Volume 7, Issue 2 – February 28, 2018
AV Insider
The Trade Show Minute
Rants and rAVes
Selling AV
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February 26, 2018
Episode 126: Are you HTA Certified?
Josh Christian, Director of Certification at the Home Technology Association (HTA), & Matt Johnson, General Manager at Aurum, speak with me about what is and why HTA, the Home Technology Association and the HTA Certification program launched last year & what the response been like from dealers and manufacturers.
We also discuss how the HTA certification differs from, and complements, CEDIA certification and the other programs already out there, along with why the company certification is important.
We cover the certification tiers, things needed for achieving certification, the benefits to consumers when they hire an HTA-certified firm, & tools the HTA provides for the consumers to help them make a more informed technology buying decision, which benefits them & the potential integrator. All this and more, on this episode of AV Insider.
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February 19, 2018
Episode 125: Wolf Cinema: The New Standard of Excellence
Jim McGall, Director Of Sales at Wolf Cinema, speaks with me about the highest quality reference projectors, only offered via Wolf Cinema. We discuss quality, standards, craftsmanship, and some incredibly unique video solutions. We briefly discus the roadmap for Wolf Cinema, what trade shows you can view their gear at, and much more. There’s a new standard of excellence and Wolf Cinema is providing the highest quality of projectors so you can enjoy it. All this and more, on this episode of AV Insider.
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February 13, 2018
Episode 124: OneVision Resources: Unlocking Your Service Potential in the Connected Home
Joseph Kolchinsky, founder & CEO of OneVision Resources, speaks with me the entire story of OneVision Resources, dating back to 2008, when a young joey started this journey which has more than doubled in growth, year-over-year. We cover dealer base, services and the need for them and how to turn you into a technology manager which will bring in reoccurring revenue for your integration business. OneVision Resources will streamline your operations, improve the service experience, increase the long term value of your business and more, but you won’t know how unless you listen to this episode of AV Insider.
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February 1, 2018
Episode 123: Epiphan Video’s Pearl-2: Simplify Your Live Video Production
David Kirk, VP Product Marketing at Epiphan Video, speaks with me about a few updates at Epiphan, since the last time he graced our airwaves back on episode 24. We cover all things live video, and how Pearl-2 has improved upon the process, and how forward thinking the product is itself, even by today’s standards.
We can’t really share with you all the things that are coming down Epiphan’s roadmap, but if you tune into this episode, you’ll get a sneak peek at something new before everyone else does. All this and more, on this edition of AV insider.
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February 26, 2018
Episode 686: Aurora’s Paul Harris Accepts Crestron’s Challenge
At ISE, Crestron did a head-to-head shoot-out between their 1G NVX system and the 10G SDVoE systems out there. Paul Harris, founder of Aurora Multimedia, says his company was called out either at the ISE shoot-out or on a pre-ISE video shared by Crestron on LinkedIn as under-performing. In today’s podcast, he’s clearly on a mission to set the record straight – even giving kudos to Crestron for having the best 1G product out there. But, he says comparing 1G to 10G is wrong. Listen to his logic on this podcast and then watch his own shoot-out (referred to in this podcast) here. On that page, he also offers up what he calls a Challenge Test Kit so you can do your own AV-over-IP shoot-outs in-house.
At ISE, Aurora launched a new IPX Series of 10G AV-over-IP products including the industry’s first wall-plate AV-over-IP solution. The entire line is here.
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February 23, 2018
Episode 685: Crestron Shows Us the Actual ISE Shoot-Out on a Special Videocast
There’s been a lot of talk about what Crestron did at ISE — a shoot-out between 1G and 10G AV-over-IP systems at ISE a couple of weeks ago in Amsterdam. So, here it is — an actual live video version of it. But, with all the talk about them comparing their 1G NVX product line to the SDVoE 10G AV-over-IP products out there, what I saw was CLEARLY more of a 1G versus 1G head-to-head shootout between them and AMX’s SVSi line – the current market leader. So, if I were AMX I’d be way, way more concerned than SDVoE. Clearly Crestron is taking aim at AMX and their SVSi line and, from this shootout and the one I saw live at ISE, the Crestron NVX seems to be outperforming SVSi.
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February 21, 2018
Episode 683: NEC’s ISE Debrief With Thomas Walter Is Exactly Why NEC Won the Best Booth Award at ISE
NEC’s stand was awarded the best XL both at ISE because it was applications focused – and looked stunning! Gary was joined by NEC Europe’s Strategic Product Marketing, Thomas Walter, on today’s podcast to not only talk about their award but how the applications-focused booth was a stand-out at ISE and made a difference in record traffic. In addition to showing new LED’s, thanks to their recent acquisition of German-based S[quadrat], a new line of V and P series LCDs that included a 98” one, a 40K lumen laser projector, a native 4K projector and retail signage that included every display technology on earth, NEC Europe showed everything in applications-form — including dedicating 1/3rd of their stand to a retail experience center. In fact, you can watch my LIVE booth tour from the NEC stand at ISE here (and you can see everything that way) — it even includes us running into people as, for some reason, we decided to do it at the busiest time of the day for NEC. And, you can see all 12 of the videos we shot at the NEC stand here.
But, first, listen to today’s podcast with Gary and Thomas!
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February 20, 2018
Episode 682: NETGEAR Talks the Future of AV-over-IP and Their New AV-Aimed Network Switch
Gary was, again, joined by NETGEAR’s Laurent Masia, NETGEAR’s Senior Product Line Manager for Smart & Managed Switches, on today’s podcast to understand NETGEAR’s vision of AV-over-IP. They feel that if you’re aiming for perfect-imaging, you need to focus on SDVoE and their new M4300-96X is a 96-port (approx. $100 per port) switch is 100% AV-over-IP ready for both copper and fiber applications. Here’s a video we shot of it at ISE.
Masia also shares how you can get more education on AV-over-IP from both the SDVoE Alliance as well as from NETGEAR and he even delivered an AV-over-IP educational session at ISE that you can watch here. That session is sort-of a 1-hour crash course in sending AV signals over IP.
We hope you’ll listen to the podcast first and then go watch his educational session!
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February 19, 2018
Episode 681: Want to See a 128×128 AV-over-IP System Work? IDK Has One!
Certainly a debrief about how IDK felt about exhibiting at their first ISE Show in Amsterdam — with their SDVoE-based AV-over-IP solution NINJAR — was required on this podcast with IDK’s Chris Miller and Ryohei Iwasaki, but the best part wasn’t even podcast-related. While preparing for the podcast, they let me see a top-secret IDK Japan-made video of a 128 input by 128 output AV-over-IP system running in real-time over video. I begged them to allow me to make that video public and they relented – this is exactly what people want to see: proof-of-concept. You can watch it here. We did shoot a video on their NINJAR product (the product running that 128 x 128 system) while we were at ISE and you can see that video here.
So, after watching it, tell me what you think? I want to hear from he AV-over-IP naysayers out there. How can you not believe this is on the horizon after watching that proof-of-concept video? Listen to this podcast with IDK below!
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February 1, 2018
Episode 676: ISE Special Videocast: iMAG Systems Heads to ISE With New iPress Button Solution for AV-over-IP
iMAG used rAVe RADIO today to launch a product no one else has ever seen! It’s a single-button approach to controlling an AV-over-IP function – literally any function. Gary was joined by iMAG founder, Gerry Raffaut, today on his Rant’s and rAVe podcast on a special video-version to demo their iPress and show him how their new analytics package works with AV-over-IP allowing you to track anything and everything connected. iMAG has both JPEG 2000 and SDVoE AV-over-IP transmission systems for both 1Gig and 10Gig networks all the way to 4K 4:4:4 and HDR. iMAG will be at the ISE Show next week in Amsterdam and will be in Hall 15 Stand R300 or you can visit them here: http://imagsystems.com
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February 1, 2018
Episode 675: ISE Special Podcast: Barco Is All About Collaboration and Meeting Experiences at ISE With Focus on ClickShare and WePresent
In addition to their obvious array of new display gear – and the first time most AV people will see UniSee – Barco will use Hall 12 Stand F100 at the ISE Show to demo their new ClickShare products, software vision 1.5 and the family of WePresent products – now branded as Barco. Version 1.5 includes new audio lip-syncing timing, 30fps video for any connected device and new levels of security. And, the newest ClickShare, the CSE-800, as well as all of the existing ClickShare line can use it now. Gary was joined by Barco’s Lieven Bertier, ClickShare Global Marketing Manager, and Michaël Vanderheeren, Product Manager for ClickShare, who explained their ISE stand, their integration fo the WePresent K-12 and Higher-Ed BYOD line as well as how attendees can with Gold (yes, gold) and a free room upgrade. Listen to hear how.
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For all you REGULAR listeners of rAVe Radio 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 percent opinionated. We not only report the news and new product stories of the ProAV and HomeAV industries, but we stuff the articles full of our 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 or say anything good (or bad).
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.
A little about me: I graduated from Journalism School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where I am adjunct faculty). I’ve been in the AV industry since 1987 where I started with Extron and eventually moved to AMX. So, I guess I am an industry veteran (although I don’t think I am that old). I have been an opinionated columnist for a number of industry publications and in the late 1990s I started the widely read KNews eNewsletter (the first in the AV market) and also created the model for and was co-founder of AV Avenue, which is now known as InfoComm IQ. rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter, rAVe ProAV Edition.
Everything we publish is Opt-in – we spam NO ONE! rAVe ProAV Edition is our flagship ePublication with what we believe is a reach of virtually everyone in the ProAV market. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA and launched in June 2004, is, by far, the largest ePub in the HomeAV market. We added rAVe Rental [and Staging] in December 2007, rAVe ED [Education] in May 2008 and then rAVe DS [Digital Signage] in June 2009. We added rAVe GHGav [Green, Healthcare & Government AV] in August 2010 and rAVe HOW [House of Worship] in August 2012. rAVe Radio, our podcasts, were launched in 2012. You can subscribe to any of those publication or see ALL our archives by going to: https://www.ravepubs.com
To read more about my background, our team and what we do, go to https://www.ravepubs.com
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Copyright 2018 – 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 contains the opinions of the author only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of other persons or companies or its sponsors.
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