On Delightful User Experiences
Some categorize the quality of a user experience as a hierarchy, like this one: An accessible user interface does its job. You can access and interact with the …
Aesthetics, Part the First — Minimalism and the Tyranny of the Black Rectangle
The past centuries have spanned many technological eras, each with a dominant aesthetic as well as dominant technologies. The Victorian era was the age of …
What Keeps an AV Professional Awake at Night
I still remember my first concerns about user engagement with the technology we provide. It was over a decade ago; we were fitting out four conference rooms …
On Myths and All-Male Panels
CES is here and, with it controversy. Of the six keynote speakers, six are male. That’s a ratio, for those of you mathematically inclined, of 1:0. Of …
On Digital Assistants
An AV consultant once had a conversation with an executive from manufacturer about the most expensive home he’d seen. He asked what kind of control system …
A Visit with Microsoft
When we think conference room and collaboration technology, we too often think of audiovisual collaboration technology, and when we think about that we think …
The Power of Names
Names have power. Names matter. Decades of fantasy literature have taught us that. Kvothe, the kingkiller, gained control of the very air itself when he …
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Software Revolution
I’ve written time and again about the rise of software as opposed to dedicated hardware. About AV as a Service (AVaaS). About how all of those black and …
On Biamp and Baseball: Second Thoughts on the TesiraFORTÉ DAN
Last week, I wrote about Biamp and the announcement that Dante will now be an option in their smaller TesiraFORTÉ DSP units. While it is an interesting story …
At ISE, Crestron Goes Big (and Small), and Biamp Steps Towards Dante
Editor’s Note: Leonard Suskin has additional thoughts on Biamp’s TesiraFORTÉ DAN, which you can read here. ISE has never been quite as big to me …
An Announcement from QSC, the Death of Hardware and Where We Go Next
I’ve been writing for some time about how the days for dedicated hardware in the commercial AV realm might be numbered. We will always, of course, need edge …
Year in Review
While it may have been a quiet last few months of the year for me as I settle in to my new position back in the integration side of the business, you should …
My Journey in AV
In an office suite in New York there was a pit. Not a dirty hole in the ground, filled with spikes and threatened by a swinging pendulum, but a cozy little …
Accessibility for Everyone in a Virtual World
A great deal of digital ink has been spilled on the phenomenon of Pokémon Go, including on these very pages by Gary Kayye, on the AV Power Up! podcast and, of …
A Crack in the Wall Between the Real and Virtual Worlds
Assuming that you’ve not been living under a rock, you’ve at least heard about the Pokémon GO! craze. For the uninitiated, Pokémon Go is an …
InfoComm from Afar
And… one more quick one post-InfoComm post. For the second consecutive year, family obligations kept me away from the big show. Last year it was my …
A Locksmith, a Monkey and the Oldest Profession: On Disruption
While I’m not attending InfoComm in meatspace this year, I’ve managed to flitter in and out of the show via Twitter, Periscope, Snapchat, etc. …
AV and the Price of Oranges
On the fiction side of my blog (I still do write fiction when I’m not here) I wrote a recent vignette about a shopper purchasing some pre-peeled oranges …
A Morning with Shure and Musings on AV Conference Room Topology
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a demo of the new Microflex Advanced microphones from Shure. These are digital beam-steering microphone arrays …
On Language, AV/IT, Teaching and Learning
“Include Kodak in this room.” That’s the line in the client’s system review memo which confused me, and one with which I eventually …
A Primer on Chroma Subsampling and What It Means In Practical Terms
This is not a switcher wars post. I have no interest in discussing the various claims made by one manufacturer or another, the counter claims, counter-counter …
That AMX Backdoor
The AV industry received some unsettling news last week regarding a potential security vulnerability in Harman’s control processors. It was a rare moment …
New Year’s Resolutions for the AV Professional
The new year is upon us. In our personal lives, many will be looking to lose weight, exercise more, curb some of our vices. What of the AV industry? Is there …
On Why We Don’t Have the Shiniest Toys Anymore
AV people used to have the coolest toys. Look back not that many years to the first AV touchpanels you saw; people oohed a bit, they ah-ed a bit and — if …
In Defense of the CTS Program
There’s been some chatter around here lately on the CTS certification. Mark Coxon used his skepticism on renewal rates as a vehicle to question the value …
On Single-Source AV Systems and How We Get There
Last summer, I discussed the tension between selecting “best in breed” components from a single manufacturer and locking oneself into a single …
A Visit with SYMCO
AV Distributor SYMCO rolled into town today for its annual roadshow. Various other commitments kept me from the various days’ events — including an …
Open and Closed — Brief Discussion of WolfVision and Kramer
Post-InfoComm, the good folks at WolfVision brought their new Cynap collaboration appliance to the office for a demo and a chat. Cynap is the latest entry into …
Could TV Really Die? What Would We Lose?
Gary Kayye recently wrote about the death of TV, which could be going the way of the AV system. The question this brings to me is that of, ‘What do we …
An Evening with Polycom — On Software and Experience
Last week my fellow consultants and I were invited to an event at conferencing stalwart Polycom’s New York City experience center. It’s a pretty …
Owner-Furnished Equipment Isn’t An After-Thought — Don’t Treat It as Such
Earlier this year I had a client ask the specifications of the “PC – OFE” (Personal Computer – Owner Furnished Equipment) in one of …
On Architectural Samples and Fighting “Scope Leak”
I seem to have acquired a spool of glowing glass. OK, it’s an architectural sample of Corning’s Fibrance light diffusing fiber, and it landed on my …
