with Chief’s training and product demo videos, you may have noticed a big shift in the past couple months. InfoComm officially marked the end of the Mike Moon era for Chief training. Moon moved to another department in Milestone to become a mechanical designer.

In his place, we have Tyrel Boehm. He’s a familiar face to many, since he spent the last two years driving around the country as the Chief and Da-Lite Roadshow Specialist. Consider this post your re-introduction of “Ty Boom,” Chief’s newest Training and Installation Specialist.

What does that mean? Ty’s our guy to lead learning sessions, head up the Chief Certification program, coordinate equipment and set up for tradeshow booths and star in Chief’s videos. Here’s one of them:

Let’s get to know our intrepid trainer a bit more. I sat down with Tyrel recently for a question and answer session.

As an Army veteran, Tyrel is no stranger to travel from his roots in Mandan, N.D. He spent two years stationed in Germany, where he saw much of Western Europe. Stateside, he’s lived in seven states and toured several others.

Tyrel has been a fan of music and all things audio since getting his first guitar in high school. He enjoyed taking apart VCRs and video games, hosted LAN parties and built his own computer. In the Army, he reached E4 rank as a specialist in network switching systems operation and maintenance.

Since leaving the Army in 2003, he spent six years as a foreman for tree companies in Mandan and Fargo, N.D., before moving to Minneapolis to attend the Institute of Production and Recording where he studied audio engineering, music composition and film post-production. He lent his expert assistance with sound for Chief videos when he was at headquarters over his two years as Road Show Specialist. After the 2014 Road Show, he stuck around to help previous Training and Installation Specialist, Mike Moon.

“Mike was able to leverage me for two years as help for certification, training, shows and videos. Whenever I wasn’t on the road show, I helped him with these things,” Tyrel said. “I was asked if I was going to be interested in this position. Mike was moving to the engineering department.”

After stepping up to help with DSE, Tyrel took charge for InfoComm 2015. You’ll be seeing a lot more of Tyrel in the coming years – both at tradeshows and in Chief videos. So it doesn’t hurt to take a few more minutes to find the lighter side of Ty with a quick Q & A.

What is your goal with training over the next year?

A lot of that is determined by product lines. We hope to revitalize, revamp and bring a new light to Chief certification. Get the newer products on there. We’re also going to be adding Da-Lite to the mix next year.

Are there hard feelings with you and Goldie, the Road Show Truck?

Nope. There was a time, that’s for sure. Goldie really gave me some hard times last year. A lot of frustrating moments sitting alongside the interstate. Cursing. Tires.

Do you know what it’s like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, behind blue eyes?

Not blue eyes, but sure.

Would you rather fight one horse sized Mike or 100 duck-sized Mikes?

Are the ducks in column formation. Horse, I would domesticate and make it a beast of burden

Who wins – Godzilla or Optimus Prime?

Optimus Prime, a robot from another world. Godzilla’s just a big lizard.

Why do you hate Godzilla so much?

It was the only Imax movie and only movie I’ve seen in the theater in the last three years.

Where will you be when the Singularity happens?

I would be close to a computer terminal with my USB plug in hand. I’m not opposed to uploading my consciousness for all eternity. It depends on the circumstances.

What is your favorite star – Trek or Wars or Battle or Search?

The newest Battlestar won me over to the sci-fi world. If Gate was an option, I’d choose that. I own most of Star Gate seasons.

What do you enjoy about working at Milestone?

Milestone AV is a warm and welcoming family where everyone feels like they are part of the big picture and are treated as such.  You rarely go about challenges alone and are rewarded when you’ve gone “above and beyond”, even when that is generally just a day’s work.  My arrival here was serendipitous to say the least.

Have a training question for Ty? Ask him at tyrel.boehm@milestone.com