--- Forwarded Message from Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 15:33:27 -0400
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum               <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Judy Shoaf <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5004 (ADVTSG) 26 position SONY-9000

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>>Subject: Re: #5004 (ADVTSG) 26 position SONY-9000
>
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>I am interested to know how most Lab managers deal with the issue of
>repairs to audio equipment.  Do most Labs contract an independant service
>to maintain and repair audio equipment, or does a staff member do this.  If
>the maintenance of equipment is by an outside service, what is the service
>arrangement?  Is the cost of this service much greater than the cost of
>sending out individual pieces of equipment and of maintaining the equipment
>oneself?

Here at the University of Florida, when I took over the job, I found that
the policy was to see that the technical support staff  for the Office of
Instructional Resources (mostly one man, Mike) had training from Sony,
Telex, etc. in maintaining the language lab equipment. When we replaced our
duplicators, one argument for sticking with Telex was that  Mike had Telex
training (though on a completely different machine!). There are a lot of
repairs that he can do, though when the Sony console began to work
erratically the only repair that really worked was replacing the computer
with one from a console no longer used. Cannibalism, i.e.!

Mike is, as you can imagine, usually very busy, and much of our equipment
went unrepaired for years--then I got lucky and found an underemployed but
highly skilled staff member in a related department who took several weeks
to get *all* our student units and headsets back in working order (before he
got promoted to a position that kept him busy)! I think Mike gave him some
advice and he just was knowledgeable enough to know what the problem was
likely to be and how to fix it. 

So one possible solution if it's headsets and student players that are out
of order is to "borrow" someone from another part of the university to
repair everything at once. He or she might have to work in the lab itself to
test the players in situ--our repairman had a complicated setup to provide
the power to the student players.

The latest news is that Mike is not supposed to give the lab tech support
any more--his job description has changed under a new administration with
different priorities. We'll see what happens next-- Tune in next Fall--

Judy Shoaf
University of Florida
Language Learning Center