When David became the editor of Sound & Communications Magazine, I was already a technical advisor and columnist for them for four years running. And I was their “video guy.” Sound & Communications (S&C) had been 99 percent audio when I was brought in in 1996 to start a column and consult for them on developing their video content. I loved it. I got to write anything and everything I ever wanted to and their editor at the time, Pete Weiss, literally never bothered me other than to suggest the occasional idea or to tell me how awesome my writing was — can you imagine?

Pete retired and S&C brought in David Silverman. I wondered if my role would change — maybe I’d get paid more?!? Alas, his first contact with me was to clarify that the & in Sound & Communications was an “&” and not an “and.”

That was Dave. He’s a perfectionist, a coach and has become a great friend.

I guess I was lucky. As the video guy I was pretty much left alone as I helped build their video coverage for over 12 years and Dave would call me every once in a while just to talk. Literally, just to talk. Not just AV stuff. He also talked about unicorns. Yes, unicorns. And, the news of the world, the future of AV — remember HD was just emerging by then – the Olympics, my kids, his travels, my obsession with mochas and Star Wars. Oh and unicorns.

Dave became a friend. And, even after I started rAVe, sort of competitive to S&C, he wanted me to keep writing. And, I did for another five years. And, even when I said I didn’t have the bandwidth to keep writing a monthly column for S&C, he left the door open in case I ever wanted to come back and write. Dave, always a gentleman.

Dave retired last week — at InfoComm, appropriately. After 17 years as the editor, he decided to give it up. So, with a unicorn pinned to his shirt as he walked and covered his last commercial mega-AV party in Orlando last week, he checked out the latest in digital signage at NEC, the new Christie Terra AV-over-IP system, Cisco’s Spark Board, the BenQ’s demo of the Google Jamboard,  QuirkLogic‘s eInk collaboration display and ate his last convention center muffin and drank his final InfoComm coffee.

And, although Dave is out of the AV market, the AV market will never be out of Dave. And, now with VR (virtual reality) squarely in AV, he may, yet, find that unicorn!

Goodbye, Dave. You are an awesome guy. An old-school relationship editor. And a friend.