On infrequent occasions, I write blogs that do not relate directly to technology or AV. I do this because I feel as though I should stick to the things that I know and have experience with. Yet, there are times when something is so important, I feel like I need to say something. Due to […]

Over the past several weeks, the higher ed world has become more widely acquainted with the term “HyFlex.” For some, it’s a vague word that leads to more confusion than clarity. Let’s take an opportunity to think about it and what type of AV installs and equipment would support a HyFlex classroom. Interestingly enough, this […]

Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” This quote is reasonably relevant today, as we have all taken a beating from COVID-19. Most successful firms had developed strategies years ago and have been consistently and successfully following them. However, what we’ve experienced the past several months — […]

It’s June of 2020, and colleges and universities have finished their crazy spring semesters. Most are pivoting, rooted in planning for the fall semester of 2020. A few themes seem to be emerging that will begin to shape what this next school year looks like, and therefore how the AV market will play a role. […]

Many of us are approaching our third month of stay-at-home orders (while others on the West Coast are looking at their fourth month). We — or at least I — spend much of our time thinking/dreaming about when this will come to an end so that we can get back to a normal routine. However, […]

A month ago, I wrote a blog about how financing at higher education institutions works. In that blog, I wrote about how most places, for various reasons, were going to have some tough budget decisions to make due to COVID-19. In the current environment we live in, things change day-to-day. So, I wanted to take […]

2020 will long be remembered as the year that the world changed. We are living through times that are unprecedented and hopefully, will not be experienced again for a very long time. As all of us adjust to this new reality that likely includes becoming a remote worker (and in many cases a home teacher), […]

The current environment we are all living in is scary on many fronts. First and foremost is the health of our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Second, many of us worry about the security of our jobs as the virus causes epic problems with the economy. With everyone staying at home, much economic activity has […]

Technology certainly has its fair share of buzzwords. If you have had your ears open over the past couple of years, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase “digital transformation.” If your experience is similar to mine, you have not only heard about it but also read about it and seen ads for webinars about it. […]

In February, I wrote a blog on universal design in higher ed classrooms. In that blog, I covered the first four of the seven principles of universal design. This month, I am going to cover the remaining three principles. As a refresher, the seven principles are: — Principle One: Equitable Use — Principle Two: Flexibility […]

In December, I was a panelist for a session of the HETMA conference. I can not recall the exact conversation that led to us discussing getting cold calls from vendors. Several of us who are “customers” replied how much we dislike getting the cold calls or emails. What struck me most about the conversation and […]

Last month I wrote about how I thought that accessibility would be a big topic in AV during 2020. A big reason we will hear more about this is a lawsuit that Harvard recently settled with the National Association of the Deaf. In the settlement, Harvard agreed to provide captioning for all new content placed […]

At the turn of every year, I often think of blogging about the big stories or products of the past year, or the promising products of the coming year. I have never written about my resolution for the new year, as they are often personal and not business- or AV-related. However, this year is different. […]

In April I wrote a blog about HETMA, a new association formed by Joe Way and BC Hatchett. Check out the blog to understand more about the association and why it was formed. In this blog, I want to draw your attention to the first-ever virtual conference that HETMA hosted December 9-11, 2019. By all […]

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a video on LinkedIn of a projection mapping project at a restaurant in New York City. It was gorgeous, powerful, it told a story and evoked emotions in the intended audience. In our AV language, we would say it created a real experience. For me, and maybe others, […]

Every time I start to write a piece for rAVe ED, I try to think about what the broader AV industry wants to know about the education market. I always try to put forward ways that companies can partner with schools to provide value for all parties. As many people know, one area that I […]

Like so many industries, the AV industry has a robust and valuable community in the social media sphere. Many of us have dozens, if not hundreds of contacts and “friends” that we know only via social media. While we have opportunities to catch up and meet during industry events, including the always popular tweet-ups, the […]

Management guru Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” I have long believed in this philosophy and work with my teams to make sure we are setting goals and measuring our success. While I think Drucker was right, he lived and worked in a much different […]

Two new wireless technologies are offering potentially important advantages for the audiovisual industry. 5G and Wi-Fi 6 have slowly become released and used over the past year. These technologies will both continue to spread in 2020 and beyond. Many of us have likely heard of 5G as it’s been regularly in the news over the […]

As long as I have been writing columns for rAVe ED, my aim has been to help integrators understand where they can provide value to the higher education market. The business has changed so drastically over the years, that the value propositions of ten years ago no longer exist. I write about this because I […]

IT Service Management and ITIL define processes for information technology professionals to follow in order to deliver the best value for their customers. The processes defined are agnostic to whether the clients are internal or external. Some in the industry think of AV and IT as separate, however we are very similar and in many […]

I have worked in education for over twenty years. When August hits, we know that summer has ended for us. The pace picks up quickly as the days get closer to September and the level of anxiety begins to rise. By the end of the month, we are in an all out sprint. Will all […]

For years, my family has watched America’s Got Talent in the summer. It’s a great family show that can be funny, touching and amazing. There have been numerous acts that use some type of technology. A couple of weeks ago however, there was one that really stuck with me. It was Italian psychologists (Simona and […]

In late June, Andrew Davis posted a blog entry here on rAVe in which he declared that “in 10 years or less, what was once the AV industry is going to be a be a footnote in the history of business technology.” In the post he made the argument that software will, essentially, take over […]

As a manager, I’m often faced with the question of what requirements we should put into a job description when we are ready to hire a person. Experience is always the easiest one to figure out. You think about how senior the position is and then you base years of experience or type of experiences […]

For the past several years in higher education, the active learning classroom has grown in popularity. With these active learning classrooms comes an increase in technology. Many of the classrooms have multiple displays and multiple ways of getting your content onto those displays. These may consist of flat panels, projectors and interactive whiteboards. The expectation […]

Video games have long been considered by “adults” to be a way for “children” to waste their time. However, over the past several years, as games have become more interactive and team based, they have become more mainstream. Today, watching others play video games is also a popular activity. According to Wikipedia, the 2017 League […]

Security has arisen as a significant issue over the past several years in the AV industry. Several high profile issues have made people question what they should be doing about security. I (and others) have written about it, trying to give our readers some thoughts about where to start. As I read more about security […]

It’s hard to believe that another InfoComm is right around the corner. As I sit down to write this, we’re under thirty days from the start of the first classes. Up here in Maine, where it’s still winter, we are longing for that humid, warm air. For tech managers, InfoComm can be an overwhelming experience. […]

Over the past dozen years or so, technology managers in higher ed have grown more educated and become more visible in the industry. However, many feel that this group has never been looked at as equals in the industry. We have several organizations that represent us, including an AVIXA council, “Technology Managers Council.” There are […]

I recently attended a conference about service management and ITIL. I went expecting to learn a lot about processes, procedures and rules for providing value for a company and I did learn quite a bit about that in the sessions I attended. However, one session in particular stood out to me above all the others, […]

On October 20th, 2018 Apple announced Group FaceTime for its iOS devices. Three weeks later, on Mon., Jan. 28th, Apple announced a major flaw in this new feature. If someone initiated a FaceTime call, and then added themselves to it, the phone of the original person would start transmitting their audio before they picked up. […]