|
Volume 5, Issue 10 — October 18, 2011
|
| | |
| | |
|
Click here for more information |
"We Have Met the Enemy…"
By Joel Rollins, CTS Back in “olden times,” when I used to read a couple of actual printed-on-newsprint newspapers every day, there were always things that caught my eye just as much as the articles (mostly technology-oriented) that I went there to read. Among them were the daily “funnies,” with the best of them (in my humble opinion) being “Far Side” and “Pogo.”
Now that my iPad digests several newspapers for me, giving me the search results as discrete articles, my eye no longer wanders across those cartoons — in fact, I’m not sure they still exist. But sometimes the things that were contained in them were not just funny, but had a way of speaking to a higher truth. My favorite of all time was a strip in Pogo, from which came the quote, “We have met the enemy, and they are us.”
It has been one of my favorite quotes for many years, and there are times (like right now, for instance) that I have felt it defined our industry better than any other line. We prophesy our own doom more often than any other group I have ever known, and since prophecies often become self-fulfilling, I thought I’d better speak out against one of them. And it’s one that I hear more often, both in print and in conversation, than any other.
It’s the myth that the “AV industry” is losing out to the “IT Industry,” or that we might, or that we will if we don’t immediately… etc, etc.
Anybody who sees our “industry” in that position lost their grasp on who “we” are back when they saw the sales of opaque projectors declining. And, personally, I’m no longer willing to let “their” definition of our business stand, because it produces many false choices.
First, let’s talk about just who “we” are. The audiovisual industry has been part of the overall digital information infrastructure since the ‘90s — for some of us, depending on who our clients are, since the ‘80s. We have been integrating visual and audio systems with computer networks and digital information for decades now, and have evolved with it. Currently, I hold industry certifications from as many IT manufacturers and organizations as I do “traditional” AV organizations, and so do most of my employees and many of my colleagues. We no longer see them as separate “industries,” because THEY AREN’T.
Second, let’s really talk about who “THEY” are. Can anybody define them? No, because the “IT Industry” is as fragmented as we are, with as many different companies and organizations with as many different specialties as we have. “They” range from the “genius” guys at the Apple Store and Fry’s to the CIO at your local hedge fund, and have just as much in common. They, like us, are too busy struggling with changes imposed on them by empowered users whose demands are based on widespread consumer technologies that are driving them to change their rules and operating methods. With a foot in both camps, I can tell you (from my personal perspective) that “they” have no designs on “our” industry — because, like us, they are beginning to see them as the same thing.
Back when video took over from film, this same level of discussion was held, over and over, about whether corporate video departments were going to replace their local AV company. Sure, some manufacturers of optical gear went away at that time, and were replaced by electronics companies, but our businesses marched along, broadening our industry.
It makes me wonder, often, if the divisions between “them” and “us” are really just a fight for constituency groups between industry organizations, trade publications and distributors… because down in the trenches, whether we realize it or not, the two groups aren’t competing. They are simply merging and getting the job done through whatever channels are necessary. Because that’s what we do. We evolve with the times, get the knowledge we need to to sell the latest generation of product, and MOVE ON.
Will that industry expertise come from different places? Sure, because it always has. I haven’t attended any AVL courses anytime recently, but Cisco, Apple, Polycom and Microsoft are always on my horizon, along with dozens of others. And they are for most of the people I talk to, too.
The definition of our business IS changing, because it always does. It won’t stop to let any of us in the geriatric crowd attempt to continue operating within a definition that no longer makes sense — and trying to “discuss” it away won’t make any difference at all. Some of us are going to simply redefine. And some are not.
Evolve or die, but stop dithering over it.
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contributor Joel R. Rollins, CTS-R, is General Manager of Everett Hall Associates, Inc. and is well known throughout the professional AV industry for his contributions to industry training and his extensive background in AV rental, staging and installation. Joel can be reached at joelrollins@mac.com Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top |
Click here for more information |
Listen Intros Wireless Mic Conferencing Products Listen Technologies has introduced a new line of multi-band wireless conference solutions called Confidea, using technologies co-developed by Televic. This is being touted as a game-changer by Listen, and we agree. This is a creative concept and makes good use of new wireless technologies. According to Listen, Confidea has been developed from the ground-up and uses a WCAP (Wireless Conferencing Access Point) that automatically manages RF frequency selection (with a 100' radius) that's basically "networking" wireless conferencing mics in a room that are communicating together via the WCAP. In addition, each mic is housed in a base station that includes voting buttons, push-to-talk indicators, built-in speakers for voice amplification without using distributed audio, channel selection and are battery operated.
The entire system can be housed in a 12-unit carrying case and a battery pack charging tray. Want to read all about it? Open this PDF: https://www.ravepubs.com/utility/documents/Listen-1011.pdf Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top Christie to Ship 7K and 12K Lumen Projectors in November Two of Christie's top new introductions from InfoComm will ship in less than a month — the LHD700 and the LX1200. The LHD700 is a 3LCD single-lamp, portable projector that has 7000 ANSI lumen brightness, is 1920×1080 native, includes a 3000:1 contrast ratio, a 2000 hour lamp and is integrated with 4DColor technology that claims a 20 percent increase in color gamut over comparable 3LCD models. The LX1200 is also a 3LCD dual-lamp projector that is spec'd at 12,000 ANSI lumens with native XGA (1024×768) resolution, a 2000 hour lamp, 4000:1 contrast ratio and is also integrated with 4DColor technology.
Both projectors are integrated with 10-bit video processing, have a range of short and long throw lenses, and include an eco-mode for lower cost operation in low light environments.
Full specs for the LHD700 are here: http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/business/products/projectors/lcd-display/Pages/Christie-LHD700-3lcd-projector.aspx
Full specs for the LX1200 are here: http://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/business/products/projectors/lcd-display/pages/christie-lx1200-3lcd-projector.aspx Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top
Click here for more information TransLux Adds New LCD Line Known for its giant LED screens, Trans-Lux debuted a new line of so-called TL Vision LCDs this week. They ranges in size from 19 inches to 82 inches and are aimed at the rental and digital signage markets. With a brightness spec range of levels from 300 cd/m to 700 cd/m and contrast ratios ranging from 1000:1 to 5000:1, depending on the display size, the TL Vision series input both analog and digital signals, have RS232 and IP control, are VESA capable and have a built-in automatic on/off timer aimed at reducing energy consumption. TL Vision LCD Displays are specified to 50,000 hours and are available in 19”, 24”, 32”, 40”, 46”, 55”, 65”, 70” and 82” configurations.
For complete specs, you'll have to wait as they aren't on TransLux's website yet, but when they are, they will be here: http://www.trans-lux.com/tl-vision/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top DiGiCo Debuts Two New Mixing Consoles DiGiCo launched the latest in its series of I/O rack modules in the form of a MINI and a NANO rack. The MINI rack has four standard SD hot swappable I/O card slots that can be populated with any combination of the SD-based rack I/O cards including mic and line input, line output, AES I/O, AES IN, AES OUT, ADAT, AVIOM, DANTE and even an HD-SDi. Standard on the rack are MADI I/O connections along with the choice of either HMA, OpticalCon or ST optics.
Half the physical size of the MINI rack, the NANO offers two SD hot swappable I/O card slots, with the same card options but the optical connections are user defined with HMA, OpticalCon or ST options, like in the MINI version.
Both consoles can share the inputs of all racks, while any slot of eight outputs on any rack can be allocated to any console on the optical network, provided it has not been previously allocated by another console.
Complete details can be found here: http://www.digico.biz/docs2/about/console_lineup.shtml Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top The Future of Display is Shaped: Mitsubishi's Semispherical OLED Display Ask yourself about “shape of the future” in displays and the natural conclusion is that once displays go flatter and flatter, the next direction is shape-changing.
This June, Mitsubishi Electric created a semispherical OLED display called Geo-Cosmos for Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.
Now the concept has developed further with a prototype (diameter 2,700 mm, thickness of convex part 680 mm) shown at CEATEC, Japan’s high tech fair. Press in Japan report the company is trying to gauge the demand. The semispherical display uses 696 OLED elements (with each element measuring 32×32 mm and a pixel pitch of 3 mm). Using a passive-matrix method, the red, green and blue sub-pixels are arrayed like stripes. The brightness of the display is spec'd at 1200 cd/m2.
Mitsubishi Electric also makes displays with concave-convex shapes.
Here's the full story: http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20111004/198945/ Leave a Comment
Share Article Back to Top |
For all you REGULAR readers of rAVe Rental [and Staging] out there, hopefully you enjoyed another opinion-packed issue!
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read how we are — we are 100% opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the rental and staging industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions — in this case, it’s industry-veteran Joel Rollins' opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that’s why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
Don’t like us, then go away — unsubscribe! Just use the link below.
To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter — instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007. rAVe Ed [Education] launched in May 2008. rAVe DS [Digital Signage] was launched in January of 2009.
To read more about my background, our team, and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com Back to Top Copyright 2011 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln., Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe Rental [and Staging] contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors. |
|
|
|