Ross Turnbull

Ross Turnbull’s route into AV began after leaving the Royal Marines in 2015 and building a new technical career from scratch. With no conventional academic pathway into the industry, he moved through project management, systems design, commissioning and programming before progressing into consultancy.

Now a senior associate at Shen, Milsom & Wilke, Turnbull leads UK and international projects that increasingly sit across AV, IT and broadcast rather than traditional AV boundaries. His work includes managing multiple consultancy disciplines on complex projects, while also exploring how AI can improve professional services by reducing repetitive work and allowing small teams to operate more efficiently without replacing experience or judgement.

His interest in AI has also taken him beyond project delivery. Turnbull spoke at ISE 2026 on AI in AV and has presented at manufacturer events. He says being invited to contribute publicly encouraged him to share more of what he has learned rather than keeping that knowledge within individual projects or organisations.

Turnbull wants AV to see itself as part of the wider technology and construction landscape, learning from software and IT around open standards, documented requirements and delivery methodologies.

For young people, he believes AV has an unusually tangible appeal: you can design a system, stand inside the finished environment and experience the result yourself.