Matt Kaitila - Alumni Spotlight

Matt Kaitila has had a remarkably varied career since graduating from OIART’s music and audio production program in 2006. Starting out in television, he worked on the series Regenesis as sound utility and boom op for a season, but then took the opportunity to travel the world for two years as an AV Tech, Front of House Mixer, System Tech and Stage Manager with Norwegian Cruise Lines. There, he met his future wife and they settled together in New York City. Matt worked on indie films and documentaries as a location recordist at first. “It was a great experience, I gained a few good friends and some crazy stories.” Gradually he moved into working with various NYC production companies and started to learn about non audio systems such as video and lighting. The connections led him to the Red Bull Arena where he mixed for the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, then Metlife Stadium where he worked for the NY Giants Super Bowl Championship season.



This led to a job as Lead AV Technical Engineer of Brooklyn’s newly built Barclay’s Center when the facility opened. Now home to the Brooklyn Nets and New York Islanders, Matt helped commission all the sound, broadcast and AV systems, then went on to manage the engineering team, production crews and part time staff for three years. They worked on the MTV Music Video Awards, the NBA Draft and All Star games, HBO Boxing, WWE and a “ton of concerts.” He continued to design systems and perform installs around the building including the Billboard Lounge (  http://www.billboardlounge.com ), while training technical staff. Matt said, “I recently hired grad Mike LaTona (’12), bought a house in New Jersey, then quit… on good terms of course!” Matt has since started a new position at media integration giant Diversified ( http://diversifiedus.com/ ) as a project manager. “It’s been a ride and I really owe it all to my time in London at OIART. Will always love you guys for it. The adventure definitely continues.”