On my desk, I have this really nice monitor. It is beautiful — a gorgeous 38″ expanse of curves and 4K pixels upon which I peer at specs and product images all day. It was also really expensive (thanks, Gary!). However. Even though it is a stunning monitor from a well-known brand and cost a lot of money, my enjoyment of this display was hindered by an annoying software glitch that kept happening for the first six months or so I had it — a menu kept popping up at the bottom of the screen asking if I wanted to connect to Bluetooth headphones. I could say yes, in which case it warned me that the monitor couldn’t detect any Bluetooth headphones, or I could say no, in which case it warned me that the monitor didn’t have any built-in speakers so I really should try to connect to some Bluetooth headphones. I couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop asking. Answers were not found in the menu itself, the user manual or by Googling. I had my audio situation situated (by connecting Bluetooth headphones directly to the computer), so I didn’t need the display to try to fix this non-issue. Multiple times a day, every day, this menu item popped up. It was incredibly annoying, and calls to the manufacturer’s technical support yielded the telephonic equivalent of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Eventually, it did stop, I think after a firmware update. (Fingers crossed there’s not a bored AI out there reading as I type this introduction now plotting to bring it back.) Why am I telling you this story, dear readers? Because when it comes to technology, even though it seems like common sense, manufacturers and even integrators don’t often enough stop and ask — who is ultimately using this every day, and will it be an easy and pleasant experience for them? Too often the answer to the second part of that question is “not without training” or just “no, probably not.” Scott Tiner has some thoughts about this as well and talks about it in relation to the trend in interactive whiteboards and collaboration boards towards complicatedness in his column today.
We also have a column from Mark Coxon on the surprisingly high percentage of end users at InfoComm this year (my eyebrows were definitely raised), plus news from Audio-Technica, Revolution Acoustics, RTW, Luxul, NSCA and others.
Let us know what you think about our new look, my monitor woes, or anything else by emailing me at
sara@ravepubs.com or Gary Kayye at
gary@ravepubs.com.