There was little positive news about the A/V in Mitchell Hall in 2024. The speakers started to fail. Repairs became harder and harder to make. Only one projector and screen were operational.

The team in charge of Mitchell Hall — the 1.5-acre Air Force Academy dining hall— had been making requests to upgrade the system to meet the needs of the Cadet Wing and the standards of the Air Force Academy for a few years.

In the fall of 2024, Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind ’91, the Air Force Academy superintendent, prioritized the modernization of the A/V system so that all cadets could hear announcements, see images on screens around the hall and feel a part of the Cadet Wing. The new system was paid for with money from a trust set up by the Dorothy D. and Joseph A. Moller Foundation to improve the Academy.

The Academy worked with the Association & Foundation to complete the project. Over spring break of 2025, crews installed 20 new speakers around the perimeter and five new projectors and screens across the south side of the dining hall. 

The system also includes upgraded lighting for the head table during special dinners, new wireless microphones and much less equipment to run it all. 

The new system debuted, with glowing reviews, on May 23, 2025, for the Ring Dance dinner.

“It’s been a great improvement,” says Glenn Loyche, facility director. “The volume is great, and the cadets can hear all of the announcements.”

He says Mitchell Hall is one of only a few spaces at the Academy that can hold all of the cadets. That makes it even more important that they can easily hear and see important announcements no matter where they are sitting in the building. The upgrade also elevated the way in which cadets and senior leaders experience the facility and interact 
within it.