From Glouberman and Color War to managing Covid tech, Nick Parsons advanced school internet into the 2020s
LOCAL: Mr. Nick Parsons plans to stay in Los Angeles.
September 21, 2022
Mr. Nick Parsons, who worked long hours during quarantine to make online school possible and oversaw improvements to Glouberman broadcasts, has left to work as a freelance producer of livestreams and other events.
After working as the Director of Technology at Shalhevet since 2017, Mr. Parsons said has turned what was once a summer hobby into a full-time career. Before working at Shalhevet, he worked at YULA, but ran corporate events around the world during summer vacations.
He said that since the pandemic, live-streaming of events has become much more popular.
“There’s this huge need for freelancers, and a huge void to be filled so it’s the best time for me to be switching careers,” said Mr. Parsons, who was known by students and staff as Nick.
He said he plans to stay in Los Angeles, where LAX allows him to get into event production across the world, including for in-person events, hybrid events and live streams.
During his time at Shalhevet, Mr. Parsons updated the building’s internet connection, along with the live-streaming component of the Steve Glouberman Basketball Tournament and the audio and visual needs of Color War.
Being a one-man department – it was really hard.
— Mr. Nick Parsons, Former Director of Technology
When hybrid learning became a new normal in 2021, Mr. Parsons set up the school’s Owl devices, 360-degree cylinders which work like cameras and let students learning follow lessons with both audio and video, streaming directly to their devices via Zoom as the teachers and discussions moved around the classroom.
When Mr. Parsons started, the technological part of the Steve Glouberman Basketball Tournament was much more basic than it is today. For example, the livestreaming component of the games used only stationary cameras.
“Glouberman was brand new, and the livestream for that was like little web cameras on pipes,” Mr. Parsons said.
Now, student camera operators can follow the players and the ball in a much more precise way, and the picture is much clearer and more smooth.
Mr. Parsons also enjoyed Color War, working with then-Student Activities Director Ms. Ilana Wilner through the two-plus days of games, art projects, divrei Torah and more.
“We were exhausted but we would have a blast together,” Mr. Parsons said.
Over the years, the job became too big for one person, Mr. Parsons said, and in fact, he has been replaced by the GottIT tech company and four people – Age Dawson, Gabe Ceyala, Elliot Peters and company founder Josh Gottlieb.
“Being a one-man department – it was really hard,” said Mr. Parsons. “I had to do everything by myself.”
But, he added, leaving was also hard.
“All the original IT equipment from when the building was built has been changed out by me over the past five years and it’s just kind of a weird thing to like spend all this time and work and then walk away,” he said. “It’s really hard.”
